All You Really Need to Know About Motor Oil Additives

It has been a long long time since motor oil was just oil. In the 1930s someone decided to begin putting wax modifier in the oil to address the problem of wax residue after the refining process. Thus was born the motor oil additive market.

Today, motor oils contain a variety of ingredients designed to improve the performance capabilities of motor oil, whether petroleum or synthetic. This article is an overview of the various oil additives used in automobile engines and drivetrains.

Additives Job Descriptions

In this article we are referring to additives that are formulated into the motor oil, not the chemistries being packaged and sold as aftermarket oil additives on the shelves of auto parts stores.

Motor oil additives have three essential functions: to protect metal surfaces, to expand the lubricants application range, and to extend lubricant life. Additional considerations for additive selection include ease with which they can be handled by formulators, stability in storage, toxicity, and their smell. Yes, smell is a serious consideration.

Surface Protection Additives

 In automobile motor oils there are five kinds of problems that additives address with regard to surfaces. First, there are antiwear agents. These would include various phosphates, organic sulfur and chlorine compounds, sulfurized fats, sulfides and disulfides. These various compounds reduce friction and wear, and help prevent scoring or seizure. Through chemical processes they help prevent metal-to-metal contact.

Corrosion and rust inhibitors like zinc dithiophosphates (a multi-purpose additive), metal phenolates, fatty acids and amines are used to prevent corrosion and rust on the internal metal parts of the engine.

Detergents keep surfaces free of deposits. By use of metallo-organic compounds of sodium, calcium and magnesium phenolates, phosphonates and sulfanates varnishes and sludge are neutralized and maintained in a soluble state.

Dispersants, such as alkylsuccinimides, alkylsuccinic esters and mannich reaction products, keep insoluble contaminants dispersed in the lubricant. Contaminants are bonded by polar attraction to dispersant molecules, preventing them from agglomerating.

Friction modifiers alter an oils coefficient of friction. Typical friction modifiers include organic fatty acids and amides, high molecular weight organic phosphorus and phosphoric acid esters.

Performance Additives

A second class of additives includes those compounds that improve the oils performance. Pour point depressants, which are not required in high quality synthetics due to their low temperature capabilities, enable lubricants to flow at lower temperatures by modifying wax crystal formation, thereby reducing interlocking. The compounds used for this function include alkylated napthalene and phenolic polymers, polymethacrylates, and certain copolymer esters.

Seal swell agents help to swell elastomeric seals by causing a chemical reaction in the elastomer. Organic phosphates and aromatic hydrocarbons are sometimes used to achieve this effect.

Viscosity modifiers help reduce the rate of viscosity change when temperatures rise or drop. Polymers and copolymers of olefins tend to expand as the temperature rises, counteracting against the tendency of oil to thin. Other compounds used for this function include methacrylates, dienes and alkylated styrenes.

Protective Additives

There are also three types of protective additives. Antifoamants reduce surface tension and speed the collapse of foam. Foam is an enemy of effective lubrication. Wherever air can get into an active fluid system it has a tendency to get trapped or swirled in, with billowing or foaming the end result. Without defoamers, you would have foam gurgling out of the dipstick when customers came in for an oil change. To fight foam oil formulators add silicone polymers or organic copolymers.

Antioxidants slow down the rate of oxidation by decomposing peroxides and terminating free-radical reactions. Zinc dithiophosphates, hindered phenols, aromatic amines and sulfurized phenols are used to this end.

Metal deactivators are used to reduce catalytic effect of metals on the oxidation rate. In other words, without organic complexes containing nitrogen or sulfur, amines, sulfides and phosphites, the rate of oxidation would speed along unchecked. These compounds form form an inactive film on metal surfaces by complexing with metallic ions.

Whats Goin On?

In short, motor oil has a lot of stuff in it these days. It is not a haphazard concoction of chemicals just thrown together. As you can see, many of the compounds in motor oil are designed to interact with what is going on inside an engine. But many compounds are selected so that they will not interfere with their designated functions. That is to say, formulators are chemists who must carefully consider the way these various chemistries interact with each other, not just the context they individually work in.

One example is the battle between corrosion inhibitors and antiwear additives. Sometimes these additives battle for sites on a metal surface. If you use too much corrosion and rust inhibitor the antiwear properties of an oil can be diminished.

It is important to realize that additive chemistries can themselves have disadvantages as well as advantages. The usage of various additives involves tradeoffs. Here are just some examples of negative side effects additive may possess.

•  Detergents and anti-wear additives can promote deposit formation in high temperature areas.
• Detergents and dispersants can promote foaming and minimize the effectiveness of anti-foaming additives.
• Certain additives can cause corrosion when exposed to high temperature.
• Too much anti-foaming additive will in itself result in foaming.

 

Conclusions

.Today’s additive systems are quite sophisticated. Because they can be sensitive and negatively affected by the addition of other chemicals some experts feel that lubricants of different brands or types should never be mixed. Nevertheless, motor oils are considered compatible with each other in todays market.

The rule of thumb here is that if an application does not require an additive do not use it. This holds true especially for aftermarket additives. Motor oil formulators go to great lengths to build balanced systems that meet pre-designed targets. Not only the choice of chemistries, but the concentration at which an additive is used will have a major impact both on how well a lubricant performs a task and on its cost.

AMSOIL INC. uses only the highest quality additives and thoroughly understands how each interact. Not only are the specific basestocks selected for their ability to provide extended drain intervals, but the additive package plays a vital role in a lubricants performance as well. As car manufacturers demand longer motor oil drain intervals, these aspects of lubricant performance will become increasingly important to all motor oil manufacturers.

Introduction

As a jet fighter squadron commander Lieutenant Colonel Albert J. Amatuzio had ample opportunity to witness synthetic lubricants in action. These oils are used exclusively in jet engines because of three extraordinary performance characteristics: an ability to reduce friction and wear on engine components, an ability to function dependably at severe temperature extremes and an ability to withstand rigorous and lengthy engine operation without chemical breakdown. Recognizing that these same benefits would prove invaluable in combustion engines, Amatuzio began conducting serious research in 1963. By 1966 he had formulated a synthetic motor oil and put it to use in vehicles in northern Minnesota. Throughout the late ’60s Amatuzio continued his research and development and sold commercially available synthetic oils under a variety of names. In 1970 he incorporated his own name into a commercially sold product called AMMOIL. In 1971 this product name was changed to AMZOIL and it continued to be sold commercially. The true milestone came in 1972 when AMZOIL became the first synthetic motor oil in the world to meet American Petroleum Institute criteria. The new lubricant performed like no other before it. When the first can appeared on the market in 1972, it signaled the birth of an entire industry. AMSOIL synthetic lubricants have expanded the boundaries of lubrication science and redefined the performance possibilities of modern machinery and engines.

High-Temperature Protection and Performance

AMSOIL synthetic lubricants are much more stable in high temperatures than are refined oils and other synthetic oils. Their superior heat stability reduces the rates of oil consumption, lubricant breakdown and lubricant oxidation, which keeps oil consumption low; equipment clean, protected and running right; and extends lubricant life.

Cold-Temperature Protection and Performance

AMSOIL synthetic lubricants remain fluid in temperatures far below zero, allowing dependable engine start-up, fast lubrication, dependable protection and maximum fuel economy in severe cold operations.

Increased Efficiency

AMSOIL synthetic lubricants are superior to refined oils and other synthetic oils in reducing friction, helping lubricated systems use fuel energy for work, not for overcoming drag. Superior friction reduction, as well as lower volatility rates, also helps keep exhaust emissions low.

Longer Engine and Equipment Life

AMSOIL synthetic lubricants’ heat stability and frictionreducing ability keep wear rates low, which helps increase the time to first teardown, increases the interval between teardowns and increases overall equipment life.

Extended Lubricant Drain Intervals

AMSOIL synthetic lubricants offer up to eight times the service life offered by refined lubricants, and sometimes even more. The long life of AMSOIL synthetic lubricants reduces costs, downtime, waste and environmental damage.

Product Line

AMSOIL manufactures synthetic lubricants, advanced filtration systems, fuel additives and coolant for virtually every commercial, industrial and automotive application.

Quality Control

AMSOIL synthetic lubricants are manufactured from topquality synthetic base stocks and performance additives according to a stringent quality control protocol in computer- controlled AMSOIL manufacturing facilities. AMSOIL synthetic lubricants may be counted on to deliver the same top-quality performance and protection every time they are used, no matter where in the world they are purchased.

Experience

AMSOIL formulated the first API synthetic motor oil in the world and has more experience formulating synthetic lubricants than any other manufacturer in the world. AMSOIL leads the industry in product quality and innovation.

The fact is, you cannot always trust the experts or trust what you read on the internet.  You have to investigate and read the facts and studies yourself and draw your own conclusions.  This website will provide you with many studies, pictures, articles and graphs to help you first understand more about lubricants and their importance, to understand why so many people choose Amsoil over other lubricants and lastly to help you understand the facts and seperate them from the fiction.  If after reading through the information provided on this website you are still unconvinced, please ask friends, neighbors, family members and your local mechanic if they use amsoil, and more importantly why or why not.

FACT:  Unlike conventional motor oils that contain non-essential molecules that do virtually nothing to protect the engine-and contain contaminants that actually harm it-AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil is pure and molecularly uniform. Every single molecule in AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil is dedicated to engine lubrication and protection.

FACT:   AMSOIL Synthetic Oil exceeds the most demanding world-wide performance specifications, meeting warranty requirements for all domestic and imported passenger car and truck engines.

FACT:   AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil reduces friction more effectively than conventional petroleum motor oils do. Less friction means less engine wear, better fuel economy and improved power and performance.

 FACT:  AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils do not “burn off” like conventional petroleum motor oils . AMSOIL Motor Oils retain their viscosity, providing reduced oil consumption, improved fuel economy, and better wear protection.