[TR] 20-50 oil

Michael Porter mdporter at dfn.com
Tue Mar 15 01:28:45 MDT 2016


On 3/15/2016 12:25 AM, Randall wrote:
>> What are the lists feelings about
>> Quaker State 550038310 Advanced Durability 20W-50 Motor Oil.
> I had some serious problems with Quaker State oils many years ago.  The viscosity improver would break down in just a few thousand
> miles, leaving the oil almost as thin as water and a thick ugly layer of sludge in the bottom of the pan.  (Literally had to scrape
> it out with a putty knife!)  It also allowed sludge to build up inside the rocker shaft, which could eventually block the oil to the
> front rockers.
>
>

I have a slightly different hypothesis about Quaker State, based on some 
non-automotive experience.  Back in the late `70s, I worked for one of 
the few independent foreign auto shops in W. Mich.  There were two 
elderly women, both retired schoolteachers, and both with relatively new 
Honda Civics... and they had a bit of competitiveness about them which 
extended to their cars.  One decided she wanted to use only Quaker 
State, having been suitably impressed by their advertising, I suppose.  
Within six months, the engine was larded up with sludge--everywhere.  
Shortly after the first changed to Quaker State, the other found out and 
demanded the same.  She, too, brought her car in for a valve adjustment 
in about six months, and the engine was loaded with crud.

This lodged in memory somehow, and a few years later, I was working for 
a start-up in Massachusetts which was doing coal-cleaning research.  One 
of the things that I discovered doing that job was that Pennsylvania 
coals were notoriously high in ash content (samples ran, typically, from 
22-30% by weight), and were next to impossible to clean well by physical 
methods, because much of the ash-bearing mineral content was bound 
chemically to the coal, rather than being distinct physical particles 
dispersed in the coal. Recalling the two schoolteachers' Hondas, it 
seemed possible to me that the same soil geology in Pennsylvania that 
might have been responsible for the problems with its coal might also 
apply to its oil.  Between gas blow-by and elevated temperatures, the 
mineral content in the oil could quickly become oxidized in the 
crankcase, turning the bound minerals to free mineral oxide solids, and 
if the concentrations were even a fraction of that of the area's coal, 
the detergent additives meant to keep the solids in suspension would 
never have been able to keep up with that weight and volume of solids. 
Once that happens, sludge happens.

Now, this only makes sense if the oil was actually coming from 
Pennsylvania stocks, and in the `70s, it might still have been. Now, 
it's hard to tell (especially with the recent fracking boom in 
Pennsylvania), where Quaker State's feedstocks are coming from.


Cheers.

-- 


Michael Porter
Roswell, NM


Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance....




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