Is engine oil most important in your vehicle..Explore!
We all often don’t think of
changing the engine oil in our car or even don’t consider engine oil as the
most important part of our car. Most of you agree with me. Am I over emphasising
the importance of engine oil? But i think once you go through this article you
will be more vigilant in changing and using the correct engine oil in your car.
Did I say correct engine oil???
Why
should I be aware of engine oil?
Check this video and
pictures and decide your self...
Video 1: Experiment without engine oil (extreme situation)
Video 2: What happens when engine oil is not changed: a look
Maruti Swift Vxi Valve Train Assembly after 10000 Kms (Engine oil Unchanged)
 |
| Piston Failure due to inadequate engine oil |
 |
| Maruti 800 cylinder Head : Use of less quantity and inferior engine oil |
After analysing picture and
videos, I am sure that you will be tempted to know more about the engine oil and
its importance starting with what is engine oil?
What
is engine oil?
It is the blood line of the
vehicle and is analogous to the blood in our body. Of course, they are not the
energy carriers but yes they carry deposits formed in the engine due to
incomplete combustion, preignition, local high temperature conditions in
suspended form once removing those deposits from the engine. Not only deposits
but they are major carriers of the heat that your engine generates when you
drive your car at high speed or high load conditions. Engine oil contains
chemical components as their major ingredients to absorb and sustain high temperature and remove deposits from the engine.
They are called as dispersants and detergents, mainly formulations of suphonates
salt of magnesium and calcium. Major chunk of engine oil consists of base stock
(mineral oil group 1, 2 3), detergents, dispersants antioxidants and anitwear
chemicals. Antioxidants and Anti-wear help the engine oil to maintain its
viscosity at high temperature but this doesn’t mean that engine oil can sustain
very high temperature even it is degraded or is less in quantity in the engine.
Antiwear additives are used to reduce the wear of engine cylinder, liner and
other parts of engine. Znddp is used as major anti-wear additive used in the
engine oil. I have listed some very important components of the engine oil.
Table: Typical Composition of engine oil
Sno
|
Engine Oil Ingredient
|
Function
|
1
|
Basestock
(Mineral Oil or Synthetic) (60-80 %)
|
Base of composition, Lubrication
|
2
|
Dispersants
|
Disperse the deposits
|
3
|
Detergents
|
Remove the deposits from cylinder, Liner,
bearings
|
4
|
Antiwear
|
Reduces
friction and improve antiwear characteristic of the engine
|
5
|
Antioxidant
& Viscosity Modifier
|
Maintains
the viscosity of engine oil at high and low temperatures.
|
Typical distribution of an engine oil
Major Components of the
engine oil
Interesting Query: Can I use engine oil meant for Petol car in CNG version
of the car?
A straight
no...surprised?? I have observed that
most of us are unaware of this. In the previous paragraph I explained about the
composition details of the engine oil and listed important ingredients of the
engine oil. But the dosages of these ingredients are different for different applications.
That is important to note. We have cars in the market that run on both petrol
and cng fuels under different brand names such as Maruti Wagon R, Hyundai.To explain
more, a Maruti wagon R running on petrol (gasoline) will be using different
engine oil than Maruti Wagon R working on Compressed Natural gas (CNG) or LPG (Liquefied
petroleum gas). The car is same but the
fuel is different thus requirement of
the engine oil is different.CNG operated cars have high engine in-cylinder
temperatures than petrol operated cars hence thermal loading is higher in CNG vehicle than petrol.
It means that if you measure the cylinder temperature of engine working on CNG
, it will be higher than that of petrol engine. Reason behind this fact is CNG burns at higher temperature
than petrol hence on combustion generates higher in cylinder temperatures.
What are implications? An inferior engine oil or inappropriate oil will
not be able to sustain higher temperatures in the long run (high KM) that in
turn will increase the thickness (viscosity) of the oil .A thick oil is not
able to flow properly around the engine and thus eventually there is a greater
risk of high engine wear and failure. Further, CNG operated vehicle shows
higher engine wear due to dry characteristics of gaseous CNG. Petrol is liquid
and therefore contributes towards the protection of valve wear but on the other
hand gaseous CNG is dry and thus results in higher valve wear. Valve train wear
results in loss of volumetric efficiency that is , engine will breathe less air generating less power than
the required.
In my example, the requirement
of antioxidant in the gas engine oil is higher in Maruti wagon R (CNG) than Maruti Wagon R (Petrol).
This implies that the engine oil designed for application in gasoline engine is
less effective in CNG operated engine.Using gasoline engine oil will not be
able to prevent the wear efficiently and also sustain the thermal loading in long term.So
next time you go for servicing and if you are using CNG operated car , ask for
engine oil specifically designed for gas engine operations and not for petrol.
In the incoming blogs I will
focus on various available engine oils in the market and there meaning. This will
help in understanding the application of appropriate engine oil in vehicle.In case you have queries you can email automania2014@gmail.com or comment.
