Motor oil info

Motor oil info such as: What exactly is motor oil and how does it work?

The oil used in your car has two primary ingredients: base oil and additives. The base oil allows the motor oil to perform its vital function - lubricating the engine's moving parts to protect them against wear and tear caused by friction. The additives provide additional engine protection by helping to prevent the oil from deteriorating under the engine's extreme temperature conditions.

The base oil is refined from crude (oil in its natural state when pumped from the ground). The crude must undergo a variety of refining processes before yielding base stock suitable for use in engine oil. Undesirable components such as wax, sulphur and nitrogen compounds must be removed. Unsaturated hydrocarbons must be extracted or converted into more stable molecules.

Crude is first separated by vacuum distillation into a series of fractions or viscosity ranges. The fractions intended for base oil production are processed further using various combinations of refining processes.

1. Solvent Extraction - separates the naturally-occurring saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons.
2. Hydrofinishing - removes some of the nitrogen and sulphur compounds, improves color, oxidation and thermal stability of base stock.
3. Hydrotreating - converts some of the unsaturated hydrocarbons to saturated hydrocarbons to help improve yield prior to solvent extraction. This process also helps remove large portions of sulphur and some nitrogen compounds.
4. Hydrocracking - a sophisticated process in which molecules in the base stock fraction are rearranged into the desirable saturated hydrocarbon molecules. The yield of saturated molecules is much greater than that achieved with hydrotreating and solvent extraction.
5. Hydroisomerization - when used along with hydrocracking, can transform the molecules of the base stock fraction into the most stable form possible.
6. Additives - Motor oil needs to perform a variety of functions under a wide range of engine operating conditions. Therefore, several additives are incorporated into the formulation:
   1. Detergent/dispersant additives - used to maintain engine cleanliness, keeping the various contaminants in a fine suspension and preventing them from settling out on vital engine components.
   2. Rust and corrosion inhibitors - added to protect the engine from water and acids formed as combustion by-products.
   3. Antioxidants - added to inhibit the oxidation process, which can result in oil thickening and sludge formation.
   4. Anti-wear additives - form a film on metal surfaces to help prevent metal-to-metal contact.
   5. Viscosity modifiers and pour point depressants - help improve the flow characteristics of motor oil.