On 9/21/2018 8:18 AM, Randall wrote:
> My experience (long ago) with cheap oil was that it starts producing sludge
> almost immediately. You won't get enough in 30 minutes to hurt anything,
> but why go to all that extra effort for something that is less than
> desirable?
Ah, sludge. Which reminds me of a short stint at a independent foreign
car shop in the `70s. Two regular clients were retired schoolteachers
who had identical 1974 Honda Civics, and were in some sort of
competition with each other. If one had any work done, the other was in
for work in a week or two. If one changed gas stations, so did the
other. And, about the time I started at the shop, one changed to Quaker
State oil... and so did the other about two weeks later.
These were initially pretty clean engines from casual inspection as they
were being worked on by others, but, after a few months, the valve
covers and valve gear were loaded with sludge. The inevitable
conclusion was that it was the oil. Never made sense to me, exactly,
until, years later, I was doing coal-cleaning research, and found, over
time, that virtually all the coal from eastern Ohio and western
Pennsylvania was loaded with ash that was chemically bound to the coal,
and that we'd receive samples that were sometimes 25-30% ash content,
but perhaps only a quarter of that could be removed physically. It
didn't separate from the coal until it was burned.
I suspect that Quaker State then was still using refinery feedstock from
Pennsylvania (these were the days of peak oil, after all), and
Pennsylvania oil was mostly in relatively shallow pools near the
surface, with the same sort of geology as the Pennsylvania coal fields,
and while coal and oil derive from different flora, the geological
chemistry might well have been the same. The oil was full of
ash-bearing minerals, too, and when the oil gradually broke down from
heat, the ash precipitated out. Knowing that, the Quaker State chemists
probably had to add quite a bit more detergent to their oil, which, as
it broke down chemically from heat, along with the free minerals, aided
in the formation of sludge.
So, yeah, there are cheap oils, and ash content might well be the clue
to why they're cheap.
Cheers.
--
Michael Porter
Roswell, NM
Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking
distance....
** triumphs@autox.team.net **
Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/triumphs http://www.team.net/archive
Unsubscribe/Manage:
http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/triumphs/mharc@autox.team.net
|