More on Motor Oil - Long

Posted by Bobby Crumpley on Sep. 22, 1998 at 10:48:49

Last week my friend and fellow Houston club member, Gordon Biggar, asked about detergent vs. non-detergent motor oils in a babbited engine.As most of us are well aware, this has been discussed countless times.At least in our little forum it does not get turned into a bloody flame war (anytime motor oil gets discussed on the BMW list it gets ugly...).Anyway, I’ve done a small bit of research and thought I would share my findings with the group.I called a coworker of mine who is not a lube oil specialist per se, but is a rotating equipment specialist with a good knowledge of lube requirements for both heavy industrial equipment and for automobiles.His Corvette has a 496ci 6-71 blown Chevy engine that he built himself, so he is a fellow hobbyist, even if he does own the wrong brand.Let me also state that we both work for Amoco Oil Company but these views are NOT necessarily the views of Amoco and I’m not in any way speaking for Amoco.

Anyway, back to the oil.He tells me that there is no such thing as ‘non-detergent oil’.What is labeled as ‘non-detergent’ actually has a small amount of detergent but not enough to do much good.What it DOES have however is a dispersant additive that works in a similar fashion to a detergent.Remember, the purpose of the detergent is to wash away any carbon deposits along with the acids that are created during combustion.As these contaminants are washed away from bearing surfaces, cylinder walls, etc... they become entrained in the oil.With no filter it is imperative to change the oil frequently to keep the amount of contaminants to a minimum.So, it looks like the answer, from his and my perspective, is to use the detergent oil, but to make sure you CHANGE IT OFTEN!

As an interesting aside, I learned that none of the different brands of motor oil were compatible with each other until the mid ‘70’s.The reason for this was the additive packages that each brand of oil came with.New cars came with a very small amount of detergent and other additives and, therefore, recommended that you change the oil in your brand new car within 500 miles.I’m told that all major oils today are compatible with one another, so this is no longer an issue.

Gordon asked in his last post about using synthetic oils.Well, if it were MY new engine (and it will be soon), I would use NOTHING BUT synthetic oil from the first fire of the engine.We can talk more about that if anyone is interested...Sorry to ramble on for so long!

Thanks,
Bobby


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