List,
I was asking questions about oil several years back at one of the race meets
on the salt. One of the people in the group was from an oil company or had
some connections with one. He made the statement that he had never seen an
engine be damaged by using a particular oil. He was very concerned about
the uneven expansion of metals ... i.e. an aluminum piston in a cast iron
block, or improper clearance allowing for expansion when the engine was
assembled, and felt this was a major cause of engine failures. He had
examples of various cars with problems at that meet and explained the
reasons for the failures. None of the failures were lubrication related but
rather heat and expansion or stupidity related. What he said made sense.
His comment was to the effect that the Big 3 automakers were delivering
engines to a large group of people who are brainless about engine
maintenance ... how often do you see an engine destroyed through ignorance?
Mostly it's either getting them too hot (lack of sufficient coolant),
running them with no oil (never check the dipstick), or severely abusing
them by over-revving the engine for extended periods of time ... all of
which were examples of the metals actually expanding rapidly at different
rates and seizing up because of that. He said that racers think they know
everything about building engines but when the pro's do it the engine runs
all day. Unfortunately most of the engines on the salt only run for a few
minutes and he blames improper warming of the engine before a run for the
bulk of failures.
Reminds me of the comment I saw recently about the oil shortage ... hope I'm
not re-telling what you've already read;
People never check their oil until it's too late.
Unfortunately most of the crude oil is in Oklahoma and Texas ...
And all the dipsticks are in Washington D. C.
Wes
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