Engine design and oil requirements.

[Truckedup]

A lot of you are quite fussy about the type of oil you uses.Maybe that's a good idea with some engine designs.An example,during WW2 the Germans devoloped usuable jet engines first primarily because they devoloped synthetic oil able to cope with the requirements of the jet engine.They has a shortage of critical materials so they couldn't build the engine around availabe lubes.
So,do you think some or all new engine oiling systems are designed around the properties of modern lubes?If you went back in a time machine to 1968 and bought Valvoline 10/40 oil and returned to pour into the crankcase of a 2010 engine...would engine life be comprmised?
I have two 1999 Jeep Cherokees.Both have the 4.0 inline 6,the basic design going back to the early 60's.I'm thinking this engine should be "easy" on oil being the lubrication and bearing design is 50 years old.And it was made to give a decent lifespan on the old oils.
Any thruth to this you think?

 

[Eddie]

I find your comments interesting Truckeup. I also think that the 10/40 oils of yesteryear were not especially good oil because of reliance on viscosity improver's. While the basic engine design may not have changed much, that does not relate to improvements in piston rings, pistons and other less obvious changes. The German scientists in WW2 were also pursuing the design of oil-less engines using only graphite type bearing.

 

[Truckedup]

The common Chevy small block V-8 makes a good example.Designed in the early 50's to the standards of the day.About 100 million were produced by the mid 90's.But the basic design was unchanged for 40 years.Then comes the LS Chevy V-8 in the late 1990's.Makes more power,weighs less and probably more fuel effecient than the original SBC.Do you think the LS bearing and oiling design was influenced by modern lubes?

 

[mechtech2]

The Germans developed synthetic oils because of extreme winter conditions they faced, and lack of crude oil to make conventional oil.
They were not sitting around waiting with sharp pencils and paper for an oil to be developed .
They were concurrent symbiotic developments.

 

[Truckedup]

I have a lot of material on WW2 aircraft engines.Jet turbine temps were a big problem with the exisitng oils.The USA thinking of the time was to lower engine temperatures by design.Being the Nazi's had a real problem with the Aluminum Overcast of American and Brit bombers,plus advancing Allied troops,as you say ,they had little time to **** around with dull pencils.So that is a good example of designing an oil to an engine design.Where the American thinking was to design the engine around the oil available.
In the end the record shows American mass production learned from the automobile industry simply overwhelmed all else.