Lubricating Your Automobile 



By Waldemar Kacmpifert 



AN automobile engine is a heat 

 engine. The gasoline is drawn 

 *" into the cylinder in the form of 

 vapor, which consists of about one part 

 of gasoline to eighteen parts of air. The 

 vapor, when it comes in contact with the 

 electric spark, explodes, or, more properly 

 stated, burns with flash-like rapidity. 

 Anything that burns generates heat, 

 and when heat is generated the sur- 

 rounding medium expands. It is simply 

 the expansion of the medium in the 

 cylinder, produced by heat, that forces 

 the piston down against the crankshaft 

 and ultimately turns the wheels of the 

 automobile. 



The temperature at the instant of ex- 

 plosion is between 2000 and 3000°. If it 

 were possible to convert the heat repre- 

 sented by that temperature into work, 

 the automobile engine would be marvel- 

 ously efficient. But we have not yet 

 learned how to handle that heat. We 

 must waste some of it by cooling sys- 

 tems to save our automobiles from de- 

 struction; otherwise the cylinders of a 

 motor would be reduced to a mass of 

 molten metal. 



The lubrication of an automobile is a 

 particularly difficult problem because the 

 gasoline motor is so peculiar a heat 

 engine. It is the object of lubrication 

 to kcoji rubbing surfaces apart. But if 

 the lubricant is a film of oil, often less 

 than three one-thousandths of an inch 

 thick, as in a gasoline engine, and the 

 rubbing surfaces are very hot, how is it 

 possible to attain that object? It seems 

 almost incredible that lubrication is 

 possible at all in an automobile, once the 

 phxsical problem is stated. 



A prominent automobile manufacturer 

 has i)rought out a motor which has a 

 speed, muler certain conditions, of 

 3400 rcvohilions a minute. An equal- 

 ly jjromincnt refiner of oils has visualized 

 these figures in a way that shows what 

 is demanded oi a lubricating oil. During 

 a single minute, he |)()ints out, each 

 cylinder passes through the four cycles 

 of intake, compression, power and ex- 



haust no less than 1700 times! More 

 than 28 complete cycles in each cylinder, 

 or a total of 171 complete cycles in all 

 six cylinders within a single second! 

 Every second the carbureter must fur- 

 nish 171 complete charges of gas — the 

 magneto 171 individual sparks; and 

 171 times in a second the temperature 

 at the instant of combustion reaches the 

 almost inconceivable figure of nearly 

 3000° Fahrenheit. During each second 

 the six pistons, each with a stroke of 

 4)4 inches, travel a lineal distance of 

 255 feet, rubbing over a surface equiva- 

 lent to a path 255 feet in length and 

 lei's inches in width — a total area of 

 216^ square feet a second. 



Friction and Lubrication 



The object of lubrication is, of course, 

 to overcome friction, and friction in 

 automobiles is due primarily to inequal- 

 ities which are always found in the 

 most highly polished surface. Even the 

 smoothest piece of glass, when viewed 

 under the microscope, is incredibly rough, 

 and so are the apparent h' smooth walls 

 of a cylinder and the surfaces of the 

 piston rings and the piston. Press two 

 apparently smooth pieces of metal to- 

 gether; then slide them in opposite 

 tlirections; the two "seize" — interlock; 

 the inequalities on the surface of the one 

 interniesh with those of the other. 

 Friction is produced, which means that 

 heat is generated. Heat causes a metal 

 to expand. The pressure on the outer 

 surfaces does not permit of expansion 

 outward. "Seizing" results. That is 

 why it is the function of a lubricant to 

 keep tiic surfaces apart. 



Tr\- to keep a red hot sto\e wet with 

 <lr()ii])ing water, and you will realize the 

 (lifhcultN' of lubricating a hot automobile 

 motor. The greatest enemy of lubricat- 

 ing oil is heat. Hence of two oils that 

 which loses little lubricating value imder 

 relatively high heat is the more suitable 

 for automobile hibricalion. ("onsider 

 the temperature to which oil is sub- 

 jected in a motor and you will under- 



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