As many of us know, there are many different kinds of "full synthetic" oils on the market. Some use PAO/Ester (Group IV and V) as the base stock and others use hydrotreated conventional oil (Group II or III) as base stocks. The hydrotreated oil is very pure and has none or very little wax and other impurities so it is a very good base stock.

However, the hydrotreated base stock costs about half as much as the PAO/Ester for the manufatures to produce but we do not see a price difference in the final snthetic oil products in stores.

Well a price drop of the oil using Group II and III is finally here. I was at Aotozone yesterday to get my Group 49 battery for the diesel. I saw the Havoline synthetic at $3.27/qt. Just a few week ago, it was over $4 per qt just like any other synthetic oil. I hope others (Castrol, etc.) will follow.

BTW, the MSDS of the Havoline synthetic oil is at

http://library.cbest.chevron.com/lubes/chevmsdsv9.nsf/f2f12b5992bba20488256b4c0074a415/383216dc66985aa588256b51000818bd?OpenDocument