As promised, this was taken from this months copy of Ride magazine (with the bike specific bits removed):

All you need to know about...
...Engine Oil

What's its job
To lubricate and cool the engine.

Explain the different types
Engine oil is made up of a combination of base oil (either mineral, synthetic or a combination of both) and additives.
o Mineral oil
Base oil-what you get from refining crude; usually golden-brown in colour.
o Fully-synthetic
Mineral oil that has been through a further refinement process. This makes it molecules stronger - so it's less likely to break down, is more resistant to temperature change and works better in high friction conditions. Without additives it's clear in colour.
o Part-synthetic
A mixture of fully-synthetic and normal mineral oil. The idea is to provide a higher specc oil at a reasonable price.

How do manufacturers test oil?
They do a series of bench tests, using at least 10 different types of engine. Tests can be up to 50 hours with the engine sitting at tickover for say 10 minutes, then 2 hours flat-out, then back to tickover etc. A full set of tests costs about

 

Thanks for that steve, very informative.

 

Thanks for that - I'm now well lubricated !!

(Sorry - Couldn't resist)

I always thought oil was oil - this was very informative.

Bharat

 

Technical FAQ?

 

cheers for posting

 

I just got this:


[QUOTE]
Road Rage wrote on 02-09-04 11:14PM:
I think you have obtained bad advice. I don't believe 0w30 or 0w40 oils are "too thin". At the average temperatures you are likely to encounter, the kinematic viscosity wll be similar to the other oils recommended, the Silkolene or Castrol.

I have used 0w30 Amsoil Series 2000 in a number of my cars spec'd for 10w and 5w with absolutely no leakage. One is a supercharged Cobra, spec'd for 5w20.

 

Road Rage has given me some more info this morning

[QUOTE]
In order to determine the differences between the three oils one has to look at the kinematic viscosity of each lubricant. The kinematic viscosity is essentially the amount of time, in centistokes, that it takes for a specified volume of the lubricant to flow through a fixed diameter orifice at a given temperature.

 

Can someone write that in english? or 2 lines

 

" Take it to the garage "

 

I've posted an oil deal from oilmansi here:

http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=184677

I'd love your input on it from all the oil junkies out there!