[SEL] Non-detergent Oil--The Rest Of The Story

Elden edurand at mchsi.com
Tue Aug 10 10:25:03 PDT 2010


Rob:

On my Homebrew Hvid engine, I set the rate to between two and
three drops per minute.  If they are slobbering a little oil past
the piston skirt and aren't running hot or making rude noises,
that seems to be enough.  Also, when the engine is stopped, if I
can feel oilyness on the cylinder wall, it's okay.

On the McVickerish engine, I'm presently tweaking it to run well
and it seems to be happy with a little over two drops per minute.
Any more than that and it looks like it's got a lot of blowby but
the smoke is really only the expelled gas from the valve actuator
cylinder.

I suppose more is better to a point.  Personally, I use either
single weight (30W) detergent or 15W-40.  It depends on what I
happen to fill the oil can with.  Some time, I may try some of
the low-ash 15W-40 synthetic I use in the Jetta.  It should work
okay and is not supposed to burn so the smoke may be less.

Ain't it fun!

Take care - Elden
http://www.oldengine.org/members/durand

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
> [mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com]On
> Behalf Of Rob Skinner
> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 9:59 AM
> To: The SEL email discussion list
> Subject: Re: [SEL] Non-detergent Oil--The Rest Of The Story
>
>
>
> On Aug 10, 2010, at 6:44 AM, Arnie Fero wrote:
> >
> > That's pretty much the line of thinking that Dave
> and I were going
> > through at
> > Findlay while sipping beer and watching the gals walk by.
>
>
> While you guys were drinking beer, did anyone bother
> to count the
> "drops per minute" of the non-detergent oil?
>
> One manual I have says fifteen drops per minute,
> another manual says
> two drops per minute per inch of bore diameter.
>
> Oiling on an engine is not like vermouthing a martini.
>
> Rob




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