ORIGINAL: RoswellGrey
OK. I gotta ask. Does anyone know what's in synthetic oil, like Royal Purple or Mobil 1? I use Royal Purple, but everything said and done, I have no idea what's in it. Maybe it's pressed elephants.
Mobil 1 uses high-performance fluids, including polyalphaolefins (PAOs), along with a proprietary system of additives. Each Mobil 1 and Mobil 1 Extended Performance viscosity grade use a unique combination of synthetic fluids and selected additives in order to tailor the viscosity grade to its specific application.
Royal Purple has a special additive to give it its unique purple color. After you run it or a while, it looks like any other oil.
Conventional motor oil, however, is made up of an inconsistent mixture of long and short chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms. In the extreme heat of an engine, short-chain molecules can evaporate, and unstable molecules can oxidize and break down. Conventional oils also contain much greater amounts of impurities, such as sulfur, reactive and unstable hydrocarbons, and other undesirable contaminants that cannot be completely removed by conventional refining of crude oil.