Engine oiling is an often-overlooked subject. The way an engine receives its oil and the type of oil it demands drastically affect the longevity and efficiency of its performance. Other factors, such as temperature, volume, and blueprinting can make a difference in the life span of various internal, engine-related parts. To find out more about this subject, we contacted some of the top lubrication companies in the business to find out what it takes to build a high-performance oiling system.
The viscosity of an oil is...
The viscosity of an oil is measured by the amount of resistance to flow it generates at a given temperature.
Colors, Weights, Blends, and More
Motor oil comes in a variety of weights and blends to aid in various engine environments. Sometimes it comes in colors, too. Why? Coloring motor oil is one way for manufacturers to brand their oils. Royal Purple found its name by originally supplying a large commercial customer with its high-endurance brand of heavy-duty oil featuring a standard yellow color. According to legend, Royal Purple's oil outlasted other competitors' oils, saving this particular customer thousands of dollars. But one day, a mechanic mistakenly used a competitor's oil. This caused many of the industrial engines to fail making for a costly error. The owner of the large commercial plant and the head of Royal Purple got together to make a purple oil that could not be mistaken for another oil. Ever since, Royal Purple has branded itself the purple oil manufacturer.
To discuss improved engine oiling, we must first cover the basics about engine oil itself. We put in a call to the Royal Purple engineers and found out a few interesting facts relating to temperature, weight, and viscosity. Oil originates from two basic sources. On one hand, there is crude or conventional base-stock oil that is a natural, earthly substance manufacturers can extract and refine into a usable product. This method is the most cost effective, but the oil will always have traces of chemical impurities no matter how well it is refined. Oil can also be produced using technology that allows engineers and scientists to combine various chemicals to build their own synthetic base stocks. With a 100 percent pure synthetic base stock to work from, additional chemically designed polymers can be mixed and matched to develop multiple products of varying blends and grades at various price ranges. While synthetic oil is more costly, it offers improved features conventional oils cannot.
When discussing engine oil, the weight of a product is the most common way to differentiate various grades. The Royal Purple engineer offered one rule by which this subject should be held: The viscosity of an oil is measured by the amount of resistance to flow it produces at a given temperature. This means that a thick, honey-like substance will flow through an engine more slowly than a thin, water-like substance. The thicker oil can handle harsher conditions but is limited in its ability to lubricate properly at low engine temperatures; a low-viscosity oil flows more easily at low temperatures but will be limited at higher temperatures. That said, we can break down the usefulness of a standard-blend 10W-30 motor-oil designation.