hondakiller

iTrader: (3)

http://www.physorg.com/news105631137.html

I found this interesting but I'd like to hear what some of you guys think. I'd especially like some input on the claim that swapping to this oil would yield 4-5 percent gains in fuel economy. That's huge when you think of all the fuel that could be saved all over the U.S.

1 FMF

iTrader: (1)

> claim that swapping to this oil would yield 4-5 percent gains in fuel economy.

you could substitute your motor oil with many different fluids and gain 4-5% in fuel economy based on lubricity. It's a feel good article from a very immature standpoint. Lubricity is one thing... viscosity, film thickness, shear stability, oxidation resistance and high temp characteristics (all the real world stuff) are not even mentioned. So to make a claim of swapping to this oil as being a good thing seems a little far fetched.

I'll admit i'm taking this out of context a little, but a lot of additives go into making current motor oil resistive to becoming acidic, which is what basically allows for your 3000+ mile oil change interval. Formulating a motor oil with boric acid doesn't give me a warm fuzzy, I know I'm ignoring a lot of would be chemistry. Then again, they tout claims of conservation but if you take a real world perspective, what happens when you run motor oil for 1000+ miles? You have wear particles, combustion blow by, and water in your oil. These 3 things I would think would automatically cancel out any lubricity increase achieved via nano boric whatever. Maybe a 4-5% increase in fuel economy for the first 10 hours of the oils' life, after that it's a guess.

snake charmer

iTrader: (118)

Race teams use oil that is about as thick as water but of course these engine only have a purpose of running a few hundred miles tops in their life .

heavy6.0

iTrader: (69)

that article definitely leaves alot to be desired, just the introduction of carbon to a lubricant causes break downs of viscosity and lubricity.

3.4camaro

iTrader: (1)

or in pro stock or top fuel, several miles, MAYBE. Some of the teams swap engines every pass.

deadlift

1 FMF nailed it

edcmat-l1

iTrader: (10)

Top Fuel engines contaminate the oil so bad, they warm the cars in the pits, then change the oil before they make a pass.
Pro Stock motor oil is some top secret ****.

gun5l1ng3r

Do you guys really think that this is snake oil?

What exactly is in the current additive packages in motor oils?
Would it be that hard to add some of this nano-boric acid if it does really reduce friction...

2002_Z28_Six_Speed

iTrader: (19)

The exhuast coming from them is so dark when idling. Surely, there is some leakage with those HP rating, too.

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

or it could be raw nitro.......

RoDan

Nitro and alcohol breaks down oil, it turns this soupy color. They have to use specially formulated oil to hold up to that abuse.

1 FMF

iTrader: (1)

first, it's not oil. not yet anyway, so it doesn't even deserve to be called snake oil. It's a theory in the works and a generalization is made that hey, we found this substance and it's really slippery, more slippery than teflon, so let's add it to motor oil and increase fuel economy


the bread and butter of additives in motor oils is ZDDP, zinc dialkyl di-something phosphate. It's an anti-wear + detergent additive, and not really so much as a friction reducing additive. It's concentration is being reduced because of the belief the P poisons the catalytic converter. It is being replaced or complemented with boron based additives, and I think they have some friction reducing characteristics but don't go thinking they are related to nano whatever was described in the article. And there's a host of other additives: dispersants, detergents, viscosity improvers, and some which are soley for the purpose of friction reduction, but I don't know any of their chemical compositions or names without looking them up.

It isn't that hard to add anything to motor oil, but like I tried to point out that's a generalization. If you consider real world implications, any benefit of nanocrap for reduced friction would probably be negated after 100 hours of use due to wear particles, dirt, blowby, moisture, and oxidation and nitration of the oil. That goes pretty much for any additive, unless you only want to run the oil for 5-10 hours then change it.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/09/prolong.shtm
this reminds me of that additive called Prolong, which claimed everything from reduced friction, wear, increased economy and horsepower. The FTC went after them, my understanding is their product was nothing more than light viscosity mineral oil. In truth if you add it to your typical motor oil it will reduce the viscosity which in turn will reduce friction, increase economy and show an increase in horsepower. However, the whole truth is that the mineral oil also diluted the motor oil and had a detrimental effect on it's additive package reducing the oil's life span. After x amount of miles there was increased corrosion along with increased wear.
This is also like adding ethanol to gasoline to save the world- let's add 10% ethanol to reduce our dependance on foreign oil but ignore the fact we now get less economy with 10% ethanol because of it's lower energy content and it takes more energy to produce and distribute the ******* ethanol.