greatest contribution to wear reduction

[bonnie john]

any thoughts on what has been the greatest contributor to wear reduction in IC engines?


i'm thinking along the lines of oil, air filter, and/or oil filter improvements/technology


or could it be to do with better and more accurate machining, better metallurgy and more precise fuel delivery

i think it's a combination of all of the above, but is anyone able to say that 1 thing stands head and shoulders above the rest?


t/y in advance, johnny

 

[427Z06]

If you could eliminate cold starts, you would eliminate ~90% of the wear.

 

[double vanos]

I can remember when, in the 50's and early 60's, a cars engine was considered close to shot when it hit 100k miles...there was the onset of blowby and consumption and a ring job was soon to be in the cards. Just think of any 50's model car brand new only now it's going to get Mobil 1 or Redline synthetic oil instead of the trash that you had to use back then. Anybody care to venture how much more mileaage one could expect to get out of an engine under this scenario? I am going to guess at least 200k. What do ya'll think? Cheers! DV

 

[Big Jim]

I would have to say more accurate fuel controls. Fuel injection gets rid of the severe fuel dilution that existed before.

That said, the materials have greatly improved as have the oils.

 

[Quest]

Echo what B Jim said RE: fuel injection part.

With more high precision fuel delivery and modern lubrication technologies, gasoline 4-cyl engines are less prone to foil ups, blowby, carbon-fouling, lubricant dilution (due to excessive raw fuel introduction during warmups/coldstarts), etc. It is not uncommon for modern engines to last in excess fo 200k miles (typical), and more if proper care and maintenance is to be adhered to.

While cold start wear is still considered to be an issue, this is, by relative terms, less of an issue due to better fuel control during cold starts (less washouts of lubricants in cylinder walls).

One shouldn't focus solely on cold-start wear to their beloved engines, while neglecting all other important aspects in prolonging engine health and longevity (e.g. PCV valve, tune up, proper fuel delivery, oil change, proper cooling system maintenance, etc.) for cold-start wear only attributes to a small fraction of the total wear-n-tear to your gasoline engine throughout it's useful service life.

 

[Clyde65]

There's something about a Toyota engine that seems to where very little. I've looked at some used oil analysis, and the same oil that got high where numbers on one engine, would be next to nil on a Toyota engine.

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Clyde65:
There's something about a Toyota engine that seems to where very little. I've looked at some used oil analysis, and the same oil that got high where numbers on one engine, would be next to nil on a Toyota engine.

---

So? They still have 90% of their wear in startup mode.

No engine gets out unscathed

Fuel management ..by far the biggest contributor, imo.

 

[427Z06]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Quest:
for cold-start wear only attributes to a small fraction of the total wear-n-tear to your gasoline engine throughout it's useful service life.

---

Sorry, but that's just plain false in a properly maintained engine.

But if we take cold-start wear as a given, I would say that improvements in manufacturing to include quality control and materials science, have been the biggest contributors.

 

[dwendt44]

Why newer autos last far longer could result in a long list of small improvements.
Unleaded gas,
MUCH better oils,
improved filtes(oil and air),
improved materials in engine parts,
greatly improved machining processes,
tighter tolerances,
improved engine cooling,
better oil control,
etc., etc..

 

[Clyde65]

Well I'm thinking if you have an oil that remains on the cylinder walls and other various parts after shut down, cold start up wear should be kept to a minimum. Your 5W-20 oils probably drain completey off of everything over night and leave your engine almost dry. You guys can't tell I'm biased against 5W-20 oils can you?

 

[DJStillman]

Even VALVOLINE 5w20 oil??

Boy, turn on your own kin...!

 

[Clyde65]

quote:

---

Originally posted by DJStillman:
Even VALVOLINE 5w20 oil??

Boy, turn on your own kin...!

---

Yeah I wouldn't do it. I'd start out with 5w30 for break-in for the first 10,000 miles, then go up to 10w30 until 75,000 miles, then straight to 10W-40.

 

[BrianWC]

What's the difference between the 5 and 10W30's?

 

[Clyde65]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BrianWC:
What's the difference between the 5 and 10W30's?

---

Man you're just all over me the morning aren't you?

10W-30's have a little bit higher viscosity at 40C then most 5w30's. While that is not necessarily a good thing, the trade off is that sometimes a 10w30 will be a little more shear stable than a 5w30.

 

[BrianWC]

I've just never seen so much thick, thick, thick posting at once. Don't get me wrong, I have a LOT of 10W40 but I can't honestly say it's the best thing for all occasions. If you've done a proper job taking care of your engine, who's to say you're going to even need to bump up the viscosity?

 

[Clyde65]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BrianWC:
I've just never seen so much thick, thick, thick posting at once. Don't get me wrong, I have a LOT of 10W40 but I can't honestly say it's the best thing for all occasions. If you've done a proper job taking care of your engine, who's to say you're going to even need to bump up the viscosity?

---

Well from what I've seen in some of the used oil analysis, the 10w40 conventionals are shearing down to a 30W after 3000 miles anyway. Whether or not these Dinos are designed to shear on purpose, is still up for discussion.

 

[TooSlick]

I'd say improvements in metallurgy, better control of tolerances, improved dynamic balancing of components, fuel injection and better elastomeric seals for engines.

I haven't seen a huge improvement in OEM air/oil filters over the past twenty years, they still tend to be cheap, throwaway items.

Conventional oils do have better, Group II/III basestocks and improved additive chemistries. The main benefit here is reduced deposits, which is what kills engines prematurely.

TS

 

[LargeCarMan]

If you want it narrowed down to one item...that one improvement is......


Improvement in oil!

 

[buster]

I agree with TS. Being that I drive a lot, I chose an engine that shows very low wear. Toyota and Honda both produce some of the lowest wearing engines I've seen. Whether or not this really plays an impact on engine longevitiy I don't know, but I would think that it does.

I think improvements in metallurgy are probably the biggest reason engines today are lasting longer than ever. I believe it was J.D. Powers who said that today's engines are averaging 150,000 miles. (could be wrong with the source). Oil filtration is also very important.

 

[Ron AKA]

I would suggest two things:

1. Quality control - and this was clearly driven by the Japanese both in motorcycles and autos. They made the rest of the industry look real bad - especially the British, and even the German stuff. Fortunately they embarrased most of the rest of the industry to up their standards. It is now the German vehicles which are being rated the poorest by Consumer Report surveys.

2. Oil Quality - which in recent years has been driven by the big automakers in the US and Japan. This was implemented through the ILSAC standards, currently at GF-4 with GF-5 in the works. The oil industry has whinned, complained, dragged their feet, and in the end very reluctantly complied. It's now the Europeans that are sucking the hind tit in this area now.