As knowledge has seen changes and growth, all types of vehicle oils have kept pace.
Once, the standard type of oil we used was the non-detergent oil kind. Today, however, we use detergent oils.
The multi-weight ones are which? In today’s world there is no choice but the one that removes soot from engine parts, as well as dissolve the soot. The small particles are caught in the oil filters. Soot too tiny to get trapped by your oil filter will stay in the oil until you change it.
Contemporary passenger vehicle engines don’t use non-detergent. This type sees use by lawnmowers and such engines. On every container containing this product is the letter ‘W’ and two numbers. This is what’s called the viscosity modifier. The first number is the viscosity when you oil is cold. After which a W comes as shown, the oil weight isn’t what it means.
The container’s last number displays the viscosity when the oil is at engine running temperature. Higher numbers on the container indicate thicker oils. You need to take consideration of climates before choosing. Higher top numbers are indicated for warmer areas. However if you are going to go into another area where the climate is colder, be sure and drop that number down to a 5 instead of the 10. If you are using a thicker oil you can interfere with your oil flow and oil pressure.
Stay aware of the reason most products are not thicker but thinner, namely cars bearing clearance while in use. The SB or SB on the package shows you that it’s for non. This also will be used for the air cools in aircraft oil. Don’t use API SA for gasoline powered engines that are built after 1963. Using this in modern engines will cause bad performance and harm your equipment. The API SB has no additives.
Do not use this either on any gasoline powered automotive engines that was built before 1930. Using non-detergent oils in these type of auto engines can severely injure them.
Internal combustion engines nowadays use motor oil, which is a liquefied oil designed specifically to meet the engine’s needs. The main purpose of motor oil is to lubricate your engine, but aside from that it also serves plenty of other benefits. Motor oil can lubricate every part of your engine, and it also produces a protective layer that reduces friction.
Motor oil also has the ability to clean your engine up. Gasoline and air have the ability to create contaminants, in order to remove this, the motor oil that you use for your car contains detergents and other additives to clean that up. The detergents in the oil will suspend the contaminants that accumulate in your car and hold them as they are until your next oil change. You will need to change your oils every three months or every thousand miles, whichever comes first. According to many people, using a more expensive synthetic oil will help to reduce the amount of contaminants in your car. Synthetic oil only has better ability in suspending contaminants and this still requires you to change your oil as much as standard motor oils. Remember that having clean oil in your car is much better than keeping all that dirty oil.
If your engine is left unclean, chances are the contaminants will start to settle causing sludge in your engine, and this in turn accelerates the wear on every part of your car that comes in contact with that oil. The oil filter may help in catching those contaminants, but it can only do so much.
Motor oil also serves as a seal around your engine parts so your car will be more fuel efficient and powerful. Because of this sealing ability, it locks out the air, thus protecting your car against corrosion or rust. It also allows the regulation of heat, protecting your engine from overheating.
There are plenty of motor oils out in the market that will suit your engine perfectly, there are the standard motor oils, synthetic oils, G-5 and the list goes on. What you need is the right idea so you could pick the right one for the perfect driving experience.
Motor oil serves to fulfill different needs for car engines. Though their main purpose is to lubricate the car parts that helps a car move, it also protects the engine from wear and corrosion, helps in keeping it cool and free from unwanted debris.
The conventional oil is a popular kind of oil that is made from crude oil which has been pumped from the ground and then processed to create a base oil. The base oil is then given additives to change the viscosity, for its ability to protect, and to change the heat breakdown levels of the oil.
Synthetic oil on the other hand though created in the same way the conventional oil is, is a bit different since it is created using “synthesized” base oil where the oil molecules are actually already of an ideal weight and size. This will produce a much purer base oil, which has less wax and a more consistent particle size which helps to increase the oil’s viscosity level. Synthetic oils were given a more sophisticated additives compared to conventional oils.
The sophisticated additives used in the production of synthetic oils help in the manufacture of extremely stable engine oil that will help in maintaining the correct viscosity levels across quite a range of temperatures and they allow a better flow at lower temperatures against conventional oils. Synthetic motor oils are also given additional friction inhibitors so they could help to protect the engine from the moment of start-up.
Among the two types of oil, the synthetic oil has a much better lubricating property that helps to protect the engine from wear, allows a lower oil consumption, better fuel mileage, a reduction in the engine deposits and an easier engine cold starting.
One thing to keep in mind when you are going for an oil change is that when you have an old engine and would like to switch to a fully synthetic oil, you may have to think about the waxes and sludge that have been left by the conventional oils which may mask the worn engine seals, when you introduce synthetic oil to your engine, the detergents in the synthetic oil will tend to break down to clean the protective mask which is at the moment maintaining the seal. This will create an oil leak.
For more information on the type of oil you need to use, you may visit Delfin Group to speak with an expert.
Have you ever been told that putting synthetic motor oil in your older engine will cause it to leak? Well, surprisingly the answer is a big fat YES…IF your engine hasn’t been taken care of properly and is getting up there in years.
See an old engine that is prone to overheating and has had too few motor oil changes could very well have accumulated large sludge and varnish deposits.
Sludge and varnish create a “false seal” that isolates valve cover gaskets or pan gaskets from engine oil and when conventional oil is switched out with synthetic oil, the synthetic cleans away all the nasty sludge and varnish, eliminating that seal and exposing a dry seal. A dry seal could leak when exposed.
So ask yourself if you’ve changed your oil as specified. Is your engine operating as it should…is it in good repair? Do you have more than 200,000 miles on the engine?
As long as you’ve taken decent care of your automobile then you’re probably a pretty good candidate for switching out to a quality synthetic oil.
Good seal swell additives in a quality synthetic oil will keep your engine leak free.
This is a little more difficult to check on some vehicles but the problem comes in when they forget to tighten your oil filter or it gets over tightened. If the filter is too loose then it may back off or the o ring could blow out and then you’ll have a severe oil leak…so major that you should notice it right away. Too tight can cause the o ring to rupture and leak and creates a nightmare for the next guy (hopefully you) to get the filter off for the next oil change.
Where did the magic number “3,000″ come from that determines when we’re supposed to change our motor oil? For at least 50 years now, that number has been used as the basis for oil changes. Someone had to be the first to say “you should change your oil every 3,000 miles”.
That was then and this is now. Gone are the days of short commutes living near your place of business. A lot of folks seem to be living a greater distance from their place of employment. A longer commute means additional miles and more oil consumption.
Well gone are the days of traveling mostly on dirt and gravel roads. Now the daily commute is nearly dust free as opposed to yesteryear. Dust and dirt raise hell for an engine. This creates a severe operating environment for engines and engine oil. Since most roads are paved now, the filthy driving conditions are in our rearview mirrors, so to speak, as is the necessity for such frequent oil changes.
Do you remember when you were excited your engine lasted 70,000 miles. This is a recent change but seems like it was only the 1980s when vehicle longevity improved. Engine materials and manufacturing tolerances were upgraded, and enhanced our capabilities allowing us extended oil change intervals using the proper motor oil.
That 3,000 mile oil change, where is it now? I certainly couldn’t tell you since I can’t find it in any of my vehicles’ manuals. I do see a lot of quart bottles of oil but none with “3,000″ on them; their numbers are all higher. I’d like to know who could possibly still be spreading that 3,000 mile oil change rumor.
There are a lot of reasons for you to change your own motor oil nowadays. Keeping your engine out of inexperienced or uncaring hands and keeping some dough in your wallet are some of the biggest incentives. Here are 5 good reasons you should change your own motor oil.
#1 Your oil plug.
Your oil plug needs to be tensioned to a specific torque. If the quickie lube under torques or over torques your oil plug you could end up with all your oil draining from your engine while your driving. This will not be a pleasant experience, guaranteed; it will cost big bucks to fix this faux pas. Too loose of an oil plug is going to cause the plug to back right out and if it’s too tight the threads are going to be stripped. I have one friend who drove home with no oil and another friend that has multiple instances of his oil plug being cross threaded and replaced by the wrong oil plug by a popular quickie lube.
#2 Save Money As you know, our economy is suffering and this recession doesn’t look like it’s going to be getting any better any time soon. Official unemployment is up over 10% now (unofficial is more like 20%). Those are scary numbers! Just about everyone is cutting back, and if you’re one of the millions who are cutting corners to make ends meet or trying to save up an emergency fund then a great way to save 20 bucks is to change your oil yourself. It takes less then a half an hour which means it would be equivalent to you making $80 an hour when you consider taxes.
#3 Correct Fill Level When you change your own oil you are absolutely sure the correct quantity of oil was added. Both over and under filling can cause your motor harm. If you do end up at a quickie lube then do yourself a favor and as soon as you can, pull off the road and check your oil level because if they didn’t do it right you can save your engine from some serious damage and yourself from some serious headache.
#4 Proper Filter Tightness Some vehicles are difficult to check for this, but the main problems are caused when someone has forgotten to tighten the filter or if it is too tight. You definitely don’t want it too loose because it might back off or the o ring might blow out and then you’ll have a huge and obvious oil leak that hopefully you’ll catch right away. Too tight can cause the o ring to rupture and leak and creates a nightmare for the next guy (hopefully you) to get the filter off for the next oil change.
#5 Oil Viscosity Errors When you change your own oil you are 100% certain that you’re using the motor oil that you want, getting superior protection and the best value, and you are ensuring that the proper viscosity oil is being used. These oil change places are so quick, adding oil with pumps and hoses, that before you know it the job is done and then there’s no way to know or to prove that the oil they used is the appropriate viscosity. It isn’t good to have oil that is too thick or too thin; both will have damaging consequences for your engine.
Technology today has made it difficult to diagnose and work on your engine in your own garage or driveway, but changing oil is still changing oil and in today’s economy it pays to do it yourself; you’ll save money and keep some much needed peace of mind.
Here’s a scary picture to put yourself in…you’re driving down the highway like any other day and suddenly the oil quits flowing inside your motor…can you imagine that? Your motor oil couldn’t get through the filter. We put a lot of confidence in one little bulb lighting up to let us know we may have an oil problem. At 2100 rpm’s or average highway speeds, total disaster can happen in a flash!
When oil stops flowing to the engine you lose critical lubrication and cooling. There’s no avoiding the fatal seizure of the engine now.
Oil filters need to be rerplaced at regulated intervals as they’re designed to handle a limited amount of contamination. I say designed loosely because I think most companies just pleat the paper media jam it in a can and call it good. Personally, that doesn’t fly with me at all; my vehicle is an investment and deserves more than a paper airplane for an oil filter.
Anyway, if the paper or synthetic media does get blocked oil filters have a bypass valve which is spring loaded. This bypass valve opens at a specific pressure differential that varies between vehicles. So, if blockage occurs from overuse then oil will still be able to flow through the bypass valve. This is ok for a quick fix to get you home or to the shop, but by no means should you run your vehicle like this because your oil isn’t getting filtered anymore.
Sometimes this will show up as an oil light indication that there is low oil pressure downstream of the filter (hopefully your oil filter bypass valve is not stuck!). I can guess that sometimes the pressure decrease is not enough to cause an oil light indication.
The bypass is also prone to open on startup when your motor oil is cool and thick. The pressure drop through the filter media is too high to let all of the thick oil pass through, so some oil has no choice but to travel through the bypass filter. This is another instance where unfiltered oil finds its way to your engine. Don’t lose any sleep over it though, since it’s been this way for years and engines have still done their job pretty well.
The problem occurs when a motor oil filter is not changed for extended periods of time and becomes blocked for long periods of time. That’s when you’ll be circulating unfiltered oil through your engine and causing unnecessary wear.
My wife is perfectly happy driving around in her Honda Odyssey. The thing is, I just found out that the one she’s driving is the year that has a bad history of tranny failures and a new tranny for her ride is going to run about $3000…not what she wanted to hear (let’s not talk about my initial reaction).
We have been traveling quite a bit and I have been pulling a trailer with the van. The van handles it well with 250 horsepower under the hood. I have been really pleased with the van but it has started to shift really hard between first and second gear. It’s hard to tell what’s at the root of the problem…the shift or the lock up torque converter.
Every day it gets a little worse. This past weekend I decided to check the transmission fluid on the off chance the level was low. I’ve been using a synthetic transmission fluid and running the van pretty hard. It is up to 162,000 miles + now. I fully expected some dark fluid probably slightly burnt smell (that nasty burning tranny smell).
Well I was shocked to say the least when I pulled out the dipstick and saw a pretty red liquid. Taking into account that I’ve been towing heavy trailers and the tranny’s got some screwed up shifting going on (my wife’s gotten stuck in 4th gear on her way home a few times) I was amazed. AMAZING!
I change my motor oil and transmission fluid on a regular basis to try and make my vehicles last forever.
I wish I could say my transmission was going to last forever because of the transmission fluid I’m using but I am obviously having problems. I’ve done some research and discovered that in comparison to other people who’ve had this same problem, our transmission in the van has outlived theirs. I haven’t sorted it out yet but I am hoping its a computer problem and not mechanical. At least my tranny fluid isn’t showing me any problems.
Please let me know if you have any ideas as to what could be causing my transmission to act this way by posting below, and if you’re stumped like me…wish me luck!
The motor oil industry likes to use a lot of fancy technical jargon like “shear stability” and for some reason they assume that the general population knows what the heck they’re talking about. Most folks are more in tune when you talk about added horsepower and superior engine protection…mention “shear stability” and their brows are furrowed. The question is how does shear stability relate to more horsepower and better engine protection? Great question.
Hope you don’t mind, but I have to get a bit abstract here so you may better comprehend what’s taking place at a molecular level. Motor oils get thinner as they get hot. Conventional oils don’t perform like they’re meant to when they reach those really high temps. To keep the oil from getting to that “too thin stage” a VI (viscosity improver) is added to the oil. The VI keeps the oil “thicker” at higher temperatures to better protect the engine… but here is the rub.
Let’s zoom in and look at motor oil with an electron microscope, and imagine VI to look like coils of spaghetti. When the VI is cold the spaghetti coils are very compact and bounce around and move around each other easily. As the VI improver heats up the coils elongate and unwind and start clogging up on each other. This makes the fluid move around less freely and counteracts the thinning of the base oil.
Cheap VI’s in your oil are going to wear out quicker in your engine. Your oil will end up thinning from the shearing effects of the moving parts in your engine ripping the VI apart. All the little spaghetti molecules are broken into little pieces allowing the oil to flow to easily at high temperature.
This could mean a little bit of cheap horsepower with the terrible cost of loss of engine protection… more engine wear.
Shear stability of an oil tells us how long the oil will protect your engine due to its viscosity. Low shear stability means your oil will only protect your engine for a short amount of time. The higher the shear stability is, the longer your oil will be protecting your engine.
There’s nothing wrong with capitalism. It has the ability to fashion marvelous economies. Sprout businesses and jobs everywhere and create a better life for everyone but it can also foster the proliferation of greed.
Capitalism allows corporations to keep operating without showing any interest in human emotion since their primary concern is the bottom line…what exists at the end of the day after all is said and done regardless of who said what and when they did. This is where the 3000 mile oil change comes into play.
The big oil companies want the general public to still believe the ancient myth that their oil still needs to be changed every 3,000 miles when in reality, the automotive industry is recommending to their customers to change their oil every 5,000-7,000 miles.
This facade is fed by the greed of these oil companies who are pigs rolling in the mud of increased revenues and delightfully large profit margins. If you were to actually change your oil at the recommended 7,000 mile interval that would cut engine lubricant sales in nearly half. The quickie lube would have only half the business it’s accustom to. Half the visits to the quick lube means half as many times for an additional sale of wiper blades, air filters, fuel filters, and all the other miscellaneous profit centers they find on your car.
Don’t fall for this. Feel free to dash over to Wal Mart and read the label on the back of Mobil 1 Synthetic. Good for 15,000 miles! That’s five times what the others will have you believe. And, if you’re open to the idea of having oil dropped on your doorstep then AMSOIL has a premium synthetic oil change set up that’s good for up to a whopping 35,000 miles, and that is over 11 times of what that old conventional oil has been giving you.
A lot of folks want to know if an extended drain interval is going to damage their engine at all. The answer is that it’s been a typical occurrence in garages across our nation for over 35 years. Mobil has been around a long time and they know what they’re doing and not afraid to say it. They know the group of “believers” is growing and the niche of extended oil change consumers is a profitable one.
But you may be wondering where the truth really lies. It can’t be that silly 3,000 mile ancient oil change myth. Sure it’s been passed on from generation to generation, but it isn’t one that we should rely on if we want to make it in today’s strenuous world. Now, if dear old dad designed engines and oil filters and put together new oil formulations, that would be a different ballpark, but dear ole dad didn’t. Please note though, if you’re going to extend your oil drain intervals it’s mandatory to have an oil filter that is capable of handling the situation. Cheap filters will only end up costing you more money in the long run.
People are naturally scared of change and that is the only reason that the 3,000 mile oil change myth lives on. Today’s technology has {advanced and the old ways of maintenance need to progress as well.~The technology of today’s engines and lubrication is so advanced that 3,000 mile oil changes are laughable.} Save time, money, and a lot of headaches and just get the best motor oil and filter so you know your engine is protected.
