Let's talk pre-oiling

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What's the general consensus?

I hear stats like "[significant number]% of wear is on cold startup"; my general understanding is that this is from cranking to equilibrium temperature - i.e. 20 minutes or more.

How much of this wear can be mitigated from the first few revolutions via the use of a prelube pump?

Also, are OEM oil pumps typically installed with an internal check valve to prevent backwards flow/damage from the new oil pump?

Are there any scientific articles on the topic? I see one poster's S2000 with a good wearing engine, albeit with a bypass.

I have a car which I am just having fun with so I don't mind doing the work at all (in fact I would enjoy the project), but just doing my homework first.
 
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I thought I read somewhere that as much as 90% of the startup/warmup wear/oxidation/corrosion is from the warm up phase once the oil is fully flowing. The extra oil viscosity at cold startup protects the engine for those first few seconds while the oil pump is trying to establish full flow. For me, I'd spend more time on pre-heating the oil to 125-150 deg F. if that was an inexpensive option.

A pre-luber than can get most of your entire engine/oil system up to 180 deg F before starting the car could potentially eliminate most of the wear/corrosion. That might take some time though. And even then you aren't going to efficiently warmup the combustion chamber/piston, etc.
 
Most of the wear is cylinder wear from condensation in the combustion chambers as the engine cools, and fuel wash for enrichment on cold start. Pre-lube will do nothing for these conditions.

Pre-lube before first time cold start on a newly rebuilt engine, yeah sure - needed. But for a well broken in motor with a fully developed oil film and AW surfaces in place, not so much ...
 
Older GE/EMD locomotives often have a pre-oiling feature necessary to keep the turbo alive during engine startup due to the type of bearing design utilized.
 
Older and newer EMDs also have "turbo auxiliary pumps" that provide oil to the turbo charger after an engine shut down to prevent the engine oil from cooking, and to cool the turbo.
 
The vast majority of engines that are taken care of out last the vehicle they were installed it. Where the benefits of a prelube could be of benefit is in a little or seasonal use engine but again like a bypass filter set up would the benefit be seen in the ownership of the vehicle.
 
Hey, you wanna keep those engines pristine so when I go the the wreckers to get a nice used one, it's just that - a real nice used one
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
The engine would never wear out if it was pre-lubed each time.
Not necessarily so. The most wear occurs during the warm up cycle. Read BrucLunos post.
 
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I installed a pre-oiler on an old engine... had 375,000 miles on it and I noticed the odometer started to spin backward it was so effective.
 
Going to an electric oil pump would allow pre-oiling, eliminate the need for a pressure relief valve and its waste of energy and be mechanically simpler.

The Prius engine uses a Dewar flask (Thermos) to store hot coolant and later feed it into the cold engine for faster warmup.
This could be done on a non-hybrid too.
 
Originally Posted By: circuitsmith
The Prius engine uses a Dewar flask (Thermos) to store hot coolant and later feed it into the cold engine for faster warmup.
This could be done on a non-hybrid too.


That's actually pretty ingenious, but would obviously only be effective for a number of hours after turning the key off, especially in winter temperatures. Something similar might be an insulated version of those solenoid-controlled tank-style prelube kits.

Maybe it would be worth looking into combining that system with the insulated thermos from a prius (just swap the storage tank) for a warm-oil prelube?
 
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Originally Posted By: Jonzobot
Originally Posted By: circuitsmith
The Prius engine uses a Dewar flask (Thermos) to store hot coolant and later feed it into the cold engine for faster warmup.
This could be done on a non-hybrid too.


That's actually pretty ingenious, but would obviously only be effective for a number of hours after turning the key off, especially in winter temperatures. Something similar might be an insulated version of those solenoid-controlled tank-style prelube kits.

Maybe it would be worth looking into combining that system with the insulated thermos from a prius (just swap the storage tank) for a warm-oil prelube?


Apparently it wasn't worth it and they nixed it on the gen III, I believe (2010+).
 
Running castrol magnatec 0w20 ..they say it will stick to surfaces long after I turn her off. I used to run liquimoly mos2 on the idea it kept a barrier on moving parts. Everything I touched was slick as snot. Running small amounts of Lubegard Biotech and it seems to be working too.
 
I had a pre-lube setup with an electric pump that would get a full 40 psi prior to start up in one of my boats years ago. Could never prove it did anything except make changing the oil easier by pumping the sump out quickly.

No benefits = why do it?
 
BrocLuno said:
Most of the wear is cylinder wear from condensation in the combustion chambers as the engine cools, and fuel wash for enrichment on cold start. Pre-lube will do nothing for these conditions.



Juice your fuel w/TCW-3.
 
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