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One of the most critical parts of the heat treatment process is the quenching operation, which is defined as rapid cooling of a work-piece by immersing it into a quenching media such as water, oil, or polymer. Quenching is carried out for altering and achieving the desired mechanical properties of industrial materials. Hardness, microstructure changes, and surface finish obtained are a few of the most sought objectives of quenching and these are greatly influenced by cooling time, cooling rate, quench media, etc. The cooling rate of quenchant must be sufficiently fast for phase transformation of the material, thus changing the microstructure. But, very fast quenching may result in distortions or crack formation on the material. Therefore it is very critical to have comprehension and control over the quenching process. Normally a probe made up of Inconel 600 is used in a potable quenchometer to comparatively evaluate the cooling rate with different quenchants.

Automobile OEMs are looking for improving fuel economy[1,2] of their vehicles by reducing weight, rolling resistance and improving engine and transmission efficiency apart from the aerodynamic design. Fuel economy may be improved by using appropriate low viscosity [3] and use of friction reducers (FRs)[4,5] in the engine oils. The concept of high viscosity index [6] is being used for achieving right viscosity at required operating temperatures. In this paper performance properties of High Viscosity Index engine oils have been compared with conventional VI engine oils. Efforts have been made to check the key differentiation in oil properties w.r.t. low temperature fluidity, high temperature high shear viscosity/deposits, friction behavior, oxidation performance in bench tribological /engine/chassis dyno tests which finally lead to oil performance assessment. Three candidates of SAE 0W-30 grade oil with ACEA C2/API SN credentials have been chosen using various viscosity modifiers.