What happened to Arco graphite motor oil?

Gee, I dont know, I just bough some ... 30 years ago
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I think there were agglomeration problems as the oil aged, even though the microfine graphite was freely passed through filters when fresh.
 
Originally Posted By: IntegraVT
You can still find cans of the stuff at garage sales and on eBay... div>


Oh! It is actually motor oil.......lmao
 
It was not visually appealing.
It was expensive to make.
Various form of moly can work well, but graphite caused problems.
 
I remmember cases of this stuff at a gas station(a Arco station) and I was going to buy some and the owner of the station told me not to put it in my car, it finds every leak. I remmember seeing it, it was dark gray and looked terrible, I would say the visually not appealing look is why it wasnt all that popular. The only bad thing, I heard about it was that it caused leaks.
 
At the time it was on the market, there were plenty of other horror stories about it, worse than leaks. Some people claimed it made the valves stick and clatter. I bought my first car in 1970. I think it was on the market at about that time.
 
Originally Posted By: IntegraVT
You can still find cans of the stuff at garage sales and on eBay... div>


Wonder what a VOA would look like?
 
The crystalline structure of graphite is bad for motor oil. It's like a plate. The plate "top and bottom" sides are good, smooth surfaces. The bad part is the edges which are relatively sharp or coarse. Not good, which is likely one of the reasons it was dropped.
Molybdenum is similar, but doesn't have that problem, making it better for engines.
I'm sure the black color freaked some out. I used it in my 69 Z/28 until my father told me why I shouldn't. He's a world renowned geophysicist, so I took him at his word. He specialized in high-pressre, high-temperature geochemical research. I still thought it was cool though. But a bugger to get off of your hands and concrete.
 
Originally Posted By: itsalex
and why? didn't work? or didn't sell? I know it was black....


There appeared to few benefits.

The graphite was in suspension, not solution, and tended to agglomerate over time.

Graphite, which is an allotrope of carbon like diamond, was thought to be an effective lubricant due to the loose interlamellar coupling between sheets in the structure. It turned out that in a vacuum environment (such as in technologies for use in space) graphite is a very poor lubricant.

This led to the discovery that graphite's lubricity is due to adsorbed air and water between the layers, unlike other layered dry lubricants such as molybdenum disulfide. In short, it didn't do much.
 
Originally Posted By: IntegraVT
You can still find cans of the stuff at garage sales and on eBay... div>
I have one of those spouts, it is in like-new condition too! Got it given to me by a guy who was going to throw it out.
 
Originally Posted By: itsalex
and why? didn't work? or didn't sell? I know it was black....
Thanks Alex


This stuff was horrendous. Turned to a tar like goo in the engine and left a cottage cheese consistancy sludge like build up in the pan and on parts. I tore apart a 318 that had run exclusively on that crud( 3k OC's religiously )and it was a nighhtmare. It took me forever to clean the parts up.
 
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I used it primarilly as an "additive" one pint/five-qt sump. You could read the dipstick right off the bat - that was it's only benefit I noticed (On a 455 Buick engine). A lot of folks changed their oil when it got dark brown or black - they lost that visual indicator with the Arco Graphite. I worked as a mechanic at an ARCO station in Chelmsford, MA; It was called Andy's Arco. Its a Shell station now, I think.
 
It was a response to Mobil 1. Once Mobil 1 came on the scene Arco stepped up with their offering. It was obviously too quick a response, as was Mobil's in that they had to withdraw the first evolution from the market and replace it.


Anyone ever hear of Molyfleet? It too came out quickly after M1's introduction. Without knowing any better, it could have been rebadged Acro Graphite. They had a sponsored funny car going around promoting it.

It went away rather quickly.
 
What killed Arco Graphite was the color not the performance ,it exceeded all car makers warranty requirements at that time. People couldn't get use too putting black oil into there engines.
 
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Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
That sounds like a bad PCV system - not the oil problem.


Mechanic who helped me with the rebuild( was my 1st car )said it was a common issue with the oil.
 
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