01/04/2020
Reducing Oil Contaminate Sources
November 29, 2019
Oil contamination occurs many ways. It’s a never-ending battle due to the nature of an automobile. The dust in our air finds its way into the engine oil and is abrasive to the internals. Heat from the combustion process oxidizes the oil where it starts to sludge and loose its ability to lubricate. Carbon deposits caused from unburnt fuel migrate into the oil sump. As you can see, there are multiple ways oil becomes contaminated due to the environment of engine operations.
MPG Garage targets each contributor to reduce their impacts, and we will discuss each in future posts. The main objective for this post is to identify what happens once contamination is in the oil. What does it do to the mental surfaces and how can we protect our engine while maximizing the efficiency? General Motors SAE paper #881825 quickly summarizes the impacts of oil contamination.
First, we will state that oil contamination is translated into two measurements; Quantity in parts per million (PPM) and particulate size (microns). The higher the PPMs, the higher the contamination of that item. The microns are the size of those contaminates. For reference, a human hair is about 60 to 70 microns in diameter size. GM discovered what micron sizes cause the most engine wear and at what rate that changes.
GM established a baseline with 40 micron sized contaminates in the oil. The level of wear and engine life was referenced as a ratio of 1:1. When those particles were reduced down to 7 microns, the level of wear dropped down to 0.14 and the engine life was increased to over 7x longer. What does this mean?
The study proved that the size of contaminates in the oil directly impacts engine life. Marketing companies such as Amsoil (yes, we said they are a marketing company. Google more about them, they are a MLM company) have published the same findings in their research. Take the oil filter of your choice, even with the most extreme filtration system, the fact is there are still contaminates in the fluids causing wear to the metals. So lets take a look at the wear surfaces of the metals in an engine.
In our posted picture you will find a bearing surface at 1,000X at the top. This is what you will find with any oil of your choice. At the MPG Garage, all oils are great oils. They each serve a specific purpose. If an owner prefers Mobil1, Schaeffer’s, Shell, Amsoil, Royal Purple, or even Joe Gibbs Racing oil, we endorse the use of an oil that meets OEM specifications and has you feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Each manufacture has a specific package they focus on. Some may have higher detergents, or oxidation inhibitors for high heat levels, so we recommend the oil you prefer for your application. But, the ugly truth is they all have one critical place for significant improvement, and that is lubricity.
These rough surfaces, caused by a lack of critical lubrication, allow for more bearing metal surfaces to break off and contaminate the oil. Oil contamination then increases due to the wearing metals and cause more particles floating around in the oil. It becomes and exponential issue, fueling itself. By no means are we bashing any of the oils, but we are identifying an area that can be improved which provides large benefits for the owner.
The lower image is with our Golden Eagle Oil added. We treat our oil as an additive (even though it’s an oil and does not have any additive solids in it such as molys, zinc, Teflon, etc) and run it at a 10% ratio. Some users run 100%, but the results plateau at 10%, leaving it the most cost effective at 10%. As you can see, we have improved the bearing surface from being rough, to smooth. This smooth bearing surface promotes reduced bearing wear, less metal contaminates in the oil, and longer engine life. We can not replace the worn metal, but we can polish it to a mirror finish, and protecting it from future increased wear.
Not only less metal wear, but we have found lowered operating temperatures, longer oil life, and smoother operations. The best of all, we have recorded time and time again, an increase in power and MPGs. It is not uncommon for users to record an 8-10% increase in efficiency, even when adding our oil to the best claimed oils on the market (Mobil1, Schaeffer’s, Royal Purple, Lucas, you get the idea). In fact, many users take it to the next level of savings and buy the oil they find on sale at the parts store that still meets OEM specifications and add our Golden Eagle Oil. This total cost using oil on sale with our oil @ 10%, is a lower total cost and outperforms buying the expensive performance oils.
Not a believer? Contact us today to be a field tester. Once qualified, we will pay for your oil analysis before and after adding our Golden Eagle Oil. Logging your MPGs per fuel tank (hand calculate by taking the total miles driven per that tank and dividing by the total gallons to refill the tank) will provide your increase in MPGs. As a last note, our Golden Eagle lubricity package can be used in engines, transmissions (except CVT), differentials, gear boxes, fuel pumps, and other hydraulic systems such as power steering.
