you've this right on the head with some of the stuff you typed.manga_blue wrote:I can't tell you how disappointed I am with the forum for its inability to take this topic seriously.
Nevertheless I've been plodding on with my research into canola oil as the ultimate performance mod for a flowered Astina. I say plodding because the fishing here has been rather good recently and I'm still recovering from a weekend of toasting cars with a zillion more kilowatts than mine whose drivers previously thought an MX5 was a sort of grown up pedal car.
Anyway the research says there are some key advantages for vege oil, aside from the greenie benefits. Typically friction is 50% lower than petrol and synthetic oils, wear is 20% lower and heat generation is 20% lower. This even applies to Home Brand quality. The problem with the cooking oils is that volatile components can boil off leaving a thick tar-like sludge behind. There's also a risk of your car smelling a bit like a fish shop.
Blended high oleic canola oil + hydroxy fatty acid rich oil + liquid wax ester enriched oils perform significantly better all round than what we now view as conventional oils: friction, wear, heat generation, economy, stability under heat and pressure, dutrability.
Where the simpler oils come into their own is where there's regular refreshment, as in our Astina which chews through heaps of oil anyway. Remember that race engines always used the distinctive smelling Castrol R, a vege oil, which was always changed out after a meeting or two.
Volalite
No friction inhibitors
Lack of stability
Ecomonic issues.
Yes it may be cheaper per litre. But in 10000km, You'd be using 20L minimum, (probably more like 40L). That's not taking into effect the amount that will burn away after it has become unstable and full of carbon/tar.
Use it for 100-200km after it has become unstable, and you most likely will have a $3000 engine rebuild.
The think that while regular car oils are not as good as cooking oil. The stabilty of regular oils far outweighs the gains of cooking oils.
If I was a race team and had the fund to continuly rebuild engines, then cooking oil would be awesome. But I ain't a race team.
