Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Quote:
As for ZMax if the iron ore is somewhat porous motor oil will soak in also. It does not take some sort of 'magic' properties of ZMax.
Cast iron and steel are refined from iron ore and yes, oil can soak (street term), the proper scientific term being "migrate," into porous surface rust and carbon but it does not go below the surface.
I thought we had a break through, but I guess not. Yeah, 'soaks into metal' is a street term (or advertising term) to which Molakule is determined to apply a guaranteed-to-fail test.
Originally Posted By: Dr Richard Shalvoy / Arch Analytical Services
The results obtained using the Cast Iron specimens revealed that absorption of the zMAX had been shown based on the following three findings: (1) the initial releasing of material (i.e. zMAX) from the specimen occurred after placing the specimen into the high vacuum chamber. This releasing caused the vacuum to decrease as long as the specimen remained in the chamber and was not observed for the control specimen. The fact that zMAX has an effect on vacuum pressure is indeed further evidence that it has indeed penetrated the metal specimens. (2) Examination of the surface revealed a significant and increasing C signal during the hour required for analyses. This again was not observed for the control specimen. (3) The amount of C detected below the specimen’s surface (i.e. detected by depth profiling) displayed a significant increase in the level of C over that measured for the control specimen.
Comparative tests of zMAX by itself and in blends with commercial SAE 5W-30 engine oil as well as the engine oil itself revealed that zMAX by itself and when blended with the engine oil, penetrated both types of metals far deeper than engine oil alone. Although it was not possible to precisely quantify the difference in penetration depths between the engine oil, and engine oil with zMAX, measuring the percent C by AES revealed the presence of zMAX in the engine oil resulted in a 82% greater penetration (i.e. % C for engine oil alone was 27% versus % C for engine oil with zMAX was 49%). This ability to soak into metals is the key t zMAX’s effectiveness.
I guess that increased C below the surface got there by magic. Only in Molakule's world does oil remain on the surface of cast iron. It is unclear why he is so obsessed with this single issue. Molakule correctly observed that soaking into metal (or not) has nothing to do with lubrication, which does occur at the surface.
Regardless, oil soaks even better into aluminum - aluminum pistons, for example.
Originally Posted By: Dr Richard Shalvoy / Arch Analytical Services
The majority of the analyses were performed using the Cast Iron specimens as the Aluminum Alloy specimens because of their greater porosity apparently retained higher levels of absorbed material that tended to prevent any measurement using AES
In light of Molakule's scientific observation above (or was it just a lucky guess?) soaking into aluminum might seem equally useless. However, if you are planning to disassemble and de-carbon an engine, it will make your task much more pleasant if you run MMO in the oil and fuel for a week... or a month... in advance of the tear down. If you do that, you should be pleased with how clean and carbon-free are internal parts - particularly piston crowns and aluminum cylinder heads. You could eat your lunch off the deck! This is no small matter - de-carboning heads and pistons is a PITA, and, in the case of pistons, a single slip with a scraping tool can turn an expensive piston into a desk ornament.
This 'soaking into pistons' may have limited consumer appeal, since most consumers do not tear their automobile engines down each weekend. But there is one group of people who do exactly that: professional racing teams with sizable budgets. A team owner is not interested in paying a world-class mechanic to de-carbon a piston or cylinder head, if this chore can be avoided. Enter Zmax.
It is no accident that Carroll Shelby, Harry Miller and Fred Offenhasuer all used Zmax in their racing engines, which engines, taken together, dominated American racing for 'half a century. Zmax may not have given them better mileage, and it is doubtful that that their engines suffered from sludge issues, but adding Zmax meant the engines would be very clean and carbon-free on tear-down, which occurred quite often - weekly, daily, overnight. MMO does the same thing, and it's cheaper.
Fred Lencki was a personal friend of Millar, Shelby and Offenhauser - maybe that's why they chose Zmax over MMO. And, Zmax is very pure - nothing but mineral oil. MMO has other things in the mix. Who knows? From first-hand experience, this same phenomenon works on cast-iron cylinder heads as well, although cast-iron haeds aren't as damage-prone as aluminum.
In an earlier thread, Molakule seemed to grasp that Zmax's main utility had something to do with cleaning and removing engine deposits. Add to that, preventing the deposits from forming in the first place, by soaking into aluminum pistons - sort of like trying to paint on the oil soaked piece of metal.
Or, perhaps Shelby, Miller and Offenhauser go onto Molakule's list of non-technical boobs who depend on innuendo and pseudo-science. They will be in good company, along with the FAA, FTC, Federal judge in North Carolina, your grandmother with her cast-iron skillet, the painter [or welder] trying to paint [or weld] on oil-soaked metal and everyone else who disagrees with Molakule.
