It’s important to change
your engine oil at regular intervals, in general, the older the vehicle, the
more often the motor oil should be changed. However, have you often wandered
what the numbers and letters on the containers signify?
Why your
engine oil needs regular changing?
Engine oil lubricates the metal surfaces of your
car’s engine. Without proper lubrication, friction buildup causes the parts to
grind together and tear apart during the transfer of heat from the combustion
cycle. Oil also helps clean away the chemical by-products of the combustion
process and minimizes oxidation. Throughout this process, it becomes dirty and
thins out, and needs regular replacement.
What the
numbers and letters mean?
Motor oil is divided into three types: fully
synthetic, semi-synthetic and mineral (standard) oil. 5W-30 motor oil, for
instance is a semi-synthetic blend. The number before the W is the “cold”
viscosity rating of the oil, while the latter number is the “hot” viscosity
rating. The lower the cold number (W stands for “winter”), the easier it is for
your car’s engine to turn over when you attempt to start the car in cold
climates.
• Mineral oil is generally the cheapest.
• Standard motor oil is effective at protecting
your engine and it’s also cheaper than semi-synthetic and synthetic oil.
However, it must be changed more often, as it becomes dirty and thins out more
quickly.
• Semi-synthetic motor oils are derived from
standard oil.
• Semi-synthetic motor oil is closely related to
standard mineral motor oil. Semi-synthetics are primarily made of
polyalpholifins, which comes from “the purest part of the mineral oil
refraction process.” Thus, semi-synthetic can be mixed with standard motor oil
without causing the car’s engine to seize.
• Pure synthetics for heavy gearboxes.
• Pure synthetic oils (aka polyalkyleneglycols)
are most often used for industrial purposes in vehicles with heavily loaded
gearboxes. It’s high-performance stuff. Finely tuned via molecular
recombination, fully synthetic motor oil cannot be mixed with other oils.
• Go with quality, lightweight oil.
• Choose engine oil that meets the demands of your
environment. Modern engines function well with lighter, thinner oils.
It is very clear that synthetic oils have a greater edge
over regular oils. Then why not completely move over to man-made oils? The
reason is regular oil also has its benefit. On a new engine the design is not
100% neat and smooth. There are lots of irregularities. When using regular
oils, it helps in smoothing the surface quickly because of the non-uniform
molecular size when compared to synthetic oils. The other important thing
is that if your engine is a very old model one, it might not
work very well with Synthetic oils. So you will happy using
conventional mineral oil there.
Source:
wiki
oilchangeadvice
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