Motor Oil Info

Current emissions legislation set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates that all 2007 and newer on-highway diesel-fueled vehicles come equipped with a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF). A DPF is generally a honeycomb-like filter positioned in the exhaust stream to collect particulate matter and soot to prevent it from exiting the vehicle. DPFs are highly efficient and can usually remove 80-90 percent of particulate matter from diesel exhaust.

When the filter is near its capacity, soot trapped in the filter is burned, freeing the plugged media and enabling the filter to remain serviceable. The process of burning the residual matter is termed regeneration and can be either active or passive. Oil Dilution will even shorten the life of synthetic diesel oil’s.

A recent AMSOIL Technical Services investigation on a Cummins OTR ISX-485 engine failure revealed a high amount of chlorine in the engine oil.

The chemical data on the lubricant and surface analysis of the failed engine parts revealed the root cause of the failure was corrosive wear. Acidic components in lubricants directly lead to corrosive wear In this case, an abnormal amount of chlorine was found in the engine oil. Chlorine, when combined with hydrogen and water in the engine, can create hydrochloric acid. This, in turn, can cause severe Total Base Number depletion, which was the case with this Cummins engine. It was determined that a chlorine-containing additive was used when an oil sample from the engine tested at 11,000 ppm of chlorine. The result was an extreme corrosive environment which was responsible for the upper end engine failure within 195,000 original miles. Aftermarket oil additives are NOT recommended for use with AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils.

Aftermarket engine oil supplements are “treatments” advertised to enhance an oil’s properties. Manufacturers claim these treatments reduce friction, noise and wear; maintain higher lubricity and break down sludge and varnish, protecting the engine components. Many products advertise materials like Teflon, molybdenum or graphite; however, most fail to mention that they contain chlorine, which can be highly corrosive when mixed with water.

Chlorinated paraffins were once used as extreme pressure (EP) additives in lubricants, but the practice has been discontinued in most passenger vehicle lubricants due to the corrosive side effects. These chlorinated compounds are due to their low cost and ability to provide extreme pressure properties, but they readily react with water and combustion by-products to form acidic materials that promote corrosion of engine components and bearings.

Aftermarket oil additives are NOT recommended for use with AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils.

AMSOIL Synthetic Diesel Oils are the premium choice for diesel applications, resisting shearing forces and fuel dilution to maintain their protective film strengths and stay in grade. Shear stability measures a lubricant’s ability to withstand shearing forces without degrading to a lower viscosity. To meet CJ-4 requirements for shear stability, the American Petroleum Institute (API) requires diesel oils to pass the Kurt Orbahn 90-cycle Shear Stability Test. So AMSOIL up the test to 180 cycles, to see what would happen.

Of five oils tested, AMSOIL was the only one to maintained viscosity and was the only oil to stay within the SAE 40 viscosity rating. As other oils lost viscosity due to shearing forces and fuel dilution, their ability to protect against wear was jeopardized.

Many different kinds of base stocks may be used to create synthetic lubricants, allowing a synthetic to be designed for virtually any application. Some base stocks are ideal for use in extremely cold environments, others are perfect for use in extreme heat. Some are extremely safe in applications in which refined lubricants pose a fire or explosion hazard. Refined oils simply do not offer the design flexibility synthetics offer.

The designability of synthetics also allows them to be tailored very specifically to the needs of everyday applications, such as automotive engines, commercial equipment or industrial machinery. That specificity helps ensure long life and peak power, performance and fuel economy from the lubricated system, as well as long lubricant life.

The base stocks from which AMSOIL Synthetic Diesel oils and lubricants are made feature uniform and smooth molecular structures, which ensures low friction as lubricant layers slide across one another. Reduced friction increases energy through-put for greater fuel efficiency and power, and reduces heat and wear for longer equipment life.

Molecular uniformity also helps synthetics resist thinning in heat and thickening in cold, which helps them protect better than refined oils over a system’s operating temperature range and helps ensure secure sealing.

True Synthetic Lubricants are chemically engineered from pure chemicals rather than refined from crude oil. That gives them significant advantages over refined oils. The base stocks from which synthetic lubricants are made contain NO sulfur, nitrogen or other elements that invite the formation of sludge and other products of lubricant breakdown.

Synthetic lubricants can be used in higher temperatures than refined lubricants without breaking down. Their resistance to breakdown also allows them to be used longer than refined lubricants can be used. Lubricated systems stay cleaner and last longer with synthetics. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils are a true synthetic.

Conventional oils – the oils most people are familiar with are refined from crude oil. Refining is a process of physically separating light oil components from heavy ones. Crude oil contains a full range of different kinds of molecules. Many are similar in weight but not in structure. The refining process cannot distinguish such molecules, so a wide assortment of molecules is present in a finished lubricant made from crude oil stocks.

Some crude oil molecules are not beneficial to the lubrication process. For example, paraffin causes refined lubricants to thicken and flow poorly in cold temperatures. Molecules containing sulfur, nitrogen and other elements invite the formation of sludge and other products of lubricant breakdown, especially in high-temperature applications. Sludge and breakdown products significantly increase wear rates. The assorted molecules of refined lubricants also have different shapes, making lubricant surfaces irregular at the molecular level. As lubricant layers flow across one another during the lubrication process, these irregularities create friction, which consumes power, reduces efficiency and increases heat and wear. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils are not engineered this way.

Experimentation with synthetic lubrication dates back as far as 1877, when the prominent chemist team of Charles Friedel and James Mason Crafts successfully used aluminum trichloride as a catalyst, creating the first known synthesized hydrocarbons. It wasn’t until 1929 that Standard Oil Company of Indiana commercialized the process, but the endeavor was unsuccessful due to lack of demand.

The Zurich Aviation Congress became interested in the development of ester-based lubricants in 1937. The Germans, frustrated by the failure of petroleum lubricants during the cold weather of the Battle of Stalingrad, prepared and evaluated more than 3,500 esters between 1938 and 1944. Meanwhile, in the United States, the first diester base stocks (a compound using two ester groupings) were in development at the Naval Research Laboratory.

By 1947, Great Britain had discovered the benefits of using diesters as lubricants in turboprop aircraft. Later, with the advent of highly sophisticated jet engines, reseach and development in the area of synthetic lubricants really took off, and various synthetic formulations were developed to meet the demands of the new engines.

AGGRAND Natural Fertilizer Kelp and Sulfate of Potash also contains minimally processed sulfate of Potash from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Unlike other sources of potassium this does not contain chloride (CI-), which can damage soil life and plant roots. Sulfate of potash (K2SO4) is an ionically balanced source of K and S. Plant use efficiency of ionically balanced fertilizer is much higher for root and foliar applications.

Potassium must be present in large quantities in plants because it is a component of the fluids that flood plant tissue. Potassium-deficient plants are susceptible to insect attack and have weak stalks and underdeveloped root systems. Sufficient potassium produces high quality vegetables and tree fruits with firmer stalks and higher nutritional content.