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Oil, Water and The Perils of Consistent Low Oil Temperatures in Vehicle Engines

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I watched this recently, and I found it very interesting.

 

The point the guy was making, is that water contamination in oil is inevitable, but it is not normally a problem, as when your oil gets up to temperature, the water in the oil heats up and disperses.

The oil has additives which trap water and hold it in the oil without permitting emulsifying, until the oil is hot and the water can leave the oil.

(There's info on demulsification additives in crude oil here, but not much on demulsifiers in vehicle engine oil knocking about online. https://www.biolinscientific.com/surfactants-and-emulsions/demulsification

There's more in this video here, but it still left me wanting more.

 

 

However if you run a hybrid, he says it is possible that your oil does not often get up to full temperature, if you mostly do short runs. I suppose this goes for any other type of car that does a lot of short runs and the oil doesn't get hot.

So there comes a point where the "demulsifiers" in the oil are overloaded with water and simply cannot cope. (This will also happen with a water leak into the oil, as you know).

At this point, oil emulsification (engine mayonnaise) can occur with the associated loss of the oil's lubricity, which can lead to premature engine wear.

 

So the moral of his story seems to be, make sure you drive your car in such a way so you get the oil up to temperature to allow oil-trapped water to leave your oil and prevent oil emulsification in an otherwise healthy engine.

 

The general gist of what he's saying makes sense, but I've never seen anyone mention demulsification additives in vehicle engine oil before.

Does everyone else know about this and it's just something I didn't know, or are these demulsifiers a new thing?

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