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Infomercials

There’s a lot of interest in those lubrication additive infomercials we’ve been seeing on TV, lately. That’s great! It shows the interest and concern that consumers have for their equipment.

These products generally fall into 2 categories. Chlorinated Materials and PTFE as the active ingredients. Chlorinated Materials are the latest entry into the market.

The following review on how engine crankcase oils are formulated will help enlighten most users.

Engine crankcase oils are formulated in such away that they conform to defined specifications and perform at a certain minimum level of performance standards under a range of conditions throughout a predetermined service life.

The service life is generally predetermined to favor the lube blenders, i.e, oil changes are a must after a brief period of time.

The lubricating industry, in formulating lubricating oils, adopts a philosophy which they call “balanced formula”. This philosophy advocates the protection of the oil with a preset level of additive package. It is the oil that protects the engine from friction, wear and tear while the additive package is meant largely to protect the oil from degradation. This philosophy also assumes a largely hydrodynamic lubrication condition for the engines.

The “balanced formula” is a pre-calculated quality of additive package which is just enough to be consumed within a given mileage or time frame. The rationale is that when any of the additives in the package are depleted in the normal course of the engine operation, the oil has to be changed.

Thus, after the predetermined service life of the engine crankcase oils is reached, the effectiveness of the standard additives incorporated into the conventional lubes starts to degenerate. When the effectiveness of a standard additive package expires, the oil starts to break down and oxidize.

Oil oxidation results in formation of gums and resinous materials that block oil filters and increase the viscosity of the oil to undesirable levels. This condition is worsened by the degradation of the long chain Viscosity Index (VI) improvers that contribute to sludge formation. Dispersant additives lose their dispersing property, allowing particulates and contaminants in the oil to settle in the crankcase and tend to agglomerate, ultimately blocking oil filters. Sulfur compounds in the fuel that oxidize and seep into the crankcase turn into sulfuric acid on contact with water. Water is always present in oil, due to condensation and contamination.

All this leads to an inevitable oil change to protect the engine. And, as mentioned earlier, the formation of engine crankcase oils is such that the oil change is frequent enough to favor the lube blenders and additive package suppliers.

How do chlorinated paraffins work as oil additives? Chlorinated paraffins react with ferrous materials under high pressure to form ferric chloride complex films. It’s these films that form a smooth coating on ferrous materials with a property of reducing friction between sliding ferrous materials.

Some compounders claim that their chlorinated paraffin-based formula hardens metals by impregnating it. This has no theoretical and factual basis. Their own demonstrations would prove that there is no metal impregnation, as the films can be removed by abrasives, such as sandpaper.

Despite the capability to provide extreme pressure lubrication, oil companies and engine manufacturers don’t approve the use of chlorinated paraffin-based additives to engine crankcase oils. The reason for this is simple: Under high temperature, and normal typical conditions in an internal combustion engines, Chlorinated paraffins decompose and evolve hydrochloric acids (HCL). Hydrochloric acids are also very corrosive to metals.

  

Moreover, standard motor oil formulations contain ZDDP, a form of zinc compound as the EP, anti-wear and anti-oxidant additive. Zinc catalyzes chlorinated hydrocarbons into decomposition products at lower temperatures. Chlorinated materials attack the additive package.

Non of the actual manufacturers of chlorinated paraffins recommend the use of such materials as engine crankcase oil additives because of the acid corrosion problems.

The official recommended applications of chlorinated paraffins is for use as plasticizers or softeners to caulking compounds and rubber products, flame retardant additives, and as extreme pressure additives in metalworking fluids in open systems.

It is highly unlikely that car racers who recommend the use of aftermarket additives based on chlorinated paraffins know what the ingredients are that are used in such additives. And even if they know, it is doubtful that they know the chemical properties and reactions of chlorinated paraffins under high temperature conditions. Secondly, while they do get the benefit of increased power from less friction due to ferric chloride complex films on the metals, any evolution of hydrochloric acids are taken care of by immediate oil change and engine rebuild, which car racers perform after every race, as a matter of practice and standard procedure.

The testimonials of different industrial and fleet users honestly come from their firsthand experience of actual reduced friction and other results associated with reduced friction. The fact is, chlorinated paraffins are indeed excellent extreme pressure additives. However, if they knew the actual chemical composition of the additives and realized the behavior of such additive under high temperature, it’s doubtful that they would touch the material. This is one of the reasons why compounders of these kinds of additives are very secretive and mysterious about the chemical nature of their raw materials.

PTFE? It doesn’t provide extreme pressure protection; Teflon particles agglomerate and block filters; Teflon particles form thick coatings at high temperature & disturb the tolerances of the engine; Teflon particles tend to settle down and further contribute to sludge buildup in the oil pan.

One other thought on Teflon. What kind of spatula is mandated on Teflon pans? Are your piston rings made of rubber or plastic?

So what’s a person to do? Talk to your oil supplier and or equipment manufacturer. Don’t be fooled by the supplemental aftermarket oil additive hype.