How Synthetic Oil Came to Be
The use of synthetic oil is now on par with that of mineral based oil, and if you discount blends of the two synthetic oil is now more popular than conventional (mineral) oil. Synthetic oil has truly come to popularity over the last ten years and it has some reasons as to why it took so long. After all, it was invented in 1937.
The first time that synthetic oil was available was when in 1937, in an Imperial Oil research facility in Indiana a bi-product was made and they saw its lubrication qualities. This product was then sought out by the German air force and American Navy. This product was then primarily used in aircrafts for both countries. The reason they saw its upside is the same reasons it is great for your vehicle now, its better than conventional oil in hot and cold temperatures. The first use in cars was my military pilots in the United States who saw its benefits in the cold high altitudes of Alaska. These pilots also felt the synthetic oil could help their vehicles in the cold tundra of Alaska.
A man named Jack Arotta who was also a military man in Minnesota started creating fully synthetic motor oil and even used it in his brand new vehicle. He thought of himself as the first person to use 100% synthetic oil in his vehicle. He then set out to start the sale of this oil and the company then became AMZOil today.
Soon after (1975) Mobil Oil saw the benefits of synthetic oil and knew it would one day become huge in consumer light cars and trucks. That is how they came up with their now famous Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil. By the 1990’s it was easy to see that every motor oil manufacturer knew this would be the way of the future. This caused them to all stock a synthetic oil by that time.
Many vehicles still don’t use synthetic oil, whether it is the manufacturer or owner’s choice, and it is confusing seeing as synthetic is a much better product. Not even today do all engines require this, but many owners also opt for this without knowing the value they get from synthetic oil.
Still, not all car owners are using synthetic oil in their vehicles. Synthetic oil is much better, and while being more expensive it has the ability to protect your engine in hotter and colder temperatures. Also, synthetic oil does not loose as much due to evaporation between oil changes. This factor can be the difference in your engines health.
There were some reasons synthetic oil hasn’t become popular, namely there was a rumour that changing to synthetic oil after using conventional during the cars whole existence would be bad for the vehicle. This was disproved recently and the opposite was actually proved, switching to synthetic is an improvement for an old vehicle.