One of the largest investments a person makes in their lifetime is the purchase of an automobile. With new car prices now averaging well over twenty thousand dollars, it is imperative that vehicle owners go to great lengths to protect their investment. Performing an oil change at regular intervals has always been one of the easiest ways to protect a car owner's investment.
Engine oil is the life blood of of the modern combustion engine. The most common form of engine oil is petroleum based motor oil. Motor oil creates a lubrication stream that circulates through the engine. Not only does motor oil lubricate moving parts thus reducing friction, increasing the overall efficiency of the engine, but motor oil also creates a buffer between moving parts to reduce metal to metal contact and wear.
Over time engine oil loses its lubrication qualities due to thermal breakdown and contamination of the oil stream. Petroleum based motor oil often begins to develop sludge and paraffin build up, since paraffin is a standard component of petroleum oil base stocks. Traditionally manufacturers and mechanics have recommended that an oil change be performed every three months or three thousand miles, whichever came first. The purpose of this frequent oil change interval was to insure that engine oil was always free of contamination and operating at optimum lubrication levels.
With advances in engineering and technology, a new breed of engine oil, called synthetic motor oil was developed. Initially synthetic motor oil was used in military applications, in particular military jet aircraft. In 1972 synthetic motor oil moved from the highly specialized world of military aircraft to the consumer automotive market, when Amsoil introduced the first synthetic motor oil for consumer vehicle applications. Amsoil was brought to market by A.J. Amatuzio, a jet fighter pilot who realized that the same technology that was keeping fighter aircraft in the air also had great practical application in the civilian automotive market.
Amsoil synthetic motor oil was found to outperform its petroleum motor oil counterparts in the critical areas of engine oil lubrication. The synthetic motor oil did a better job of reducing friction between moving parts creating less engine wear. The synthetic motor oil also operated more consistently at wide temperature extremes and also had a longer service life without chemical breakdown.
In the thirty-five plus years since Amsoil first introduced synthetic motor oil to the consumer automobile market, the performance of synthetic oil has continued to see vast improvement. With today's synthetic technology, a vehicle owner can safely extend oil change intervals as high as every 35,000 miles. Even at such a large oil change interval, the internal components will show less wear than in an identical engine using petroleum oil changed at the standard three thousand mile oil change intervals.
Synthetic motor oil offers today's vehicle owner the opportunity to maximize the performance and efficiency of their automobile, while at the same time stretching their vehicle maintenance dollar. With the price of today's automobiles only going up it makes good financial and technical sense to use the best engine oil available. When it comes to motor oil, synthetic outperforms and outlasts its petroleum competitors every time.
