Initial oil weight: 1.000 grams. Oils were heated in toaster oven placed outside. Oils were in aluminum cups with a cutout about halfway up, so venting occurs. See pictures that I will include later. Oils were covered in single, multi-layer aluminum foil to block radiation from coils. Cups were weighed every hour and rotated right. Initial order: Quaker State 5W-40, Torco SR-1 5W-30, Red Line 5W-30 API SM.
Quaker State 5W-40 is the reference oil in this test as it has been in many from the past. The reason for including the very old Red Line oil was curiosity. It could be as old as 2008. It had a slight reddish color which could be indicative of degradation due to time.
Ambient temperature varied from 37 to 43 F. Temperature setting on oven was ~420 F, like in many of my previous tests. However, for the first time, I surrounded the oven’s four sides with cardboard to block the wind. This clearly increased the temperature of the oils, as indicated by significantly increasing the evaporation rate of QS 5W-40, which I have so much past data on. At hour 3, QS’s cumulative loss was 0.071 gm while in two prior tests, it was 0.035 and 0.040 gm. Another effect of this higher temperature is the ratio of the weight loss of QS 5W-40 in the first hour to the average of the remaining hours was roughly double of what it was in previous two tests. My thermocouple was not functioning accurately, so I can’t provide a good reading from that. Clearly, the oils did not autoignite, so that provides an indication of an upper limit of how hot they got. The cardboard surrounding seems to have reduced temperature variation within the oven and across time. In this test I decided to report my Noack estimates, but pay close attention to the caveat shown on that graph. In short, I do not know how accurate the estimates are at this point.
I had high hopes for Torco SR-1 5W-30’s volatility, but it was a disappointment. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0018/3671/2013/files/SR-1_Technical_Data_Sheet.pdf?v=1736450492
This is a viscous 5W-30 with HTHS viscosity of 3.7 cP. Viscosity index is fairly typical 165 and HTHS/KV100 ratio is 0.314 which is fairly high, so it does NOT have a massive VI content and very low viscosity base oils. The volatility is not high enough to make it an oil to completely avoid. I will do testing later on its resistance to forming deposits. That test will include iron and copper pieces in the oil to act as oxidation catalysts along with the aluminum cup itself. It will also be a longer test.
Four hours in this test was abusive enough for all of the oils to start forming degradation product agglomerations. They are what eventually become deposited on an engine surface or trapped by the oil filter. Red Line did the worst in this regard. It had agglomerations that repelled the thin oil film resulting from tilting the cups at the end of the test. This Red Line oil is very old and its result should not be held against it. I think it started out partially degraded. Torco did second best in this regard, with QS doing the best, with slightly fewer agglomerations. You can see them in the pictures. Roughly 4 agglomerations in the QS cup do not show up in the pictures.
Quaker State 5W-40 is the reference oil in this test as it has been in many from the past. The reason for including the very old Red Line oil was curiosity. It could be as old as 2008. It had a slight reddish color which could be indicative of degradation due to time.
Ambient temperature varied from 37 to 43 F. Temperature setting on oven was ~420 F, like in many of my previous tests. However, for the first time, I surrounded the oven’s four sides with cardboard to block the wind. This clearly increased the temperature of the oils, as indicated by significantly increasing the evaporation rate of QS 5W-40, which I have so much past data on. At hour 3, QS’s cumulative loss was 0.071 gm while in two prior tests, it was 0.035 and 0.040 gm. Another effect of this higher temperature is the ratio of the weight loss of QS 5W-40 in the first hour to the average of the remaining hours was roughly double of what it was in previous two tests. My thermocouple was not functioning accurately, so I can’t provide a good reading from that. Clearly, the oils did not autoignite, so that provides an indication of an upper limit of how hot they got. The cardboard surrounding seems to have reduced temperature variation within the oven and across time. In this test I decided to report my Noack estimates, but pay close attention to the caveat shown on that graph. In short, I do not know how accurate the estimates are at this point.
I had high hopes for Torco SR-1 5W-30’s volatility, but it was a disappointment. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0018/3671/2013/files/SR-1_Technical_Data_Sheet.pdf?v=1736450492
This is a viscous 5W-30 with HTHS viscosity of 3.7 cP. Viscosity index is fairly typical 165 and HTHS/KV100 ratio is 0.314 which is fairly high, so it does NOT have a massive VI content and very low viscosity base oils. The volatility is not high enough to make it an oil to completely avoid. I will do testing later on its resistance to forming deposits. That test will include iron and copper pieces in the oil to act as oxidation catalysts along with the aluminum cup itself. It will also be a longer test.
Four hours in this test was abusive enough for all of the oils to start forming degradation product agglomerations. They are what eventually become deposited on an engine surface or trapped by the oil filter. Red Line did the worst in this regard. It had agglomerations that repelled the thin oil film resulting from tilting the cups at the end of the test. This Red Line oil is very old and its result should not be held against it. I think it started out partially degraded. Torco did second best in this regard, with QS doing the best, with slightly fewer agglomerations. You can see them in the pictures. Roughly 4 agglomerations in the QS cup do not show up in the pictures.
