Interesting Oil Facts #1


oilman

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May 2, 2008
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To kick off Opie Oils new 12 part series of interesting oil facts we thought that we would address the statement “My oil has turned to water!”

Let’s be objective and look at the actual figures involved here, emotional expressions such as ‘turned to water’ just will not do. Engineering is supposed to be a science afterall!

So! Almost all modern jet engines run on 5cst at 100degC synthetic ester oil. Needless to say, some bearings will actually be running at a temperature of perhaps 200degC; so the true oil viscosity in these situations is in fact 1.5cst.

This is really thin, much thinner than any car or bike engine oil even in a race engine.

But is it as thin as water? NO!

At 20degC water has a viscosity of 1.0cst and at 50degC it drops to 0.55cst.

Just for comparison, a 0w-20 oil will have an approximate viscosity of 107cst at 20degC, 32cst at 50degC, 8.9cst at 100degC and 2.3cst at 200degC.

So there you go, it may look like water but it certainly isn’t!

Cheers.
Guy & The Opieoils.co.uk Team
 
If I may add, synthetic oils were used in jet engines long before they were used in cars. Jet engines can't use regular petroleum oils, synthetics are the only things that can hold up. Synthetics are of course superior in our car motors as well.
 
It's to do with their ability to flow at lower temps and withstand more heat at higher temps.

Cheers
Guy
 
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