Would coal (or wood) tar be an acceptable engine oil in a pinch?

[Astro14]

TEOTWAWKI question…

Sure, it would be perfect in one of these cars:

(Insert Mad Max post-apocalyptic car)

 

[53' Stude]

Is this a serious question?

 

[NibbanaBanana]

Yes. I was reading about the history of ship building, and tar making is as old as history. I was wondering if it could be an engine oil? Olive oil and bacon grease work fine as engine lubricants, why not wood tar?

Wood tar was used to lubricate wagon wheels for thousands of years. If kept hot, I don't see why it wouldn't work inside an internal combustion engine.

I don't know about bacon grease, but olive oil like all vegetable oils oxidizes. It turns to varnish the process of which is accelerated by high temperatures. I think Castrol might have had it's origins in caster oil which also oxidizes.

Any of the above will destroy an engine very quickly. Try it.

 

[Aston4]

I don't know about bacon grease, but olive oil like all vegetable oils oxidizes. It turns to varnish the process of which is accelerated by high temperatures. I think Castrol might have had it's origins in caster oil which also oxidizes.

Any of the above will destroy an engine very quickly. Try it.

Plenty of people ran X1/9 Fiats on olive oil in the early 1980s, as was the fashion at the time for SCCA events. Changed out for each race day. Made the air smell amazing. Engine failures were not an issue. Electrics failure intervals were measured in hours to minutes.

 

[kschachn]

Let's say I'm stranded somewhere, oil pan hit a rock. Need oil to keep going. All I have is a pine tree and a big kettle, so I can make tar. If I heat the tar up before pouring it into my engine (Let's say a Camry 2.5 4pot), would the engine heat be enough to keep it low viscosity enough to lubricate my engine? What's the viscosity of hot wood tar? Would this accelerate engine wear much? Is coal tar a superior lubricant as compared to wood tar?

Give it a try and see how it works. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[kschachn]

Plenty of people ran X1/9 Fiats on olive oil in the early 1980s, as was the fashion at the time for SCCA events. Changed out for each race day. Made the air smell amazing. Engine failures were not an issue. Electrics failure intervals were measured in hours to minutes.

Absolutely. And pine tar is remarkably close to bacon grease in terms of HT/HS. I’m sure you’d be fine.

 

[02zx9r rev2]

 

[kschachn]

Oh come on. The guy is stranded somewhere and his oil pan hit a rock. He needs an oil to keep going and all that he has is a pine tree and a big kettle.

Oh and he has some means of fixing the hole. Perhaps a pine plug carved to the exact outline of the hole.

 

[dnewton3]

In theory, this can be solved; some folks have given interesting details about the boiling points of various substances ...



In reality, it's a big stretch to think that the lubricant is the sole limiting factor of success when:

* it's probably an off-road problem which created a hole in the oil pan of a "2.5 4pot" Camry (a known excellent off-road vehicle ). I say this because he stated that the "oil pan hit a rock". The only sensible way to interpret that is that he was rock-crawling in the Camry because the rock was stationary and the vehicle was moving. It could apply to other scenarios ... for example, if the hole was created by a mail truck striking a typewriter (IYKYK).

* Somehow, he has these resources and can easily solve these challenges:
1) first, a high-lift jack to raise the vehicle and remove the damaged pan and replace with a spare pan he carries in the trunk, plus the various socket sets needed ...
2) or maybe he breaks out the brazing gas and torch he has in the trunk and repairs the damaged pan, but manages to not catch the vehicle on fire ...
3) a chainsaw to get sufficient wood for the sourced wood-tar, plus the wood to stoke the required fire to make it (sticking with the off-road theme here) ...
4) the large kettle to boil the wood tar (I'm imagining a kettle big enough to cook Hansel and Gretel in ... I mean ... why not?)

But for some reason he does not have other resources (such as a spare 5-qrt jug of traditional motor oil in the footwell of the back seat ...)

And yet, he's more worried about the vis of the tar, the resultant wear in the engine, and if he should have used coal instead?

 

[goblin]

Had a virtual beer with a friend and discussion as usually drifted to cars, and then this imaginary situation came up.

His take on it was that if push comes to shove, and if we agree that we're in a zombie flight situation and simply have to get a few dozen miles out of there, at non-pedestrian speeds, his take would be to just fill the crankcase with water and cross fingers.

His logic was that while water won't have much lubricating properties, if at all, it will possibly build at least some pressure for some film to form, and will take away some heat.

Plus, it will quickly mix with whatever oil and sludge is left in the engine, transforming it into the usual mayonnaise we see when a headgasket goes bad. Which, in turn, doesn't have bad lubricating properties at all, compared to tar and all the other stuff discussed.

His words were - in most machine shops water has been mixed with oil and used in machining for ages, and the mixture does a decent lubricating job. As long as the engine is not getting revved much, and especially if it's old and crappy enough for the moving parts to have developped excessive gaps, there are even chances of it survivng the adventure - if lucky.

 

[Greenbeforeblue]

I'd love to be at place in life where I'm solving problems I don't have