Posting this in additives because I'm only using canola for top-off at this point.
Some of you might be familiar with my presently underway experimentation with canola in motor oil. Well, I'm about 700 miles into this OCI, 640 miles into the experiment, and here's what I'm seeing so far:
Oil is still fairly light in color; about what I'd normally expect at this point in a typical OCI. Last time I looked at it, it had darkened up considerably but it wasn't uniform and opaque, the darkening was the result of particulate matter in suspension. Tonight, the oil was lighter and more uniform and the particulate was gone (assuming it's in the filter by now). To me, this says the oil was cleaning, not oxidizing; yes, you really can tell from color if you know how to look at it.
Okay, so we're all good with cleaning here. I'll probably pull the VC over the weekend for a set of valvetrain pics, but I don't expect to see much improvement there since it was already pretty clean; putting that out there ahead of time so nobody jumps in to tell my my "before and after" isn't that impressive.
Now for the butt-dyno readout: smoother idle, less noise, smoother and quicker response, more horsepower, and an overall better driving experience. According to my ears, my tires agree with my rectal dynamometer; I'm going to have to ease up on the throttle a bit during takeoff and shifting. I find it very easy to break traction during takeoff, as well as chirp the tires shifting from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd, and that's never been a problem before; I used to REALLY have to rev it and drop the clutch to get that kind of response from this car. Now I have to literally try NOT to break traction.
I'm attributing that to increased compression, which I'm attributing to the freeing of previously-stuck rings, which I'm attributing to the ester content of the canola.
Let's please keep the conversation to alternative lubrication and/or possible causes of the increase in performance I'm seeing. Anyone who wants to complain about butt-dyno analysis, you can wait until this weekend when I post cold, warm, and hot compression numbers. Until and unless those numbers post with no improvement, bite your tongues. And those who aren't satisfied with visual oil analysis, join the club; I'm sending a sample to Blackstone in 2300 miles; you can hold your comments as well. There is no need to bash what I'm doing here, it's my engine, not yours, and I'm already fully aware of the risks I am taking with this line of experimentation.
Some of you might be familiar with my presently underway experimentation with canola in motor oil. Well, I'm about 700 miles into this OCI, 640 miles into the experiment, and here's what I'm seeing so far:
Oil is still fairly light in color; about what I'd normally expect at this point in a typical OCI. Last time I looked at it, it had darkened up considerably but it wasn't uniform and opaque, the darkening was the result of particulate matter in suspension. Tonight, the oil was lighter and more uniform and the particulate was gone (assuming it's in the filter by now). To me, this says the oil was cleaning, not oxidizing; yes, you really can tell from color if you know how to look at it.
Okay, so we're all good with cleaning here. I'll probably pull the VC over the weekend for a set of valvetrain pics, but I don't expect to see much improvement there since it was already pretty clean; putting that out there ahead of time so nobody jumps in to tell my my "before and after" isn't that impressive.
Now for the butt-dyno readout: smoother idle, less noise, smoother and quicker response, more horsepower, and an overall better driving experience. According to my ears, my tires agree with my rectal dynamometer; I'm going to have to ease up on the throttle a bit during takeoff and shifting. I find it very easy to break traction during takeoff, as well as chirp the tires shifting from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd, and that's never been a problem before; I used to REALLY have to rev it and drop the clutch to get that kind of response from this car. Now I have to literally try NOT to break traction.
I'm attributing that to increased compression, which I'm attributing to the freeing of previously-stuck rings, which I'm attributing to the ester content of the canola.
Let's please keep the conversation to alternative lubrication and/or possible causes of the increase in performance I'm seeing. Anyone who wants to complain about butt-dyno analysis, you can wait until this weekend when I post cold, warm, and hot compression numbers. Until and unless those numbers post with no improvement, bite your tongues. And those who aren't satisfied with visual oil analysis, join the club; I'm sending a sample to Blackstone in 2300 miles; you can hold your comments as well. There is no need to bash what I'm doing here, it's my engine, not yours, and I'm already fully aware of the risks I am taking with this line of experimentation.
