SYNTHETIC HISTORY:
Long before man discovered petroleum oil, rendered animal fat, whale oil
and vegetable oil were used as lubricants. These oils can be considered
the first synthetic oils because they were man-made from ingredients in
his environment. It wasn't until the 1860's that petroleum oil became a
popular lubricant.
In the 1930's, Standard Oil of Indiana perfected the process of
synthesizing high-quality lubricating oil from biological compounds such
as animal fat and plant seed oil. Even though this new oil was a
terrific lubricant, its value was offset by its high cost. Subsequently,
the formulas were shelved and began to gather dust in the archives of
the U.S. patent office.
During World War II, the U.S. successfully cut off Germany from the rich
oil reserves of the Arabian countries. The plan was to starve Hitler of
petroleum, a most necessary ingredient for any war machine to function.
Without gas and oil, Hitler's army would come to a screeching halt.
Gasoline wasn't necessary, because the military tanks and hardware could
be retuned to run on alcohol made from corn and other forms of biomass.
But there was still a need for lubricating oils.
Using information gained from the archives of the U.S. patent office,
Hitler put his best scientific minds to work to produce oils from
alcohol and natural gas. Soon, the wheels of his army's machinery as
well as his aircraft engines were lubricated by high-quality manmade
oils. Rommel was running circles around the U.S. Army because his tanks
had superior lubricants and could easily withstand the rigors of the
desert heat.
When our troops overtook Hitler's army, they often found Nazi military
jeeps and VWs left behind with a rock wedged against the accelerator
pedal. The Germans didn't have time to destroy the vehicles and thought
that the engines would blow up if left running at full throttle. But
because of the incredible synthetic lubricants that were used, the
engines merely ran until the fuel tank was empty and died. Our troops
refueled them and continued chasing Rommel with some of his own
machinery!
During this time, Both Hitler and the U.S. were developing jet
propulsion. We were having a difficult time keeping jet turbines from
destroying themselves because of the extreme operating conditions they
had to endure. The inside of the turbine reached somewhere around 600'F
while the outside had to withstand -40~ There wasn't a lubricant made
that could take that kind of punishment. But Hitler's highly developed
synthetic oils were able to operate under those conditions and his air
force had the first jets.
After the war, the U.S. military was anxious to get its hands on the
German military secret oil formulations. After we captured the German
scientific archives in Berlin, their top secret formulations were turned
over to the big five oil companies for further research.
A brilliant chemical engineer named Pete Peterson became America's top
synlube expert, working to implement the German formulations. During
this time more than two dozen small companies began producing synthetic
lubricants for the military, and Peterson consulted with them to bring
on the new age of synlubes.
In the late sixties, a fighter pilot named Alvin Fagan retired and
started the first synthetic oil company to sell to the general public:
All-Proof, of Duluth, Minn. Fagan reasoned that vehicles operating in
the harsh northern winters could benefit from synlubes because of their
ability to withstand extreme cold temperatures.
Fagan was not a marketing genius and his products were very slow to
catch on. He employed another retired pilot, Albert Amatuzio, who had a
vision of starting his own synthetic oil company. Amatuzio borrowed
money from his brother, Dick, and took the formulations he learned about
from Fagan and opened Amzoil across the river from All-Proof in
Superior, Wis.
Amatuzio employed multi-level marketing (MLM) strategies for his
synlubes similar to those used by Amway. MLM was hot and the company
flourished. Meanwhile, Amatuzio's brother, Dick, still owned 40% of the
company and, for unknown reasons couldn't get any money for his shares.
He ultimately sued and left, leaving a scar between the two that endures
today. Soon after this incident, Pennzoil sued Amzoil for copyright
infringement, claiming that Anizoil's name was too similar to Pennzoil.
They won the suit and Amatuzio had to change the name to Amsoil.
During the same time, John Williams, owner of Pacer Petroleum products,
bought a new car for his daughter who was about to go off to college. He
wanted to put an oil in the engine that would be able to last for the
whole year she was away. So he filled it with new synthetic oils. She
told a few friends about the wonderful oil her dad had put in the
engine. Soon, the school auto shop heard the story and wanted to talk to
her about this new, long-lasting lubricant.
It didn't take long for the local media to get wind of the story. Before
he knew it, Williams was flooded with calls from people wanting to know
more about this new oil. A man named Sol Levy saw the unique
opportunity to join forces with Williams and market this new oil. In
1970 Pacer Petroleum got an SAE grade for the oil and started a division
called EON Oil.
All-Proof had been using a formula containing 100% alcohol diester, one
of hundreds of esters that were being sold without any wear-protecting
additives. Certain diesters will dissolve the zinc coating on engine
surfaces and accelerate wear. Unfortunately, Pacer was buying its
synthetic oils from AllProof, with disastrous consequences. Pacer had
convinced the city of Houston to run a test on their EON brand using the
city fleet of vehicles. Soon after, the engines began having camshaft
failures and the city sued EON for engine damage.
A number of Pacer dealers began telling people that EON oil was "better
than the big oil brand and without the double cross." They were
referring to Exxon motor oil which sued them in 1975 for trademark
infringement. Exxon pointed out that EON sounded too similiar to EXxon.
The case never went to court, but Williams received a settlement from
Exxon to facilitate the name change of the company. The settlement
(somewhere between 1/2 to 1 million dollars) was supposed to pay for the
EON dealers' additional advertising for the name change. Williams
pocketed the money, and the dealers received nothing.
Paul Baker, a large EON dealer in California, came up with a new name,
mixing the letters to form NEO, and then petitioned Pacer to use the new
name. Williams said Pacer Petroleum would use MLM and their synthetic
oil under the Ultron name. Norman Lotz was recruited to head up the MLM
effort and began undercutting former EON dealers by selling directly to
their old accounts. The general idea was to cut EON dealers out of the
picture.
Angry about the situation, Baker trademarked the NEO name, and started
the NEO company in California in 1976. His basic premise was to use only
the finest synthetic oil ingredients available. Unfortunately, he was
still dependent on Pacer for his stock and in 1981, Williams threatened
to cut off his supply. Meanwhile, Williams sold the EON division to
Morton Thiacol, the rocket fuel company, forcing Baker to begin sourcing
his own synthetic base stocks and bottling his own oil.
NEO introduced the first 100:1 2-cycle oil, the first synthetic gear
lube as well as synthetic ATF. To this day, NEO utilizes the finest base
stocks available for their oil. As Baker puts it, "I do not cut corners
on our oil, and only use the finest stock, regardless of price."
Meanwhile, during the early seventies, a company called Blaze Oil began
rebottling Amsoil and selling it under the Blaze Oil name in the south.
Al Ainatuzio wasn't interested in that part of the country and was happy
to make a profit selling in an area where his company had very little
penetration. It didn't seem like synthetic oil - a product especially
suitable for cold climates - would be popular in the hot south. But
soon, Blaze was selling as much oil in the southern states as Amsoil was
in the north.
Amatuzio later threatened to cut off the supply to Blaze and was ultimately sued for breaking his supply contract.
It was about this time that Amatuzio was taken to task by the federal
government for selling synthetic industrial oils with little or no
synthetic base stocks. The Feds told him to either stop calling it
synthetic oil or put synthetic oil in it. In the mid-eighties, Amsoil
stopped using high-quality diester base stocks, substituting cheap
olefins instead. Even today, it is rumored that many of Amsoil's
synthetic products are actually petroleum products with some synthetic
added.
The rapidly rising wholesale costs of diester base stocks had synthetic
lubricant prices jumping every six months. While all the other synlube
companies had to raise their prices, Amsoil was lowering theirs. Amsoil
sells their diesel oil to commercial accounts for less than $2 per
quart! This was possible by switching to less effective polyol alpha
olefin base stocks. Amsoil dealers began seeing engines sludge up like
never before and many stopped using synlubes or changed to other brands
of synlubes.
During the seventies, Peter Felice and Tim Kerrigan were working with
Pacer Petroleum marketing EON. They were unhappy with Pacer and
experienced many problems with mis-labeling, and incomplete additive
packages and quality control. They switched to All-Proof. During the
demise of Pacer, Kerrigan and Felice started Red Line in California.
All-Proof decided to sue them for stealing the idea and started a
competing company. Red Line counter-sued and won a $700,000 judgment
against AllProof, which forced them to fold.
Not all synthetic oils are created equal. In fact, there is a tremendous
difference between Amsoil, NEO, Mobil-1, Syntec, Red Line and the other
brands. The chief difference is the base stock, which comprises some
90% of the oil. The base stock is the actual lubricant, the other 10% or
so is the additive package.
Petroleum oils, or petrolubes, use a complex mixture of hydrocarbon
molecules derived from refining crude oil base stocks into more uniform
materials. Refineries remove most of the natural contaminants. The worst
for the engine, wax, is never entirely removed and is a problem because
it is a poor lubricant and reacts to heat by forming damaging
byproducts.
By definition, synthetic oil means that it is not made from petroleum.
Petroleum oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons. The refining process, (an
extraction procedure, rather than a synthesis procedure), extracts the
bad and leaves the good molecules. With a synthesis procedure,
chemically smaller molecules of low molecular weight are combined to
build a bigger molecule. The resulting high weight molecule is an
excellent lubricant.
The relative ability of an oil to lubricate is determined by the
components of the base stock. There are two principal classes of base
stocks used in synthetic oils: synthesized hydrocarbons and organic
esters.
The base stock materials used today for most popular synlubes are made
of carbon and hydrogen molecules synthesized from ethylene gas molecules
into polyalphaolefin (PAO). In fact, Mobil Oil took out a patent on the
name Synthetic Hydrocarbon (SHC) in 1975. This material mimics
petroleum molecules, using the good features and eliminating the bad
ones. SHC's provide better viscosity characteristics than petrolubes,
especially low temperature operating properties. SHC's are also more
resistant to
o*dation. However, there is no significant improvement in the
degree of thermal stability because they are still hydrocarbon molecules
which are very similar to petroleum hydrocarbon molecules.
Some of the popular brands of PAO oils include Amsoil, Mobil-1 and
Castrol Syntec. PAO's are the cheapest synthetic oil base stocks. You
can purchase them for as little as $3 a quart. PAO's aren't as durable
as the other class of synthetic oils, the esters.
Organic esters are made by reacting certain acids with alcohols forming
acid esters, diesters and polyol esters. This process uses expensive
materials and results in an oil that costs about $8 per quart. NEO
claims to use alcohol diester base stocks. Amsoil started out using
diesters, but changed in the mid 80's to a blend of several synthetic
base stocks with PAO being the main ingredient. Red Line uses polyol
ester base stocks which are modified to improve thermal stability and
performance.
All synlubes use widely differing additive chemistry. Some use
highquality additives, some use cheap ones. None of the synthetic oils
have problems with wax contamination because they are man made and don't
come from crude oil. The esters have a big advantage because they are
natural engine detergents. Right from the start, they have better sludge
dispersing capability. PAO oils require detergent-dispersant additives
and viscosity improvers.
It is important to know that synthetic oil companies are not completely
divorced from using crude oil petrochemicals. Oil wells are still
necessary to produce thete petrochemicals, which are used in the
synthesis process. A considerable amount of energy is needed to build
the synthetic materials. The amount of petrochemical needed varies with
the type of base stock utilized. While PAO's are derived from 100%
petrochemicals, esters are largely biological in origin and require less
petrochemicals.
To lower costs, some synthetic oils contain petroleum oils in their base
stocks. These oils are actually parasynthetic or semi-synthetic oils.
In Europe, some oil companies are simply adding hydrogen to petroleum
oil and calling it synthetic oil. It is truly a gray area, requiring
clarification, SAE standardization and truth-in-labeling.
