The car part that's almost extinct - just 8% of new models have it

[Jerry_Atrick]

So where does WD 40 fit in all of this?

 

 

 

 

😉

 

[facthunter]

WD40 Loosens rusty Nuts.. The Multi grade oils don't get THICKER as they get hotter. They just thin out less than straight oils would have and that is achieved by adding Polymers that actually degrade with use.  If you drive longer distances in high temperatures use thicker oils. Your mechanic may have considered winter in the choice. The THIN oils affect/improve fuel economy with stop start driving.. Most modern cars warm up quickly..  Nev

[onetrack]

The polymers in multigrade oils are actually called "Viscosity Index Improvers" (VII's). They are "long-chain" polymers which have  the curious ability to thicken up when hot, and to thin out when cold - which is the opposite action of straight oil.

 

VII's can comprise up to 30% of the oil quantity in a multi-grade oil. So they stabilise the oil viscosity over a far larger temperature range than straight oil ever could.

In addition, there are at least 7 other chemical additives added to oil to ensure it can deal with a wide range of problems that degrade oil - heating, by-products of combustion, moisture, acids forming, and carbon buildup.

 

The TBN number of oil is the critical measure for oil performance. TBN is the measure of the oils alkalinity, and its ability to deal with acids forming in the oil. When the TBN gets too low, it's regarded as degraded and unable to do its job properly, and it's time the oil was changed.

[nomadpete]

Oils sure aint oils, Ollie!

[facthunter]

ED Oils (Extended drain) just have more chemical= s less oil. Don't go there. Unless you operate a fleet of trucks.  Pennsylvanian oil was considered the Best base lube oil.  Nev

[nomadpete]

Which raises a random thought (sorry folks).....

What is synthetic oil made from?

How do they sysnthesise that ancient black sludgy stuff that used to come from deep subterranean cavities?

 

Is it a more environmentally nice process?

[facthunter]

Most synthetic oils are made from LNG. CRUDE oils is about  7% sulphur and has Tar and wax in it. Some synthetics are ester based. Modern synthets mix with each other and with Mineral. Castor is a vegetable oil that doesn't mix with paraffinic liquids. Greases are soaps, Stearates which has oils mixed in it. Nev 

[spacesailor]

"  they are long-chain polymers that have the curious ability to thichen when hot and to thin out  when cold . "

I thought that is what I said . Just different wording. 

spacesailor

Edited yesterday at 10:01 AM by spacesailor

[facthunter]

There's NO oil that ACTUALLY gets thicker when it gets Hotter. With Pollimers (Little plastic balls) it thins out LESS than it otherwise would. This effect wears out  with  Use, so you would change oil more frequently.  The Oil itself doesn't wear out. Additives do. EP gear Oils have special additives for the high film strength required with Hypoid steel gears ( Offset Spiral Bevel). .  Nev

[facthunter]

Out of Curiosity I revisited the topic and It's the HANDBRAKE.. On the Mondeo if it's NOT ON the engine won't start.   Nev

[facthunter]

A mate of mine started his Pajero through the window and it  idled across the road and tried to climb the wall of the neighbors House. . Nev

[onetrack]

"Synthetic oil" is actually a marketing term, not a specific chemical term. Synthetic oil is mostly produced from heavy crude oil (HGO - "Heavy Gas Oil") in a process called catalytic cracking.

In a catalytic cracker, the HGO is heated to 550° over a zeolite (the catalyst) bed which breaks down the complex heavy hydrocarbons into lighter, simpler hydrocarbons, and which process also eliminates a lot of the undesirable by-products from normal column distillation of oil.

 

The CC process also produces a higher level of petrol from the crude and thus gives the refiners an ability to juggle the market demands between the amount of petrol and diesel required.

 

The desirable lighter, simple hydrocarbons from catalytic cracking are called alkanes, and these are regarded as highly purified hydrocarbons that can be used to produce the base for "synthetic oil".

I can clearly remember Shell bragging about their new $600M catalytic cracker they installed at Geelong in 1992, and their new oil, "Shell XMO" was put on the market as a result of the CC production.

Shell XMO wasn't marketed as a "synthetic oil", but it effectively was such, because it was made from the highly purified alkanes from the Geelong CC.

 

Put simply, a "synthetic oil" is basically one that is produced from an intensive chemical process, rather than simple column distillation, as oils were previously made from. Column distillation leaves a lot of undesirable chemicals that are found naturally in crude oil, and the chemical engineers simply added additives to negate the undesirable, naturally-occurring compounds.

 

There's a great story about the early Caterpillar diesels and the Standard Oil company. Cat produced it's first diesel engine in 1931 and their diesel engine started to become very popular, and it used a diesel engine oil produced by the Standard Oil Co.

 

Suddenly, in 1935, Cat was bombarded with engine performance complaints. The Cat engines were sludging up, producing poor performance, needed a lot more oil changes, and were generally giving a lot of trouble.

Cat engineers were mystified, so they went on a massive investigation. In their searching, they found that Standard Oil had recently introduced a new refining process for their engine oil - and this refining process had stripped out a naturally-occurring detergent found in crude oil, which had formerly kept the Cat diesels innards perfectly clean!

 

They asked Standard Oil to return the naturally occurring detergent to the diesel lube oil, and the Cat engine problems were immediately solved! At that point, Cat and Standard Oil introduced the diesel engine lube oil standard, the "detergent diesel oil", which set it apart from petrol engine oils.

From that point on, Cat were at great pains to ensure that Cat diesel engine oils meet their "detergent oil" standard.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_catalytic_cracking

 

Edited 8 hours ago by onetrack

[facthunter]

With the Proper oils these days diesels don't sludge up but the oil still goes dark fairly quickly. Having a working thermostat for the Cooling system is vitally important. Short runs are bad for all motors.  Diesels need more cooling system protection, more head bolts and non porous  castings and stiffer crankshafts that are hardened. You don't need to over rev them.  Nev