Here are some Answers to Frequently Asked Questions. If you don't find the answer you are looking for, contact us and we will get you the answer. Why is the price so high? Have you heard the age-old adage “You get what you pay for?” Unfortunately you probably have and it was after you had made a “seemingly” good or wise purchase decision. At some point shortly after your purchase something went wrong with your “great deal” and someone said to you, “Well, you get what you pay for!” The “great deal” wasn’t such a “great deal” after all. Most people at this point would have wished that they had paid the small amount more to get the “real thing” meaning a higher quality synthetic product. AMSOIL products typically cost a bit more than the other petroleum products on the market because they were created with a common philosophy: Make it the best or don’t make it at all! AMSOIL synthetic products are simply the best and to get the best it costs a little more. Of course when you buy the best, AMSOIL synthetic products, there are huge benefits / savings: AMSOIL synthetic products last longer – saves you money! AMSOIL synthetics make the equipment last longer – saves you money! You use less synthetic product than you would petroleum product – saves you money! You have fewer repairs when your equipment is protected by AMSOIL synthetics – saves you money! You use less energy to operate equipment because synthetics allow for reduced friction and drag than petroleum lubricants – saves you money! If you look at the savings and the benefits AMSOIL synthetics offer, compared to the initial cost, you will see that the true cost of buying the best is really much less than if you bought the less expensive petroleum product. Is there really a connection between price and performance? Absolutely. As a rule of thumb there is a direct correlation between price and performance. What this means is that in general when price goes up performance also goes up. There is also a point where performance differences stop and non-performance features become the price driver. In the lubricants industry however, features are directly related to performance of the product. With that in mind it is also important to know that there are other factors that influence the price of a product. Some of these factors fall within the sphere of control by the manufacturer, namely quality and functionality. Some factors fall outside of their control, namely availability and scarcity. Below are the most common factors that have a direct impact on the final price of a product. Component /Raw Materials o Quantity – How much of any given base component can be produced. o Quality – What quality grade of base components are used. o Functionality – What capability (ies) do the base components have? o Availability / Scarcity – How much or many of any of the raw materials are available for use in the product or in the global market? o Demand – What is the market demand for the raw materials used in the product? Finished Product o Quantity - How much of any given finished product can be produced. o Quality - What is the quality grade of the finished product? o Functionality - What capability (ies) does the finished product have? o Availability / Scarcity - How much finished product is available in each geographic area or in the global market? o Demand - What is the local, regional and global market demand for the finished product? Remember AMSOIL’s motto: Make it the best or don’t make it at all! AMSOIL only buys the highest quality, peak performance synthetic base oil and demands only the highest quality, highest performing additives. Because synthetics are still a relatively small part of the lubricant market, demand for quality synthetic base stocks is greater than availability, which drives up the cost of the synthetic base oil. Increasing market acceptance of synthetics, and healthy demand for synthetics in the marketplace, is putting high demand on the supply of finished product, which also affects price. Lets take a look at an interesting paradox that exists with respect to cost and quality of a finished product and its components. The Base Oil vs. Additive Paradox A paradox exists in the oil industry, one that many consumers are completely unaware of. The paradox is; “When making a product, where should we invest the most money?” Should we invest in high quality base oil or in high quality additives with a poor to mediocre base oil? To better understand how to answer that question, let’s look at the following statement and try to fill in the blank. To help control the cost of a finished product you would control the amount of the ______ ______ ingredient. You would control the amount of the most expensive ingredient, right? So, here is how it all plays out in the lubricants industry. First lets look at AMSOIL. AMSOIL products use PAOs as the base oil. PAOs are much more expensive than petroleum base oils. Because base oil makes up more than 75% of a finished product, the majority of the cost of an AMSOIL product comes from the base oil contribution. When the time comes to choose and mix additives, AMSOIL can use the highest quality, most expensive additives because the amount of additive required is small due to the high performance of PAO. Simply put – the higher quality the base oil, the less additives required. In addition, AMSOIL can use the highest quality most expensive additives because the amount required has only a small effect on the final cost of the product. Most companies selling petroleum-based oils have the exact opposite philosophy. They start with a cheap, low quality, marginal performance base oil. In order to bring the oil up in performance, they have to add more additives. However, they can’t add too much, as the costs of the additives are much greater than that of their petroleum base oil. So, to keep the cost of their product down, and to meet the minimum performance requirements, they add the minimum amount of additives. What you the consumer are buying is marginal, “just getting by” product, with a very short lifespan. Another way to look at it is, to pretend you are building a house. What is the most important part of a house? It’s the foundation of course. So what kind of foundation would you build your house on? A wise person will build their house on a firm, long lasting foundation, like AMSOIL PAO. The less fortunate make unwise choices and build their houses on the shaky, short-lived foundation of petroleum.
Synthetic Oil versus Petroleum Oil Shyster, Slick, Smooth Operator. Do any of these words fit the picture you have in your head of sales people who are trying to sell products that may not be all they say they are? Fake, Bogus, Concocted, Counterfeit, Phony, and Reproduction. Are these the words or ideas that you have of products that don’t work at all the way they are advertised? Is this how you or your potential customers have viewed or are viewing synthetic lubrication products? Be honest with me, or better yet with yourself. You probably had this mind set at one time or maybe even have it right now and that is why you are reading this. I know from personal experience that without a solid understanding of synthetics, it is easy to be fearful of them and the people who are selling them. Nobody wants to play the fool or be taken advantage of and that is why this document exists. Let first look at several of the most common reasons “why” people are afraid of synthetic oil or the people who sell them: First, synthetics are relatively unknown and people fear what they don’t know. Second, the name synthetic implies that it is some kind of “knock-off” of the original or lower quality than the original “high quality” natural substance. Third, the major petroleum companies have promoted their product and either hold the minds of the general consumer or have confused the issue to the point of gridlock where people won’t change to something different. Fourth, there have been many unscrupulous companies selling questionable products that have tarnished the image of credible, high quality products like AMSOIL.
Will using AMSOIL void my vehicle’s warranty? Absolutely not! Manufacturers’ warranties are based upon the use of oils meeting specific API Service Classifications, for example, SJ/CF. (AMSOIL lubricants meet the current API Service requirements and, thus, are perfectly suited for use in any new vehicle without affecting the validity of the new vehicle warranty.) 
Important Information That You Need to Know before Converting to your vehicles to AMSOIL and Breaking in a New Engine. Some of the most frequent questions people ask us about AMSOIL are, what is required in order to convert to AMSOIL, how long do I have to wait before installing AMSOIL in a new engine, and what can I expect to notice once converted to AMSOIL?. Here are our answers in a detailed explanation:
Converting a vehicle to AMSOIL is fairly simple, but there are a few things you need to be aware of. First, if you have a brand new vehicle we recommend that you run a short cycle of petroleum oil on a gas engine passenger car or light truck (typically 500 miles) and approximately 5000 miles on a diesel engine in such as a Ford PowerStroke or Dodge Cummins Turbo Diesel before installing AMSOIL. This doesn't mean that you can't install AMSOIL sooner, as many OEM's install synthetics as a factory fill, it simply means these are our recommendations based on our extensive engineering studies and knowledge of this topic. Today's modern engine manufacturing and materials technology is much more sophisticated than in years past. Regular gas engine passenger car and light truck engines do not require the extensive break in process many people think they do. In addition, by the time you get your new vehicle the engine has already been through a series of hot tests also run on in-plant chassis rolls testers to check functionality of all systems and then driven around the plant and railhead in order to get the vehicle to the dealer, which also helps accelerate breaking in of the engine.
The engine break-in issue is the subject of much controversy as everyone seems to have their opinion on when an engine is considered fully broken in. The information we provide is based on the results of engineering studies as well as many years of experience and teardown analysis on test vehicles. The differences between a vehicle that was properly and fully broken in and one that was not can often be hard to detect, yet there are tell-tale signs of this but they are not easily detected except in all but the most extreme situations. The subject of what occurs during the break-in process can easily be the subject of a 100 page report therefore what we cover in this website page is only the essential points you need to know. The break-in process we describe here is nothing compared to the extensive break-in process that race car engineers go through before an engine is ready to be converted to AMSOIL as well as racing in competition.
Breaking in an engine is a process of properly wearing-in the pistons/cylinders/rings, bearings, valves, camshaft, lifters, rockers, etc... In addition, part of the breaking in process is not only wearing-in and seating the internal engine components but also stress relieving the components as well. Crankshafts, connecting rods, pistons, blocks etc... have many stresses due to the casting or forging process, machining and welding process. We have viewed and measured these stresses, called fringes, using what is called laser holography. These stresses are properly reduced/eliminated by costly and time consuming heat aging as well as shot peening and or high frequency vibration on a very specialized bedplate for an extended period of time. For production applications this is cost and time prohibitive. Therefore, the next best thing is exposing your engine to multiple heating and cooling cycles under various load and RPM's, which is described in the following paragraph. The heating and cooling break in process continues over a period of time and does not need to be run on petroleum oil.
Breaking in a new engine is the one area that petroleum oil is better for than synthetics. You see, petroleum oil has a very low film strength which is ideal for breaking in a new engine. That is why we recommend you run the factory installed petroleum oil for about the about the first 500 miles. Then drain the oil, remove the factory installed oil filter and then install AMSOIL Synthetic motor oil and an AMSOIL Super Duty oil filter and your ready to go.
Further heat cycling break-in will continue during the multiple heating and cooling cycles from driving your vehicle under varying RPM and engine load conditions and then shutting it down for a long period of time to let it cool completely. The multiple heating and cooling cycles are a extremely important factor in properly breaking in a new engine and are often an overlooked factor in the total break-in process. These heating and cooling cycles achieve what is called stress relieving. Back in the "old days" of engine manufacturing, after casting and before an engine block was machined, it would be set outside for several months to age, during which stress relieving occurred naturally, then the block was machined, which helped to produce a better engine than one that was machined immediately after casting.
By changing the factory installed oil and filter after the first 500 miles you will also be removing the initial wear-in particulates present in the oil and filter. The reason for this is that during initial wear-in there is very high particulate contamination in the oil. These particulates consist mainly of microscopic particles of aluminum, bronze, copper, lead and iron, plus soot particles and other by-products of combustion in your oil. Your filter cannot filter out all these small particulates as many are sub-micron size and too small for the filter to trap, BUT they are also small enough to fit between your bearing and other internal clearances and cause wear. That is why we recommend to that in order to properly break-in a new engine, regardless of what your new car salesman or dealership personnel tell you, is to perform the first oil and filter change at 500 miles. Then you can convert to AMSOIL Synthetic. On a diesel engine we recommend the initial filter and oil change at 500 miles, with another change around 3500 miles, then in the 5000 mile range you can convert to AMSOIL Synthetic.
AMSOIL Engine Flush: In a new engine with less than approximately 20,000 miles it is not imperative that AMSOIL Engine Flush be used. In an engine with more than 20,000-30,000 miles and beyond, that has been using petroleum oil the entire time, we highly recommend using the AMSOIL Engine Flush. What the engine flush will do is remove the petroleum oil sludge & varnish deposits from your engine and properly prepare your engine for AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil. You simply pour in one can for every 5-6 quarts of sump capacity (one can is sufficient for most all passenger cars & light trucks, with the exception of diesels), and let the engine idle for about 15 minutes then drain the oil and remove the filter while the oil is still warm. Do not drive the vehicle with the engine flush installed. If you have an extremely dirty or high mileage engine then we recommend installing a new engine oil filter prior to adding the flush so that you have full capacity of the filter available for capturing and holding the dirt particles that the flush removes. AMSOIL's Engine Flush is a detergent based flush with some kerosene and other petroleum distillates that act as the carrier for the flushing and cleaning agents. The detergent used is a 2-butoxyethanol, glycol ether and is essentially a very concentrated form of the detergents used in motor oil.
AMSOIL Synthetics are naturally cleansing and also high in detergents. What happens when you operate an engine on petroleum oil, the sludge and varnish deposits that occur as a result of using petroleum oil will accumulate around your pistons, rings, seals, valve-train, etc.. and actually help to seal your engine. This type of petroleum oil deposit "sealing" can lead to problems such as piston ring sticking, sludge deposits in valve covers and oil pans which can lead to decreased oil pump capacity output and restriction of critical oil galley passageways over an extended period of time, plus many more issues which we will not go into detail in this discussion.. These deposits are highly detrimental to the proper function and longevity of your engine.
What occurs when you use AMSOIL Engine Flush is that it cleans all these deposits out from your engine, both the highly accumulated deposits as well as the sub-micron deposits which have accumulated in the microscopic valleys of the aluminum, copper, iron, etc.. engine components. If you do not use the engine flush the AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil will do essentially the same thing the flush does but take a much longer period of time. During this time, which is greatly accelerated when using the AMSOIL Engine Flush, the engine is going through a phase where these deposits are being removed, or have been removed. What exists now is that these microscopic valleys in the iron, aluminum, copper, etc.., are now empty. It takes some time for the molecular structure of the AMSOIL Syntheitc Motor Oil to fill these microscopic valleys. This can be as short as a few hundred miles or as long as a few thousand miles, depending on the internal condition of your engine. During this phase you may, or may not, notice slightly increased oil consumption BUT only until the uniform molecular structure of the AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil can re-seal these microscopic valleys. Most people do not even notice this phase, but we like to make people aware of it so they understand this process. This is perfectly normal and the oil is doing exactly what it was engineered to do.
You may have heard the myth that synthetics cause engine seals to leak. Synthetics absolutely do not cause seals to leak, they simply may only reveal an existing leak path and seal which has failed and is in need of mechanical replacement. Either the seal lip is worn down or the seal is hardened and cracked from old age, heat and ozone. What happens is exactly as we described above. If you have a very old engine that has been running petroleum oil, and it also leaks, for example around the rear-main oil seal, then chances are it will leak more with synthetic oil. This is commonly referred to a false seal. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils are recommended for use in mechanically sound engines! If you have a vehicle that leaks oil excessively, then repair the seal prior to converting to AMSOIL.
AMSOIL Benefits:
Once you have installed AMSOIL you will notice the following benefits: easier cold weather starting, cold weather pumpability and circulation, smoother engine performance and more horsepower, reduced exhaust emissions, superior wear protection, improved fuel economy, extended engine life, extended starter life, excellent engine cleanliness, long drain intervals, longer spark plug life, reduced engine temperatures, reduced oil consumption, excellent resistance to sludge, coke, varnish deposits (Thermal Stability), reduced/eliminated piston groove sticking, reduced/eliminated valve sticking, superior shear stability, superior resistance to viscosity increase (Volatility Resistance), superior film strength, money and time savings. You will not get any of these benefits with conventional petroleum oil.
When you compare....there is simply no comparison.
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