Oil info from a pretty reliable source

[one ton garage]

I *think* I posted the following many years ago... maybe even with my previous handle on Nico. I was just cleaning up my other comp and stumbled across the file again, so I figured it'd be an interesting read. This comes from an old friend of mine who is a tribologist at NASA....sooo, I tend to believe him when he talks about anything related to lubrication. He's also an awesome car guy who helped build a car that revolutionized (imo) the mustang drag racing industry in the US (ohhhh noooo, an engineer that likes to modify cars!!! >HAHAHA<)A lot of what he says may be considered sorta common sense, but it's still interesting to see it come from someone whose life revolves around this subject. Copy and pasted section below:

Today's topic seams to be motor oil related. I am a NASA Engineer atMarshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. My field of work isTribology which is the study of friction, wear, and lubrication. In ourspare time, our group collects and tests different motor oils using theShell Four Ball tester. This tester tests the extreme pressure propertiesof oils. These areas in a motor are cam to lifter contacts, valve stem toguild, and piston skirts. Over the years we have found synthetic bases oilsto out perform mineral based oils by a large margin. We test the oils new,after 1000 miles, 2000 miles, and up to 10,000 miles. In a nut shell, wefound that synthetic oils have better wear properties after being run 10,000miles then mineral grade oils new. Which synthetic do we use? First anyyou will benefit from any synthetic, but we use Mobil 1. Mobil by far putsmore research dollars in motor oils then any other company. They are alsoaggressive in racing. Other notes on motor oils.

Do not run a multi grade oil (10w-30) more then 1000 to 2000 miles -depending on your driving habits.This is because a 10w30 oil starts its life as a 10 weight oil and largepolymer chains are added to get the 30 rating. These chains break down veryquickly which produces small chains with an open electron charge at theends. These ends attract grim and form sludge.

Do not run synthetics in a new rebuild. A new engine needs the addedfriction allowed by mineral oils to set the rings properly. Chevy foundthis out on the corvette. These cars came from the factory with Mobil 1 andowners brought them back because of smoking and oil consumption (rings didnot seat). Run a good single weight oil for the first 2000 miles. We foundHavaline 30 to be a good mineral oil - in fact we use it for our standard.

The reason Mobil 1 can safely be run for 10,000 miles is because theadditive package is well engineered to isolate grim and hold it insuspension. This also is why Mobil 1 is expensive. You know - you get whatyou pay for.

I know there are a lot of questions on motor oils. You can e-mail me formore information or search the web for more details on synthetics. YourRoadster deserves the best - run synthetic oils.

Phil

I have received a lot of comments on oils, so I will try and cover some theconcerns/comments.

I listed multi grade oil break down at 1000 to 2000 miles. This is for thejunk oils found at circle K for a dollar. A good name brand oil will last3000 miles without too much break down. This is for mineral grade oils -synthetic oils meet government viscosity tests for ratings without addingthickeners like polymer chains.

Guys here at work run synthetics in motors that have 140,000 to 170,000miles on them without any more oil consumption them normal. I believe thatyou will get a slight increase in consumption in older motors because thesynthetic are very slippery and can get by old rings easier. In these casesgoing to a 15w-50 may help, but this is not a reason not to use synthetics.Older motors need the extra protection. At running temperature a syntheticwill maintain its viscosity, where a mineral oil viscosity is DRASTICALLYREDUCED.

A test on how well synthetics work at different temperature can be done inyour home. Get a quart of your favorite mineral oil and a quart of asynthetic. Put a cup a each oil in a glass or paper cup and stick in thefreezer over night. In the morning try and pour the oils out. Next test:DO THIS OUTSIDE. On an old camp stove put a ｼ of the synthetic oil in anold frying pan and put it on the stove on the highest heat setting. Cookfor 30 minutes. Now cook your oil for 30 minutes. At this point you willsee why you cooked the synthetic first. As the oil cooks pour some out tosee the changes in viscosity between the oils.

Part 3 on oil additive coming soon. I need to back to NASA work.

Phil

Hey all -

The question of change intervals and synthetic oil has come up. As a sideat work we run oil tests using the Shell Four Ball test rig. This testerwas developed by Shell oil to test the extreme wear properties of motor oils- cams, piston skirts etc. It consists of three, = inch balls held in atriangular pattern in a cup with oil heated to 165 degrees. A forth ball islowered to the center of the three balls and loaded to 40 KG. The ball isthen rotated 600 RPM for one hour. After the test the wear scar is measuredon the three stationary balls. The bigger the scar the lower the extremewear property of the oil is. We use Havoline 30 wt for a base line. We usethis oil because engineers from the past liked this oil, so we have a largedata base.

Looking at data shows new Havoline 30 wt has a wear scar of .0165 inches.New Mobil 1 has a .0145 inch scar. May not seem like a lot of difference,but it is. Havoline 30 at 3000 miles has a wear scar of .020 inches andMobil 1 at 4000 miles has a .0164 scar. Remember - the bigger the badder.3000 miles is as long as anyone was willing to run Havoline 30 wt, so itsdata stops here. Mobil 1 at 6000 miles is .0167, at 8000 miles is .0188,and at 10,000 miles is .0194. So, at 10,000 miles Mobil 1 has betterlubrication properties in the critical areas in your motor then a good 30wt. All mineral oils follow Havoline pretty close - major brands. Some offbrands have a .020 wear scar new. Multi-grades generally have a larger wearscar as well. This data was from a 5.0 Ford Mustang. Every motor will beslightly different, but not much.

So, synthetic can handle long run intervals. But, that is part of thestory. You have contaminates to deal with. This is where the additivepackage comes in play. This is the expensive part of oils and the reasonsynthetics are high priced. Because of the long run intervals of synthetic,they must have a vastly superior additive package - and they do. Proof ofthis is to take 3000 mile dino oil and look at it in a glass jar - then dothe same for Mobil 1. The Mobil 1 will look new compared to the dino oil.I run Mobil 1 in my new cars to the longest manufactures oil change interval- usually 7000 miles. This will keep the warranty happy. In my Roadster Ichange it once a year regardless of mileage. It run my Roadster about 5000miles a year. Most people at work run synthetics and do the same. We havea bunch of cars in the lot that have over 200,000 miles on them and goingstrong. I (my wife) never keeps one that long.

I run 10w-30 Mobil 1 in my new Roadster motors (after break-in). Oldermotors get 15w-50 because the tolerances are larger. Because syntheticsdon't thin down like mineral oils do at temperature, I would be carefulrunning 15w-50 in a motor with a high volume oil pump. By doing so you mayrun into cavitation problems - oil gage jumping wildly. Drag racersexperience this often at high RPM. Drop a wt and it will clear up.

I checked the auto parts stores last night and could not find a zero wtMobil 1. It was about 2 years ago they were talking introducing this oil,so apparently they have in some markets. I stand corrected.

Testing another "magic" oil additive today. It looks and smells likelinseed oil! This should be fun. Additives are another subject alltogether. Another day, but never tested a good one - none- zip - zero -don't waste your money.

Sorry for being soo long. I like synthetics (obviously). If you have beento the conferences, seen all the tests and data, and read the lubricationjournals you would run nothing other then synthetics.

Phil