Subject: - OIL
THICKENING
Each month we are getting more and more enquiry’s about oil thickening,
or what I call Viscosity Blow out. This problem is caused primarily
by “soot” or unburned heavy fuel particles passing the rings
and ending up in the crankcase oil. This was common in old fashioned
diesel engines with pre-combustion chambers and therefore indirect injection,
but is now rearing its ugly head in modern direct injected higher revving
diesels fitted to passenger vehicles, both in 2 and 4 wheel drive configurations.
The biggest contributing factor to this problem is that the owners of
these vehicles think they can be driven like a petrol powered car. They
feel that
you should drive a diesel
flat out in order to make it perform. Diesel engines were designed to
“pull” and are happiest when loaded, so there goes another
old wives tale.
When this happens, most people including the so called "experts" often
blame the oil and may suggest you have added an after market additive,
or have not been changing the oil regularly. In the perfect situation
your motor would completely burn the exact amount of fuel to do the
job required of it, (which is the aim of the large motor builders, using
computers etc to change the valve and injector timing, and turbo boost
to govern output), when in reality the fuel input is often governed
by a lead footed driver.
Oil can only take on board as much contaminant as its additive package
is able to handle, and as much as the filtration system is able to remove.
When the oil filter reaches its capacity it will go into "by-pass" mode
and unfiltered oil will circulate through your motor. In my opinion
sometimes you would be better off if you changed the filter in the middle
of the oil change period on these old technology engines, even when
using “better” oil, as the cleanliness of your oil will
govern the working life of your motor.
The solution would be to change your oil and filter the day before it
reaches the end of its usefulness, NOT, the day after and to only inject
enough fuel to do the job on hand. Remember cruise controls apply
more throttle if the resistance to forward motion increases (head wind
or incline). The use of our Upper cylinder Lubricant and Fuel conditioner
will assist you to reach these goals, but you must remember that in
the final assessment it is still up to you.
Happy Motoring Customers!
TOM BIMROSE.
