TESTED - Mobil 1 vs Redline vs Spectro

[buster]

http://www.nortons.dk/doc/lubricants.pdf

Interesting test. Mobil 1 showed the lowest wear, althoug all wear good. Redline showed the lowest oxidation which was an extremely impressive 2%. Boron was noted by the author who claimed an XOM chemist said it was used as a FM.

 

[nicrfe1370]

Great find Buster. That's pretty eye opening and might make me reconsider my usual dis-interest in Red Line. Also, you can be darn sure I won't be using Golden Spectro any time soon!

 

[Johnny]

buster: Where do you find all these things? Nice research and a very interesting article.

 

[fuel tanker man]

I think the author is putting all of his eggs in the wrong basket.

The wear metals are what to look at. Redline, as has become customary, exhibited higher wear metals than usual. The guy seems to incorrectly think that just because oxidation is lower that the oil is protecting the engine better--which obviously isn't the case.

He should have run some good dino oil, say the Pennzoil or Havoline 20W50. I think wear metals would have looked even better.

Do we really care what kind of shape the oil is in if it's allowing the engine to wear beyond what it should?

Redline advocates are long on excuses and short on horse sense when it comes to whether an oil is doing its job. The Redline wear metals were actually noteably higher that with the Mobil 1, making it inferior to that oil--something easily enough seen by all but the most deluded of observers (pedigreed or not

)...

Dan

[ June 13, 2005, 05:04 PM: Message edited by: fuel tanker man ]

 

[buster]

Fully ester based aircraft engine oils supposedly show higher wear metals too, but when torn down, show no signs of wear.

 

[Cujet]

Not true on the aircraft engine teardown statement. Most aircraft engine teardowns show the expected wear and OA history is nearly always in lock step with the observed wear.

We use BP2380 due to the fact that it can be found anywhere. However there are far better and more modern choices available.

I see that the 2380 is nearly unable to provide sufficient lubrication in highly stressed gearboxes. Our EC-135 helicopters both show accelerated bearing wear in the main transmissions.

The thrust bearings in Tay engines are another example of lubrication failure. While the bearing is robust enough to last nearly forever, the lubricant choice makes a difference.

Chris

 

[medic]

Okay, if he tested in the order that the oils are listed, Mobil1 may have been affected by the previous oil and therefore, showing higher oxidation than it should have.

Now, oxidation vs wear metals. If you look at what is right in front of you and don't consider other variables as I did above, what is more important? Mobil1 showed higher oxidation than RedLine but lower wear metals. So, in a 1k OCI, I would also agree that Mobil1 is the better oil. We really can't assume anything about the 3k interval because Mobil1 wasn't tested to 3k.

This only opens the doors to more questions. What happens to the wear metals once the oxidation reaches 100%? If Mobil1 showed an oxidation increase over 3k like Redline did, it would have reached 100% before 2k miles. What would this do to the inside of the engine to continued running with 100% oxidation up to 3k miles? While the RedLine showed higher wear metals to start, Mobil1 wear metals may jump once the oxidation reaches 100%. What about the sludge build up inside of the engine? Mobil1 may wear less, but sludge up the insideof the engine causing increased wear down the road while Redline doesn't create as much sludge and continues to wear at the same rate. Which one will kill the engine first?

We really can't assume anything from this guys study without additional studies.

All that we really know for sure is that any oil that can protect these old british bike engines (which can kill an oil in a few hundred miles) will perform great in a modern bike.

 

[Propflux01]

I also noticed that the Copyright date is 1993-2000. This seems to me to be very dated info?

 

[buster]

Could be, but Mobil 1 didn't use Boron then. I noticed that also.