GhostStrykre
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
I haven't checked out the EE channel in a while, but he just posted a fascinating video. Here it is:
I think the video really touches on several topics I see around on car forums. I didn't now 80%ish of engine wear is from cold start up. Certainly makes me wonder what the % of engine wear is from auto stop/start tech (semi-covered in the vid). I didn't know the average temp of a hybrid is lower, thus harder to burn off excess water. I also didn't know this is why there is a Hybrid specific oil from MOBIL 1. Which is designed to address this.
I was left with two big takeaways:
1) this further emphasizes the need for regular/on-time oil changes (as if any of us needed to know that). even though our rangers are not hybrids, i'm aware of my driving habits and location. i commonly make short drives. my region can be very humid on occasion. trying to minimize that and maximize attention to detail on oil change intervals would seem key for me.
2) based on everything discussed in the video, wtf is an oil catch can doing?
Well, apparently someone thought to mention it in the comments (in addition to talking about lot-rot at dealerships -- which makes you wonder about snagging a deal on that vehicle that's sat on the lot for a long time). Here's the comment:
>>>
As a engineer who has worked in PCV systems, the first time we saw the condensation/moisture problem from repeated starts was not in PHEVs and hybrids... but actually normal ICE vehicles in dealership lots. During the winter, we noted that some dealers would move cars from one side of the lot to the other side as they clear the lot of snow. Over 30-40 of these 'cycles', they end up with substantial amounts of water in the crankcase, and we had to instruct dealers to leave the vehicles on to fully warm up to prevent this happening. Typically in small amounts this doesn't cause an issue, but as you imagine, problems started to crop up when that much water has accumulated in the engine. This experience was really useful when we got into PHEVs, because we developed two things: a counter to force the engine to turn on after a number of 'cold starts' to force a warmup cycle, and then an algorithm to modify (shorten) the oil change interval minder if the engine is still not given the opportunity to warmup (say if the customer has constant short drives).
As a tangentially related topic, moisture in oil is also how some oil catchcan manufacturers mislead, or at least inflate, claims about how well their products work. Today's PCV oil separation systems are basically like science experiments and incredibly efficient under most circumstances, but they do not filter out fuel and water vapour (those go back into the intake to be ingested). So when you see forum posts from oil catchcan manufacturers showing how much fluid they're capturing from street driven vehicles not subject to high G-loads, chances are that it's mostly water and fuel, and they never put that fluid into an oven to evaporate it and show you the true amount of oil they're actually capturing.
<<<
I admittedly don't have an oil catch can, and don't know much about them. So this comment is thought provoking. Are there any tests any catch can manufacturers run to provide insight on this topic?
Anyway, seemed like a good share in the off-topic threads.
I think the video really touches on several topics I see around on car forums. I didn't now 80%ish of engine wear is from cold start up. Certainly makes me wonder what the % of engine wear is from auto stop/start tech (semi-covered in the vid). I didn't know the average temp of a hybrid is lower, thus harder to burn off excess water. I also didn't know this is why there is a Hybrid specific oil from MOBIL 1. Which is designed to address this.
I was left with two big takeaways:
1) this further emphasizes the need for regular/on-time oil changes (as if any of us needed to know that). even though our rangers are not hybrids, i'm aware of my driving habits and location. i commonly make short drives. my region can be very humid on occasion. trying to minimize that and maximize attention to detail on oil change intervals would seem key for me.
2) based on everything discussed in the video, wtf is an oil catch can doing?
Well, apparently someone thought to mention it in the comments (in addition to talking about lot-rot at dealerships -- which makes you wonder about snagging a deal on that vehicle that's sat on the lot for a long time). Here's the comment:
>>>
As a engineer who has worked in PCV systems, the first time we saw the condensation/moisture problem from repeated starts was not in PHEVs and hybrids... but actually normal ICE vehicles in dealership lots. During the winter, we noted that some dealers would move cars from one side of the lot to the other side as they clear the lot of snow. Over 30-40 of these 'cycles', they end up with substantial amounts of water in the crankcase, and we had to instruct dealers to leave the vehicles on to fully warm up to prevent this happening. Typically in small amounts this doesn't cause an issue, but as you imagine, problems started to crop up when that much water has accumulated in the engine. This experience was really useful when we got into PHEVs, because we developed two things: a counter to force the engine to turn on after a number of 'cold starts' to force a warmup cycle, and then an algorithm to modify (shorten) the oil change interval minder if the engine is still not given the opportunity to warmup (say if the customer has constant short drives).
As a tangentially related topic, moisture in oil is also how some oil catchcan manufacturers mislead, or at least inflate, claims about how well their products work. Today's PCV oil separation systems are basically like science experiments and incredibly efficient under most circumstances, but they do not filter out fuel and water vapour (those go back into the intake to be ingested). So when you see forum posts from oil catchcan manufacturers showing how much fluid they're capturing from street driven vehicles not subject to high G-loads, chances are that it's mostly water and fuel, and they never put that fluid into an oven to evaporate it and show you the true amount of oil they're actually capturing.
<<<
I admittedly don't have an oil catch can, and don't know much about them. So this comment is thought provoking. Are there any tests any catch can manufacturers run to provide insight on this topic?
Anyway, seemed like a good share in the off-topic threads.
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