Oil debate: mineral oil (group III) and PAO oil (group IV)

I know a lot of people have already discussed this, but I ran across an interesting pdf file (see below) from Conoco Phillips.

It shows a comparison between different grades of oil bases. Most motor oils fall into either Group II or Group III base oils. Some of these oils are classified as "synthetic" even though they are just highly refined mineral-based oils. Group IV base oils are PAO-based (polyalphaolefin). This includes Amsoil and Mobil 1.

The pages I found most interesting were page 5 (showing cost/performance) page 12 (viscosity index) and page 19 (shows correlation between base oil and fuel economy).

Some of this is kind of technical stuff and I'm not even pretending that I understand it all, but I still found it interesting...


http://www.atiel.org/members/pdf_files/Gp%20III%20Conoco%20Bell.pdf

 

Their conclusion is that PAO-based lubricants like AMSOIL and the current formulation of Mobil 1 are the best lubricants available.

Their product, a Group 3 oil, is supposed to provide improvements over Group 2 offerings at less cost than the top-tier, Group 4 lubricants.

Such is marketing.

 

Best in what way ?
pay 20.00 per jug and replace every 10 -15 ,000 miles

or

pay 10.00 per jug and change out at 3-5.000

what is best ?
That best syn oil can get awful dirty in 10,000 or more miles , and changing earlier is a waste of money

or am I wrong ?

Today there is no best they all are good, some have a cold weather pour advantage other than that ... I see no advantage in syn except for the warm fuzzy feeling spending large amounts of money gives one

1. I've heard SynPower offers four times better wear protection than Mobil 1. Can you prove it?
   Yes. Valvoline and an independent lab conducted multiple Sequence IVA (Four A) Engine tests on Valvoline SynPower 5w30 and Mobil 1 5w30. The Sequence IVA is the industry standard test for determining wear performance of an engine oil and is required to meet the API SL and SM requirements. The test utilizes a 2.4 liter EFI overhead cam Nissan engine with a slider valve train design. Multiple tests were run at the Valvoline Engine Laboratory, a fully certified engine testing lab - and an independent research lab. Analysis of the test results showed that the Valvoline SynPower provided four times better wear protection than Mobil 1.

http://www.valvoline.com/faqs/motor-oil/full-synthetic-motor-oil/37