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The Story With Additives
Many people like to add additives to
already blended oils. So, in light of this, I decided to take a well known
additive in the trucking industry that is used in gear oils and motor
oils. The following is what I did.
| Gear oils used, Schaeffers 267 80w90
blend, on the left, and Pennzoil full synth 80w140 on the
right. |
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| This device is a small variable motor, attached by O
rings to the little small gear in each box. Both boxes are separated in
the middle from each other. There is a speed control on the top which
allows you to vary the speed of the gears turning, like in a rear-end. I
had just drained out all the previous oil and replaced with brand new
fresh oil in both tanks. |
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We now turn on the unit. As you can see, the one on the
right is making a wave but is not climbing the gears. Schaeffers on the
left is climbing. Both are turning by the same motor, same speed and at
the same temp. |
| Now, understandably many do not like the way the full
synth oil is failing to climb the gears like when a truck or farm
tractor is moving slowly at the beginning of take off in the
morning. This is what can cause wear during slow starts because the rear
end uses a splash method instead of an oil pump to lubricate, and since
you're not moving very fast, it would stand to reason you'd want to have a
climbing additive to help offset this during start up. So,
this is where this Lucas additive shows to help improve the climbing and
help this new oil.. Right?, well, lets go on and see how this does. BTW,
take note on the color of the full synth on the right side during this
process. |
| Ok, now we crank up the speed a little and notice
how the gear oil is foaming as you can see the color changing due to air
entrenching in with the 140 gear oil. It also is not climbing any further
than before, one on left is. This does NOT have Lucas additives at this
time. As many know, where air is present, oil isn't so due to lack of
lubrication where the air is, heat will rise |
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Neat stuff!!! I got to admit though, at this time I
wasn't surprised at this outcome. Let's look at a comparison of a
before and after.
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I over layed on top of the before picture the
end results after running the gear oil. Notice the color change due
to the entrapped air bubbles. |
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NOW FOR THE LUCAS ADDITIVE!
| We start it up again and now add in the Lucas
Additive, designed for both engines and gears. This also states
"Use Lucas Oil Stabilizer in gear oil to stop leaks, reduce
operating temperatures and increase the life of the gear oil. Since
it is pure petroleum, it can safely blend with all other automotive
lubricants, even synthetics." OK, I can see this working. |
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| Here it starts to climb...Very impressive and is working
as it should be according to their ad's. Only difference between this
picture and the above is the additive. |
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So now let's add some speed to it and see how it will
hold up under this conditions.
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WOW! This I didn't expect! Notice how it has
frothed up! I will say this, Lucas works. It is causing the oil to
climb as advertised |
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Ok, What happened here? Well, I think I can give you
an answer.
| Notice how the color of the right side has turned
extremely light? That's because of the higher amount of air trapped
in the gear oil. Again, this is the full synth. Why'd this happen?,
Ladies and gent's, oil has antifoamant additives to reduce air
bubbles. In this case, there was not enough Antifoamants to keep the
oil from trapping air with Lucas added to it. |
Also notice how the oil on the right has settled down to
the bottom leaving very little on the gears. This is the PRIME
REASON for not adding in additives into a already good designed oil/
lubricant. Myself, didn't see this coming. It makes perfect sense
what happened and would have thought it would help this oil to
lubricate at startups but instead, it created more problems than it
solved. |
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Now let's try motor oils with Lucas...
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Here I used Schaeffers Supreme 7000 15w40 and
Delo 400 15w40. |
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| Now, to see how it reacts to just plain agitation
we turn on the machine and let the oils run through the gears, like the
Lucas demo displays on the counter tops. Notice, the color, dead give a
way for air in the lubricant, which appears both at this time is doing
quite well and no problem with air. Either one would be good in a Ford
power stroke engine IMO. |
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Now we add Lucas to the Delo 400. |
WOW!, It even makes a good motor oil foam up!
I know, there's no gears in a motor... Really? what about the oil pump?
It's gear driven, also pumps with gears. Ok, Toyota's have gears, boy
wouldn't that be a mess?, Alright, here's the biggy.. What about the Ford
PSD's? The high pressure pump on a PSD (95-97) is
500psi @idle 1200psi@3300 RPM 3600psi @full load acceleration. The HP oil
pump is only used to control the HEUI injectors. It does not lube the
engine, But at these pressures, it foams like a devil. It is then returned
to the sump. So, think the oil is being whipped up any in that? On a PSD,
This runs the injectors and add a little air to that system, Now you
really have problems.
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Well, there you go folks, again, the color shows
where air has been entrapped into the oil, therefore, creating a
problem. |
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