Motul 8100 0W-40: oppinions and specs?

[MolaKule]

Interesting thread and oil.

From my perspective, this oil has to have a relatively major percentage of Di-ester synthetics since the pour point is so low.

Here is a swipe from Hatco's Web Site:

quote:

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"The alcohols used to make diesters will also affect the properties of the finished esters and thus are important factors in the design process... The alcohols may be reacted alone or blended with other alcohols to form co-esters with their own By branching the octyl alcohol, the other two DOAs exhibit no freeze point tendencies and have pour points below -70°C. The isooctyl adipate offers the best balance of properties combining a high viscosity index with a wide temperature range. The 2-ethylhexyl adipate has a VI about 45 units lower and a somewhat higher volatility. These examples demonstrate the importance of combining the right alcohols with the right acids when designing diester structures and allows the ester engineer a great deal of versatility in his work."

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Bottom line is, this is either a 2-ethylhexyl adipate diester or an isooctyl adipate ester, or maybe a mixture of the two with a PAO. About 40-60% of these blended with a PAO can lower the PP considerably.

[ May 12, 2003, 02:25 PM: Message edited by: MolaKule ]

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

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Originally posted by MolaKule:
Interesting thread and oil.

From my perspective, this oil has to have a major percentage of Di-ester synthetics since the pour point is so low.

Here is a swipe from Hatco's Web Site:

quote:

---

"The alcohols used to make diesters will also affect the properties of the finished esters and thus are important factors in the design process... The alcohols may be reacted alone or blended with other alcohols to form co-esters with their own By branching the octyl alcohol, the other two DOAs exhibit no freeze point tendencies and have pour points below -70°C. The isooctyl adipate offers the best balance of properties combining a high viscosity index with a wide temperature range. The 2-ethylhexyl adipate has a VI about 45 units lower and a somewhat higher volatility. These examples demonstrate the importance of combining the right alcohols with the right acids when designing diester structures and allows the ester engineer a great deal of versatility in his work."

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Bottom line is, this is either 2-ethylhexyl adipate or an isooctyl adipate, or maybe a mixture of the two with a relatively low percentage of PAO.

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Why diesters? Hatco points out that the sole ester used in jet engine oil is polyol ester, and these oils are "expected to flow at -54°C, pump readily at -40°C, and withstand sump temperature approaching 200°C with drain intervals measured in years."

I had been under the impression that diesters are rarely used in automotive oils anymore, and the following quote from Hatco would bear that out: " Polyol esters are also the ester of choice for blending with PAOs in passenger car motor oils. This change from lower cost diesters to polyols was driven primarily by the need for reduced fuel consumption and lower volatility in modern specifications."

 

[MolaKule]

No, di-esters are being used by a number of blenders to lower pour point and reduce the coefficient of friction.

There a number of ways of blending to get the characteristics you want.

For example, one can use 4.0 cSt or 8.0 cST PAO as the base starting oil and add polyol esters for HTHS and volatility specs, and then add some di-esters for lower pour point and friction reduction, then add your enhancing and protection additives. NEO would not consider polyols as the oil of choice; they use Di-esters almost exclusively. Others like Redline use PE or Di-PE polyols almost exclusively. Mobil uses the new TME ester, which has the performance characteristics of both PE polyols and di-esters.

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

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Originally posted by MolaKule:
No, di-esters are being used by a number of blenders to lower pour point and reduce the coefficient of friction.

There a number of ways of blending to get the characteristics you want.

For example, one can use 4.0 cSt or 8.0 cST PAO as the base starting oil and add polyol esters for HTHS and volatility specs, and then add some di-esters for lower pour point and friction reduction, then add your enhancing and protection additives. NEO would not consider polyols as the oil of choice; they use Di-esters almost exclusively. Others like Redline use PE or Di-PE polyols almost exclusively. Mobil uses the new TME ester, which has the performance characteristics of both PE polyols and di-esters.

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Thanks for clearing this up, MK. Your comments tie in well with how Castrol advertised the 0w30 SLX when it first came out, touting its reduced friction characteristics. (They still advertise this attribute, BTW.) Hence, it's safe to infer that the German Castrol 0w30, as well as the Motul 0w40, are both PREDOMINATELY ester based synthetics.

As many have said, UOAs are the way to see how well an oil performs. But there are a lot of things that can be deduced by looking at the specs of an oil, and this is a clear case of that. The pour point of these two oils was the clearest indicator that there is somethng "special" about the base oil used to make them.

 

[Patman]

Another reason I knew Castrol 0w30 was special was when I saw that at 40c it's thicker than most 10w30s, at 68.5cst, but yet when it gets colder out (-35c that is) this oil is thin enough to qualify as a 0w, and it's incredible pour point can't be beat by anything else commonly available.