Continued from 2002.002

               Table 1

                         Table 2

Continued from 2002.002 NATURE OF THE BEAST There two models of Gulf Coast Filters used in these tests, O-1 and JR. O-1: The housing is industrial grade steel with a baked-on finish. The element is a roll of big Bounty paper towels - other brands will work also. JR: The housing is high-grade synthetic material. The element is a roll of toilet paper. The first questions everyone (including CaptnWil) always asks about the filter elements are, will they disintegrate, and will particles come off the elements that can harm the engine? The short answer, in the interest of saving bandwidth, is no, there are no physical issues with these elements that can harm the engine. The proof is that these elements, in these housings, have been used in many applications for many years without the physical properties of these elements being an issue. JUST THE FACTS The engines involved in this program are listed in Table 1. They are assigned a number for easy identification later. The numbers indicate the order in which they became part of the program. Table 1 Engine No Application Ford ADC 140 1 Main Engine, AfterSail Trawler N. Lights 8KW 2 Gen. Set, AfterSail Cummins 6BTA 3 190 hp Pickup Engine Cummins 8.3C 4 300 hp Motor Home Onan 8KW 5 Gen. Set, Motor Home 93 Honda Accord 6 131 cu. In. gasoline engine 99 Honda Accord 7 182 cu. In. gasoline engine The two Hondas do not have bypass filters and are included to record the differences with, and without a bypass filter. The basic readings for all engines are shown in Table 2 Table 2 Engine Init Init Final Final No Miles/ POA Miles/ POA Hrs Hrs 1 467 1.1 942 1.1 2 104 0.3 291 0.9 3* 51,150 1.6 73,468 2.2 3* 75,375 0.0 80,450 2.3 4* * 44,545 0.0 53,449 1.0 4* * 53,449 0.0 82,531 1.3 5 1,149 0.0 1,377 2.6 6 53,890 2.0 71,051 3.0 7 6,234 0.0 19,425 2.6 *Two sets of values shown because oil was changed from Shell Rotella T, 15W-40 to Mobil Delvac 1, 5W-40. **Two sets of values shown because oil was changed from Mobil Delvac 1 5W-40, API CG-4 to Mobil Delvac 1, 5W-40, API CH-4. Values for 1, 2, and 5 are in hours. Others in are in miles. Table 3 is presented so you can keep score. POA READING ACTION REQUIRED Petroleum Full Based Synthetic 2.5 3.5 Change Bypass Element 3.6 5.0 Get Laboratory Analysis 4.6 8.0 Change Oil HOW IT WENT The initial installation was on engines 1 and 2 and used Rotella T, 15W-40. Engine 3 started with Rotella T, but later in the program was changed to Mobil Delvac 1, 5W-40 synthetic. Engines 4 and 5 have Mobil Delvac 1, 5W-40. Engines 6 and 7 use Mobil 1, 0W-30. The initial installation (engines 1 & 2) was on practically new engines. After the filters did their initial cleanup of the systems, the readings advanced almost none at all. They were still almost new when I sold AfterSail, and the final readings demonstrate their condition. The initial oil used in engine 3 was Rotella T, 15W-40 and was used for over 20,000 miles. As can be seen, the readings advanced very slowly and were approaching the time to change the filter element - not bad at all for over 20,000 miles. It should be noted here that Shell Rotella T is a very fine motor oil. It is the oil used in a Detroit diesel engine that ran over 1,000,000 with only two unnecessary oil drains. When torn down for inspection, the bearings in that engine were in new factory specifications. The engine was put back together, and the same oil was put back into the engine, and the truck put back into service. CaptnWil decided to change to full synthetic oil during the tests on engine 3 and chose Mobil Delvac 1, 5W-40. With the great results from Rotella T, why would CaptnWil change to synthetic oil. The fundamental reason for the change was to determine, by my own tests, if synthetic oil is superior to petroleum based oil. I must admit that I was a little skeptical of the Mobil claims. I was only ready to make the change after a discussion with Cummins disclosed that there was no down side to changing to synthetic and back again if desired. I was particularly skeptical about the extra cost of synthetic oil over petroleum-based oil. So far, only the facts about the investigation since 1998 have been presented. The next part of this epistle will be concerned with conclusions that can be reached based of the observations. The gasoline Honda engines without bypass filters were added to the tests to have such engines to compare with engines equipped with bypass oil filters. The engines are not comparable in any way, but the oils, Mobil 1 and Delvac 1 are made from the same basic stocks. The main difference in them is the different additive packages are used in the different oils. We should expect that the Honda engines operate in less severe conditions than the diesels. CaptnWil