THREE MOST IMPORTANT ADDITIVES IN LUBRICANTS
Source: Luis Acevedo
The engine is the vehicle´s life, the most common expectation from users is to enlarge the engine life, the engine performance and the vehicle durability as much as it can. Many new users prefer to buy the cheapest oil without thinking in long term, where the most important factors for controlling and to enlarging the performance and the durability on vehicles, is the right lubricant and the right coolant fluid.
Beside the external information that we can find on marketing catalogs or package presentations, I would like to emphasize this article on three important attributes about lubricants, what make us to understand how does the oil work? And, why choosing the right oil is a matter? Today we are going to learn in an easy way, about the three most essentials oil additives that must be considered at the moment to select the right lubricant for your vehicle.
• Total Base Number (TBN): “is the quantity of acid, expressed in terms of the equivalent number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide that is required to neutralize all basic constituents present in 1 gram of sample (ASTM Designation D 974)”.
Total Acid Number (TAN): is the concentration of damaging acids formed by the oxidation leads due the combustion process.
When the TAN is higher than the TBN, it’s the time to change the oil
Our vehicles need a special dinosaur’s juice (called fuel) to work, the fuel (Diesel or Gasoline) contains many acids such as high sulfur that can affect the engine life, even by controlling the fuel quality trough international standards regulations, still are some impurities that the TBN needs to neutralize meanwhile our engine is working.
Source: oil-tech.com/amsoil-images/angs-oil-tbn-tan-graph.gif
For example: when we have a stomachache caused by acids which generated the corrosion of our belly walls, something similar happens inside engines, and the TBN is in charge to keep the engine digestion healthy. As a conclusion TBN is in charge of the corrosion control or the acids neutralization of the engine. The quantity of TBN is proportional to the quality-price.
• Detergent: this additive is in charge to keep clean all metal surfaces inside the engine from external deposits, sludges and resins cause by the combustion or the incomplete combustion during the engine job. This detergent also prevents the corrosion by keeping clean and lubricate the inside engine surfaces.
For example: when we use soap to clean our hands, the soap work together with the water to keep the surface of our hands free from external bacterias or dirties, something similar is the function of this additive, it keeps clean metal surfaces clean from external deposits, sludges and resins, avoiding the corrosion of the material.
Source: http://norteda.eu/products/lubricants/
• Dispersant: this additive is in charge to separate or to split deposits, sludges and resins from each other, with the aim to avoid any big formation that can cause the obstruction of the normal behavior from the engine lubricant flow system.
As its name said, dispersants keep any particular matter dispersed, with the aim of avoiding the engine wear or any other irregular obstruction from the lubricant system.
Source: http://performancetechnician.com/2014/09/flat-tappet-oils-additives/
After this small review about lubricants and its value added, now we can start to pay more attention about details, at the time to do maintenance to our vehicles or to buy any lubricant for any special purpose
I hope that you have enjoyed this kind of information, made for people that do not understand too much about lubricants and, about its important value added for engines. If you have any other questions or any other interesting topics, you can write it down and I will be looking for giving you a reply.
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DAY @t 20:40, July 19, 2018
Luis Alfredo Acevedo
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