What is the difference between semi-synthetic and conventional motor oil?
1 Answers
Motor oils commonly used can be categorized into three types based on their base oils: mineral oil, semi-synthetic oil, and full synthetic oil. The primary difference among these three types lies in the base oils used. More details are as follows: 1. Mineral oil is derived from the residual inferior materials after petroleum refining, processed through hydrocracking to obtain the base oil. The biggest advantage of mineral oil is its low cost, making it the most affordable and widely used. However, mineral oil also offers the poorest lubrication performance. 2. Full synthetic oil is made from high-quality raw materials such as natural gas, olefins, soft wax, and premium mineral oil, processed using synthetic technologies like PAO, XVHl, VHV, GTL, and XTL. Due to the superior raw materials and technology used, full synthetic base oils outperform mineral oils in longevity, low-temperature fluidity, oxidation resistance, high-temperature shear resistance, noise reduction, and cleanliness. However, they are more expensive. 3. Semi-synthetic oil is essentially a blended oil, formulated by mixing full synthetic base oil and mineral oil in a certain ratio. This allows semi-synthetic oil to perform closer to full synthetic oil while maintaining a moderate price, serving as a transitional product between mineral oil and full synthetic oil. 4. Naturally aspirated engines can use any type of oil, whereas turbocharged engines require either semi-synthetic or full synthetic oil. This is because turbocharged engines have higher demands on oil quality, necessitating the use of synthetic oils. The choice should be based on actual conditions.
