James,
Very interesting discussion of storing motor oil and other lubricants here! Here is the burning question that perhaps yourself or the throngs of Survivalblog readers could answer.
Does detergent or synthetic motor oil degrade over time to be less effective than non detergent motor oil or does it just degrade enough that it might not meet the original American Petroleum Institute (API) rating?
It sounds like detergent and synthetic motor oils may only degrade compared to the original API rating and not actually become less effective than non-detergent oils. If someone plans on driving an Audi 1.8T post-TEOTWAWKI then they might have a serious problem. If they are planning on driving a 1979 Ford F-150 – then no problem. Turbo diesel trucks may have issues as well simply because the turbocharger is so hard on oil. Most vehicles would probably be fine and even the turbo-diesel truck would likely be okay if it wasn’t pushed really hard.
It’s also interesting to see that people are storing vehicle oil for TEOTWAWKI and yet we would likely be very lucky to have fuel of any kind beyond one or at most two oil changes. If it is a SHTF scenario gasoline will likely be available for quite some time and that means oil will be available too, although they will both be more expensive.
Lubricants for chain saws, generators, and other tools will be more critical as we’ll likely be using fuel for those items. Again the good news is these will probably get by with a much lower API rating than that Audi 1.8T!
Since guarantees and recommended shelf life are likely a combination of CYA in this litigious society and product turnover for the manufacturer, I’ll just stick with a good synthetic and shake the bottle to redistribute any settled additives until I see scientific data that says there is a better idea. God Bless! – A. Friendly
Jim:
In the Coast Guard we used a single viscosity 40 weight high detergent oil for all of our engines. We had in place an oil testing system that tested viscosity every 4 hours of operation, pH daily and spectroanalysis monthly.
On my last unit we had four Detroit Diesel 6-71 engines and two EMD 645 main diesel engines.
The EMD 645’s held 150 gallons of lube oil each at 11,000 hour we changed the lube oil purifiers for the first time at 22,000 hours the oil would be changed for the first time and the main and rod bearings would be inspected. Service life of that engine type was over 100,000 hours.
No those hour ratings are not typos.
First point: oil does not wear out it gets dirty and must be cleaned.
Second multi-viscosity oils and synthetics can suffer from molecular breakdown and return to their base oil viscosity. A lot of these base oils are just a little thicker than diesel fuel (not good for lubrication).
For long term you will need to compromise for your AO and climate.
For most temperature ranges 40 weight is ok but for temps below 32 F you will need a 20 or 30 weight and if you see extended temperatures in the minus numbers you will need a 10 weight. If you must operate below -50 F use 10 weight and do not shut down you engines as even 10 weight will “gel” and not pump.
As to filtration we used Racor products with out failure. Initial cost of components is high but it is a one time cost and well worth the expenditure.
The Parker filtration web site has a full line of filters for air, fuel, and oil. For gear heads like me, it’s a candy store.
I hope this info is a help to you and will save some money for other thing like more beans and bullets. – Mike “Aim small, miss small”