dino 2 synth was Mixing natural and synthetic oil.

[John Tumas]

From: "Jon Pennington" <cowboydren@yahoo.com>
To: "SE-R List" <se-r@lists.deskmedia.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 3:23 AM
Subject: Re: dino 2 synth was Mixing natural and synthetic oil.

Jon wrote:
> Consider, though, the poor fella who bought a new car a month or two ago
> (110k miles or so on the odo), several hundred miles away from home, it
> ran fine, he did a cycle to synthetic, and he choked his cam squirters
> half way home.

  It has nothing to do with the synthetic oil. The reason the squirters
clogged is that the dino oil has either paraffin wax or plastic added to it

depending on the manufacturer , to modify the viscosity of the oil. That is
how a multi-weight changes viscosity. What most likely happened is that
somewhere along the line , the oil was left in for way too many miles
between changes. The oil was separated from the viscosity modifier , through
either evaporation or by being run out of its heat range , leaving behind
the viscosity modifier. That's what sludge is. It was only a matter of time
before the sludge dislodged & clogged something.

 > I don't remember his name, but IIRC it was a white
> Classic.  Not three days later he was on this list asking where he could
> find a good SR20DE core for less than the several thousand dollars the
> stealership wanted.

   It's a lesson learned. There was a thread about G20 automatics & clogged
spraybars not too long ago. Rob Cadle & Mike Kojima recommended 3,000 mile
oil changes & synthetic oil to minimize problems.

   >  I converted The Wife's Saturn to Valvoline DuraBlend at ~92,
> and I considered myself lucky.  A few months later, though, Valvoline
> introduced this MaxLife stuff, which is effectively the same with some
> added conditioners, so I guess I did the right thing.

   I know that the Quaker State high mileage oils , compared to any other
oils of the same weights , are thicker than you would think. They contain
extra detergents , seal swell agents , & are as thick for their weight
classification as the law allows. The 10w30 pours like a 20w50. I'm not so
sure you would want to put this through a SR20DE oil spraybar. I'm not
familiar with the MaxLife line of oils , but they may be very similar.

  -John Tumas