Oil signature (aka bio-marker) works for crude oil, not refined. Oil gets pumped in the field, stored in a tank in the field that several wells may go to, piped through common lines (that companies across the country also use) to a plant or transport station and dumped into a large holding tank with oil from other places. By the time it gets to the plant it would have so many different signatures intermingled.

Then you have the refining process that in it's self would destroy signatures. The purpose of the refining process is to create a standard base product to which each company may add various detergents and additives. That said, I have seen where some oils are better than others. I've seen where Valvoline tends to hold a sligtly higher pressure at temp. My grandpa (who was a mechanic) wouldn't use Texaco because it was dirty, and I've seen low milage engines that were trash because of it. But, Texaco isn't Texaco anymore either.

Personally, I run Valvoline. I tried syn, but my car would go through a 1/2 qt w/in 3k miles while it uses no conventional oil in that time period.

As for generic oil, Walmart's oil is Quaker State. Found that out from a friend I have the works in Wallyworld Corporate HQ. I'm sure K-mart's is another name brand. Ever see a K-mart or Walmart refinery? The answer would be no because they get someone else to refine it and bottle it. I work in a chemical company. We make our same products to our specs, bottle them and lable them with another company's lables on a daily basis. This is exactly how generic oil is.

 

The great oil debate....gotta love it

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

Personally I run Amsoil in everything I own after my first oil change. I have pulled enough motors apart run on dino vs. synthetic to see how much cleaner a motor run on synth is inside. I do burn a *tiny* bit more oil with synthetic...but it's a small price to pay for piece of mind.

 

I use regular oil, 10w-30 and add an oil additive made by STP which basically makes it synthetic, it runs about 3.99$ at autozone and according to the guy at auto zone the oil will basically be sythetic

 

That totally makes sense, as it was mentioned earlier in this thread that the dino oils "come out cleaner", i.e., they leave the engine dirtier.

 

btw i used the name k-mart picking one of a million out of the air, i have no preferance to k-mart, walmart, havoline, whatever. i dont know which oil is the best or worst. military supply contractors like my wife cant disclose that but its a premium brand under a differant name that 4 of the 5 branches call the best.

crude is signature but your wrong in thinking processed oil isnt. a new signature "additive" is added to that lot/line much like gasoline has a registered dye to track branding. amoco is clear, shell is .05% green added. (sulpher extract) and so on. the only one almost impossible to track is off road kerosene or diesel since it uses an aftermarket red dye.

 

The point I was making is that a given quart of oil may contain oil from several different sources, and the refining process and duration in the engine would destroy said signatures. So your statement about being able to tell which field and even well an engine oil sample came from is not correct. A registered dye will do nothing but tell the manufacturer, not what you claimed these labs could do with an used oil sample. Additives and dyes are in no way an oil signature or bio-marker. That would be like claiming a tatoo and a birth mark are the same.

 

There is nothing that can convert organic to synthetic. Sounds like Alchemy to me. Wonder if the stuff will convert lead to gold too.

 

and you want to believe an outrageous claim made my such a reliable source at AutoZone?? Are there really many creditable people working there?

especially when they state that by adding fluid from one bottle, it will somehow take natural oil and make it synthetic?

me thinks you have been had...

 

Plus most additives are detrimental to your engine.... many contain solids such as Teflon. This does nothing "good" for the motor or it's oil filter

 

Personally I think people get too deep into this. In my experience, as long as you keep a good oil change interval and stay within the parameters of the manufacturer's suggestion your engine ain't gonna cry about it.

 

hey guys i recently have switched to synthetic high mileage -i believe by valvoline on my 96 z-noticed a difference from changin to synthietic. I hope its not my imagination for the extra money for it.

 

I'll be using nothing but regular oil in my new engine. I almost regret ever having switched to synthetic on this one. Just plain not worth it in my opinion.

 

look im not trying to be a smartass or hard *** or anything. i dont know much about fixing ls1's or anycar for that matter or nor can i throw a spiral football. but i work 60+ hours a week doing petroleum electronics, working with relatively high ranking royal dutch shell engineers. i know what im talking about. if oil a is from one pool and so is b but not c, a and b will be close after refinement but not the same because of no perfect calibration in skimming and "washing" process, as the machines get more sludged up it lets by more starter crude. lot is finished, impellers have sludge blow off, new lot begins. c from a differant pool will have more/less carbon and other elements or even shale in its crude, shale is stripped out but not the carbon.

 

Hey I bet there's bugs, a few small vermin, and maybe even some crumbs of some guy's sandwich in the oil too!

 

lol....yeah, come down to one of the delaware city plants and you can probably watch some of the guys **** in your oil too.