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Motor Oil University Final Exam

question 1 While starting up your car at 75°F, mid-winter in Florida, which of these synthetic oils provides the least startup resistance, minimal battery and starter motor load? [A. 0W-20] [B. 0W-30] [C. 0W-40] [D. 0W-50] [E. They are all exactly the same] The correct answer is A- 0W-20 The correct answer is A- 0W-20 […]

Glossary

There are a number of terms and their definitions used in the various articles that are contained here. Additionally, this page serves to marshall many of the other more common terms and acronyms relating to the petroleum industry and to lubricants. Click each letter to open terms.  A AAMAThe American Automobile Manufacturers Association (AAMA) is […]

Motor Oil University Mid-Term Exam

At normal operating temperature, 212°F, a straight 30 grade oil has a viscosity of how many centiStokes? A. 3 B. 6 C. 10 D. 20 E. 30 The correct answer is C- 10 cS The correct answer is C- 10 cS While racing at 95°F, mid-summer in Florida, which of these synthetic oils gives the […]

Motor Oil 201 – Chapter Ten – The Graduate

I am going to bring up the constant flow pump concept. First, it goes back to the principal that doubling the pressure of the same grade oil does not exactly double the flow but it is close. Also doubling the RPM for the same reason does not exactly double the flow but again it is […]

Motor Oil 109 – Chapter Nine – Let’s Start Over

We have seen that 0W-30, 5W-30, 10W-30 and straight 30 grade oils all have the exact same viscosity at 212° and 302°F. What about startup viscosities? Do 0W-20, 0W-30 , and 0W-40 all have the same viscosity at a 75°F startup. The answer is no. The SAE J300 standard allows for this discrepancy. Here are […]

Motor Oil 108 – Chapter Eight – Odds And Ends

I have some stories that I collected. First, my architect drives a big SUV. He was running with Mobil 1 brand 15W-50. He changed it to Pennzoil Multi-grade (mineral oil based, non-synthetic, cheap) 5W-20 at my suggestion. His gas mileage went from 10 to 13 MPG around town. What really impressed him the most was […]

Motor Oil 107 – Chapter Seven – What Is The Terminology From SAE And API?

Many think that the “W” in 10W-30 means “winter”. Two series of viscosity grades are defined in Table (1): (a) those containing the letter W and (b) those without. Single viscosity grade oils with the letter W are defined by maximum low temperature cranking and pumping viscosities and a minimum kinematic viscosity at 100°C. Single […]

Motor Oil 105 – Chapter Five – It is more complicated than you thought.

Engine oil today is much more than just the viscosity grade. For an introduction to engine oil, learning the viscosity grades and how they relate to each other is an excellent place to start. That is what we started with in Chapter 1-4. An engine oil has to perform many functions in the engine and over […]

Motor Oil 104 – Chapter Four – Conventional vs Synthetic Oils

So far, we have been talking about engine oils in a very general sense, focusing mostly on the viscosity/temperature relationship and how this has changed to include a complex mixture of base oils and viscosity modifiers. But we also need to talk about some of the differences between Synthetic Oils and Conventional oils. We will […]