is airspace in oil bottles filled with inert gas?

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bigpaulo

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Is the airspace in quart bottles of oil filled with inert gas to prevent oxidation before it get put in your engine?

I'm doubtful for quart bottles, you can crack the top and let air in/out, but for the 5 quarts jugs that I've bought, they had foil sealed tops.

I'm asking because a PP rebate I'm doing requires UPC codes or bottle rings (didn't buy a case, bought 6 individual quart bottles, so I have to do rings). I'm seriously debating whether I should cut the rings off and not crack the bottles open, I'm not using that oil right away, and want to minimize oxidation of the oil.

Thanks!
 
Dude, I know you have bigger things to worry about!

I did the same with Maxlife; had to send a ring from one of the bottles. That particular bottle sat in my garage for a couple months before I used it. Car still runs, Earth still spins, the sun still comes up in the mornin!

I really really would not worry about it and I seriously doubt virgin motor oil oxidizes to any great degree sitting in a bottle. I also doubt they put some inert gas in there to stop oxidation because it isn't a problem. Think about the oxidation that oil will see once it gets in your engine.
 
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Opening and reclosing the cap should have no ill effect. Storage is more the matter. Keep it above freezing and below about 70F. Still, I have used and Xacto knife to sever the ring and pliers to pull it off, rather than open the bottle. You always could try to add a little methane to the bottle neck before you reclose it though.
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Another option, though likely messy, is to squeeze the bottle until the oil is at the rim, then close it.
 
Motor oil don't spoil and is not fresh produce. If you remove the caps just long enough to pry off the sealing rings for rebate purposes, it'll make NO difference in the oil's lube and protective qualities over your typical OCI. As to whether packaged motor oil is sealed with an inert gas, think. From the blender/bottler's perspective it would be a production nightmare. To be effective, whatever gas would suffice as an anti-oxidant would have to be held at slightly elevated pressure in the bottle once sealed to maintain positive pressure over expected transit temperatures - which in some areas easily drop below freezing. Have you ever decanted a bottle of motor oil and heard even the slightest hissing of escaping gas? (Shoot, half the time when I go oil bargain hunting, I'm lucky if some snot-nosed kid hasn't already gone through the aisles and loosened every cap he could reach - but I usually find out for sure by the time I get home...
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Worst imaginary case, if all the oxygen in the air in a "full" bottle were to be reduced by oxidation of the oil, the net effect would be approximately nothing. There isn't much enough air there to matter.
 
while things like transformer/insulating oils ARE packed under a nitrogen blanket other oils like PCMO and HDEO are NOT, they are not like a wine that will go bad.
bruce
 
Ray H,

If you use a denser than air gas like carbon dioxide, you don't have to monkey with positive pressures at all, just fill the airspace with CO2 and seal it (of course, I'm assuming the bottles are upright when you seal them
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TallPaul,

Your suggestion to squeeze all the air out of the bottle then reseal it ain't a bad one, but over time, the springiness of the bottle will create a "negative" (below atmospheric) pressure and will cause air to be sucked back into the bottle (try it with a 2 liter soda bottle, and you'll make your soda go flat faster than just closing the bottle normally). However, there will be much less air over time exposed to the oil, even if it refills with air in a day or two.

Drew99GT,

Yes, I have way more important things to worry about
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But the fact that they foil sealed the 5 quart jug but not the 1 quart bottles got me to thinking. Purely for my edification, not for any practical reason (no, I'm not going to avoid using any new oil that I opened and then resealed!).
 
Only reason I can think of the foil seals is a leaking problem. if 1 qt leaks, it is only 1 qt of a mess to clean, if a 5(or 4) qt leaks a bigger mess is made. Also, I would think the 1 qt bottles are less likely to leak than the larger ones.
 
You know it would not suprise me to find out that they use a nitrogen purge when bottleing. Even $.35 a bag patato chips get the benifit of a nitrogen purge. If it can oxidize it benfits from removeing all O2 from the cantainer.

I would not recomend loseing sleep thosugh over this topic!!!
 
It takes about 14.7 lb of air to oxidize 1 lb of HC.

If we assume there is 3 fluid ounces of air in the bottle, that's 0.00007 lb of air. That is potentially capable of oxidizing 0.000005 lb of oil.

Oil weighs about 0.06 lb/fluid ounce, so the oxygen in 3 fluid ounces of air is capable of oxidizing 0.00008 fluid ounce of oil. That's about 0.03 drops of oil.
 
If this is any problem, once any oxidation occurs from air... the oxygen in the air will get used up, so there shouldn't be further degradation.
 
When Nitrogen blanket or purge is used with lubes it is NOT for oxidation protection but to keep out moisture. some lube can not have much Nitrogen is used more in drums and tank truck storage tanks not in bottles.
bruce
 
Quote:

When Nitrogen blanket or purge is used with lubes it is NOT for oxidation protection but to keep out moisture. some lube can not have much Nitrogen is used more in drums and tank truck storage tanks not in bottles.
bruce

Click to expand...


and it's probably only to make me feel better, but I usually purge a freshly opened can of POE or PAG refrigeration oil with dry nitrogen before re-sealling.

FWIW, drained some PAG oil out of a car A/C compressor a few weeks back that hadn't been sealed properly. The oil looked like dark beer it was so loaded with moisture......
 
Most oils do not have a nitrogen fill. Some transformer oils and other moisture sensitive oils do.

Opening the bottle and closing it will have very little effect. Might darken slightly, but not much. You could squeeze out the air as mentioned.

I once had a mechanic at a customer that bought oil in 5 gal pails for their pickups. Every time he got to the bottom of the pail, and opened a new one to continue the fill, he called and complained that the new one is lighter than the old one, so why had the formulation changed? He thought he was not getting all of his additives. Often the same batch, bought 2 or 3 pails at a time.
 
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