New oil congeal - what is it?
 

When adding new oil in the engine I noticed some chucks in the oil stream. After looking at some of them look like pieces of jello or congealled oil. They are the same color as the oil and when you touch it you do not feel any foreign matter. It seems to disolve when you rub it between your fingers.

I called the oil manufacture and they said it is an additive that is in the oil and has 'fallen out' of the oil from being cold. It is ok and will mix back in when heated/mixed during running.

Is this true?
If it matters this is straight 40w oil.

Rick

paraffin.

Comes from oil that is refined using clay.

Hydrocracked oil has virtually no paraffin.
Stuff like Syntec (which is NOT synthetic, but is hydrocracked dino), and most other "sorta synthetic" oils.

For dino oils, you really can't so much better than Rotella and it is reasonably priced. Rotella is group II oil stock. Syntec is group III. But Rotella has a very very effective additive pack (as does Delo and the other really popular longrange diesel truck lubes).

Your goop is not an additive. It is a byproduct. Big difference. It will "melt" into the oil first heat cycle. It will also form nasty deposits if you run your motor hard and leave the same oil in it for two years.

Thanks for the reply.
So is this common in Quaker state oils. I have run their multi grade (10-30 or 5-30) in cars for 25 years with oil changes every 2-3,000 miles. Pulled valve covers at 75,000 miles once and looked like brand new. No buildup.

Is this because it is a straight weight vs multi grade.

Rick

Not a Quaker state issue.
Not a straight weight issue.

It's a refining issue.
Like I said, the refining method uses clay to bind to molecules and such during the refining process. The paraffin is a byproduct of that process. They call that group I oil stocks.

Most all normal consumer grade oils use it as their major component.

Most high grade commercial oils use group 2's.

Most "synthetic" oils use group 3.

True synthetics, Amsoil, Motul, Mobil 1 red cap, Rotella synthetic, Delo synthetic use true synthetics.

There are some newer Mobil 1 oils that use hydrocracked group 3 conventionals. They are labeled as synthetic, but are not true synthetics. This has occurred after Mobil lost their lawsuit against all the other mfrs using the term synthetic on their group 3 oils. Can;t beat em? Join em...

I get it now, thanks for the reply.

Rick