Bio or Organic Motor Oils

It seems that people use the terms almost interchangeably on the web. I'm not sure if you've seen this or not but this is a great "oil" reference. http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

Interesting article on Oil Analysis at Bob the Oil Guy's site. ... Past experience relayed to me of a military helicopter pilot who didn't believe the oil analysis that his gear box was about to fail. On his next flight it did fail while in flight, but due to his knowledge of the analysis, he knew right away why. He landed the chopper immediately without damage. He's a believer now. I know it's off the subject, but oil analysis is a very valuable and cost saving tool for preventative maintenance.

Bob's is a really good resource - Glad you checked it out. I've even gone so far as to get an oil analysis on a used car I was looking to buy just because I wanted to make sure it was in as good of shape as the previous owner said it was.

"Bio-oils" and "Organic oils" are NOT the same thing! "Organic Motor Oil" refers to organic-chemistry-based standard motor oils which have been used to lubricate internal combustion engines since their earliest development, and has nothing to do with organically grown materials. The question is organic versus synthetic; organic being naturally occurring or petroleum-based oils which are separated in the refining processes. Synthetic oils are relatively new (last few decades) use longer, artificially created molecules which have superior lubricating and heat-resisting qualities, but at a price. Synthetic-organic blends are a compromise between low-cost and high-performance.

There may be "bio-oils", plant-based oils, like soybean, peanut, and various seeds (rape, flax, cotton, linseed, etc.) but the non-food uses of these usually do not include motor oil, although they may be used for other lubrication applications, due to their lower toxicity and being more "environmental friendly" than petroleum-based oils. However, the trade-off is that they tend to "spoil" quickly due to bacterial growth. Some "bio-oils", primarily soybean, are being used as fuels, especially in blends such as the so-called "bio-diesel".

then a synthetic oil is probabbly going to be the best route, although we currently make them with coal, wood and whatever source of methane is available, the requires gasses to create synthetic lube can all come from real organic sources such as manure and wood.