Search Results

Engine lubricating oils have responded to the increasingly severe requirements introduced by engine design improvements for more than thirty years. It is expected that design trends in the future will be continuations of the past and current ones for the most part. This means that lubricants for future piston engines must have improved dispersancy, thermal and oxidative stability, as well as improve boundary lubrication capability. The latter is especially important and will require serious effort on the part of the engine designer and metallurgist, in company with the lubricant designer. Mineral oils will be improved and, with improved additive combinations, will continue to serve engine needs far into the future. Synthetic materials will not challenge them seriously for at least the next decade, principally for economic reasons. However, synthetics will be required, as they are now, for industrialized aircraft gas turbines.

SEVEN HUNDRED tons of iron, estimated by the authors to be worn annually from the cylinder bores of American automotive engines, cause an annual engine repair bill believed to exceed $1,000,000,000. A large part of this wear is due to corrosion, particularly in severe service such as gasoline-powered delivery vehicles or stationary diesel installations. Test results indicate that wear rates can be materially reduced by the use of crankcase lubricating oils containing high concentrations of alkalinity. The authors also present examples of radiochemistry research. Radiotracers are used to prove that oil consumed by the engine carries with it the iron debris which it contained at the moment of consumption.