OILING AND GREASING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 198, 4 August 1928, Page 14

OILING AND GREASING

WHERE ECONOMY IS FATAL

THE TOLL OF GRIT ON WORKING PARTS

( By

Sparks)

There are some things a motorist cannot afford to economise in, and among these lubricating oil and grease are predominant. Not only must the oil used for engine lubrication be of the right density to suit the particular engine being driven, but it must be sufficiently heat-resisting to maintain its lubricating qualities under very great heat.

IS a rule, the manufacturers of * different cars, after exhaustive tests under the most severe conditions, recommend some particular brand of oil, and where this is procurable it is a wise policy to use no other make, however attractively it may be advertised. FOREIGN MATTER IN OIL. The matter of lubrication, however, does not end with the purchase of the right brand of oil. The best of oils deteriorate very rapidly under the conditions of use in motor cars, particularly where these are being run on dusty gravel roads. Continually air is being drawn in and then expelled from the “breather pipe” or oil filler, and though sometimes this is partially protected by a wire strainer which will catch some of the particles on its oily meshes, too often there is nothing to prevent the dust of the road getting direct into the oil in the crankcase. Further dust grit is drawn in through the carburettor where these are not fitted with an air strainer, now a standard fitting on some makes of cars, and both in the cylinders and crankcase this flinty-grit scores the closelyfitted moving faces and bearings. PROGRESSIVE DAMAGE BY GRIT Immediately this sharp grit gets into the bearings or between the pistons and cylinder walls, it scrapes off minute particles of metal, and these, in turn, increase the quantity of abrasive being pumped through the lubrication system with the oil. Careful investigations have proved that in 500 miles of average running the crankcase oil in a new car collects at least one-tenth per cent, of gritty and abrasive matter, and this continues to accumulate ever more rapidly as the foreign matter in the oil does its costly work in the bearings.

OIL FILTERS NOW PROCURABLE

Nowadays one can secure efficient oil filters which can be installed in most makes of cars, and with these there is no doubt that tfie damage caused by foreign material in the oil is tremendously lessened, resulting in much longer car life. The investment is much more than repaid in the first two or three hundred miles which the car is driven, and the filter

needs very little attention to ke?p it cleaned or renew the cartridge.

NECESSITY FOR RENEWING OIL

Even where an oil filter is fitted and regularly attended to. it is necessary to draw off the oil at regular intervals and, after thoroughly washing out the crankcase with kerosene, to renew the supply with fresh oil. The reason for this is that the globules of oil, which give it its lubricating qualities become broken down with heat and friction, and it then has little superior qualities in preventing wear than has water. Filling up the crankcase to a constant level of oil only answers for a time until the dilution of the good oil with the inferior broken-down mixture in the crankcase makes the addition of little value. COSTLY REPAIRS AVOIDED. It costs a lot to rebore cylinders, fit new piston rings and sometimes new pistons, polish crankshafts and fit neiv bearings on • big-ends and so forth, and often this expense can he avoided over years of work if the driver is consistently careful in drawing off his used oil every thousand to fifteen hundred miles and replacing it with fresh.

IMPORTANCE OF CHASSIS GREASING.

The same applies to all wheels, shackles and moving parts of the chassis into which grit can work its way. If fresh grease is forced into these joints and bearings regularly, especially after the car has been used in wet weather, it pushes out the intruding foreign matter and prevents wear and play which so often makes a car old and rattly before half its life of usefulness is normally run. CENTRAL LUBRICATION. Central lubrication, now being fitted to many of the new models, should help owners to pay more attention to keeping the wearing parts of the chassis in order, for it must be admitted that greasing un with the old system of grease cups and oil caps is an unattractive job, and little improved upon even with the grease gun.