I got my hands on a Timken bearing machine today and had some great fun with it.
"Fun" is the operative word here, this is by no means scientific, so I am NOT professing that I know which oil out of the ones I played with is the best in real life performance - I do know that a car engine and a Timken bearing machine have nothing in common.
The oils I "tested" are just what I had on hand - what is in my vehicles right now (PU 5W20 & MaxLife 5W30) and some samples I had kicking around from the past: Castrol HM 5W30, West Marine 30W marine oil and some Schaeffer 15W40 from a heavy duty mechanic friend.
I have no idea how the difference in viscosities between the different samples plays a role, or not - but again, this is what I had in front of me.
My approach was basically:
Add sufficient amount of oil.
Rest the bearing on the race with no weight on it for 10 seconds.
Slowly applying pressure until the oil had coated sufficiently for me to apply enough pressure to lift the front end of the machine with the handle (without the machine jamming).
Stop and examine the size of the scar in the bearing
Between each test I cleaned the machine with a degreaser and sanded the race thoroughly with sand paper.
The difference was quite startling to me.
Listed with the "winner" at the top and down:
1. Schaeffer 7000
2. West Marine (dino)
3. Pennzoil Ultra
4. Valvoline MaxLife
5 Castol GTX HM
The Castrol was significantly worse than any of the others, and left a big scar.
PU and MaxLife were in a virtual draw, scar in the bearing significant.
West Marine oil coated much faster and left a scar only about half the size of PU an MaxLife
Schaeffer basically coated after the initial 10 second and left a scar so small, it was hardly visible!
I am still rather new around here, but from the UOA's I have read so far, the difference in oil performance in real life engine use does not seem to be nearly as great as the Timken machine seems to indicate, so is there any valuable indication to be found by such "tests"??
What say you oil experts??
Regardless, it is a lot of fun, and I am going to see what other oils I can sample while I still have the machine in my possession over the weekend.
"Fun" is the operative word here, this is by no means scientific, so I am NOT professing that I know which oil out of the ones I played with is the best in real life performance - I do know that a car engine and a Timken bearing machine have nothing in common.
The oils I "tested" are just what I had on hand - what is in my vehicles right now (PU 5W20 & MaxLife 5W30) and some samples I had kicking around from the past: Castrol HM 5W30, West Marine 30W marine oil and some Schaeffer 15W40 from a heavy duty mechanic friend.
I have no idea how the difference in viscosities between the different samples plays a role, or not - but again, this is what I had in front of me.
My approach was basically:
Add sufficient amount of oil.
Rest the bearing on the race with no weight on it for 10 seconds.
Slowly applying pressure until the oil had coated sufficiently for me to apply enough pressure to lift the front end of the machine with the handle (without the machine jamming).
Stop and examine the size of the scar in the bearing
Between each test I cleaned the machine with a degreaser and sanded the race thoroughly with sand paper.
The difference was quite startling to me.
Listed with the "winner" at the top and down:
1. Schaeffer 7000
2. West Marine (dino)
3. Pennzoil Ultra
4. Valvoline MaxLife
5 Castol GTX HM
The Castrol was significantly worse than any of the others, and left a big scar.
PU and MaxLife were in a virtual draw, scar in the bearing significant.
West Marine oil coated much faster and left a scar only about half the size of PU an MaxLife
Schaeffer basically coated after the initial 10 second and left a scar so small, it was hardly visible!
I am still rather new around here, but from the UOA's I have read so far, the difference in oil performance in real life engine use does not seem to be nearly as great as the Timken machine seems to indicate, so is there any valuable indication to be found by such "tests"??
What say you oil experts??
Regardless, it is a lot of fun, and I am going to see what other oils I can sample while I still have the machine in my possession over the weekend.