Can Premium Fuel REDUCE Engine WEAR?
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Lake, the Motor Oil Geek, explores the relationship between fuel and engine wear, emphasizing how fuel quality impacts oil performance. Through research from labs like Southwest Research and ACT, it's shown that premium fuels with friction modifiers reduce engine wear compared to basic fuels. The video highlights how fuel additives can improve the chemical interaction between oil, piston rings, and the cylinder wall, significantly lowering wear in engines. Lake also explains how fuel contamination in the piston ring area differs from the oil sump, demonstrating the importance of using high-quality fuel to optimize engine health.
Takeaways
- 🔧 The brand and quality of fuel can be as important as the brand of motor oil when it comes to reducing engine wear.
- ⛽ Shell's V-Power Nitro Plus fuel contains additives that form a protective film on metal surfaces, reducing wear and corrosion in the engine's fuel system.
- 🔍 Research shows that the correct additive package in fuel can lower engine wear, making the choice of fuel a critical factor in engine health.
- 💡 The oil in the piston ring groove is chemically different from the oil in the sump due to higher temperatures and greater fuel dilution, which makes fuel chemistry even more influential in wear reduction.
- 🧪 Tests conducted by German research labs and Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) showed that fuels with friction modifiers significantly reduced engine wear compared to fuels without them.
- 🔬 Engine parts, especially piston rings, experience more wear with basic fuel than with premium fuel containing friction modifiers. This is particularly evident in the ring liner interface.
- ⚙️ The anti-wear additive ZDDP in the oil can be consumed quickly in high-temperature areas, reducing its effectiveness, making the role of fuel additives even more crucial.
- 🚗 In Europe, where both premium and basic fuels of the same octane are available, research showed that premium fuel resulted in significantly less engine wear.
- 📊 The wear difference between engines running on basic and premium fuels was confirmed using multiple measurement methods, including radiation, 3D surface profiling, and used oil analysis.
- 💥 The quality of fuel has a direct impact on engine wear and oil performance, with premium fuels providing more protection and resulting in better long-term engine health.
Q & A
How can fuel impact engine wear?
-Fuel can impact engine wear through the correct additive package. Properly formulated fuels, like Shell V-Power Nitro Plus, contain friction modifiers and additives that form protective films on metal surfaces, reducing wear and corrosion in the engine.
Why is the interaction between fuel and oil important in reducing engine wear?
-The interaction between fuel and oil is important because the fuel chemistry affects how well the oil performs in protecting the engine. Fuel dilution in the oil, particularly in the piston ring area, alters the oil’s composition and can either reduce or increase engine wear depending on the fuel's additives.
What is meant by 'fuel dilution' in the piston ring groove oil?
-Fuel dilution in the piston ring groove oil refers to the contamination of the oil with fuel, where the oil in this area contains much more fuel than the oil in the sump. This high level of fuel changes the oil's chemical properties, impacting wear and performance.
What was the significance of the research done by the German labs and Southwest Research?
-The research by German labs and Southwest Research demonstrated that fuels with friction modifiers significantly reduced wear in the engine, especially at the piston ring and cylinder wall interface. They used advanced techniques like irradiating piston rings to measure wear and confirmed that fuel additives play a critical role in reducing engine wear.
How do friction modifiers in fuel reduce engine wear?
-Friction modifiers in fuel help reduce engine wear by creating a protective layer on metal surfaces. As the fuel is injected into the engine, these friction modifiers enter the combustion chamber and the ring-liner interface, reducing friction and compensating for the wear that the oil might not be able to prevent under extreme conditions.
How does the wear between engines using basic fuel compare to those using premium fuel?
-Engines using premium fuel with friction modifiers showed significantly less wear compared to those using basic fuel. Research showed a difference of 7.32 microns of wear with basic fuel versus 1.7 microns with premium fuel. Additionally, the used oil analysis confirmed less wear in engines running on premium fuel.
Why is the oil in the piston ring groove chemically different from the oil in the sump?
-The oil in the piston ring groove is chemically different due to higher temperatures and greater fuel dilution in that area. These factors cause the oil in the piston ring groove to degrade faster and function differently than the oil in the sump, which experiences lower temperatures and longer residence times.
What role does the ZDDP additive play in engine oil, and why is it consumed rapidly in the ring zone?
-ZDDP (zinc dialkyldithiophosphate) is an anti-wear and antioxidant additive in engine oil. In the ring zone, the high temperature and pressure cause ZDDP to be consumed rapidly as it works not only as an anti-wear additive but also to counteract oxidation. When it's depleted, the wear rate increases because the primary protection is lost.
What impact does fuel quality have on the results of used oil analysis?
-Fuel quality is a major variable in the results of used oil analysis. Even when using high-quality oil, poor-quality fuel can lead to increased wear and worse performance. Fuel with proper additives helps reduce friction and wear, leading to better oil analysis results.
Do all fuels come from the same source, and how do brands differentiate their products?
-Yes, most fuels come from the same pipeline, but they are differentiated by the additive packages added at the distribution point. These additives, unique to each brand, impact the fuel’s performance, including its ability to reduce engine wear and improve overall engine longevity.
Outlines
⛽ The Impact of Fuel on Engine Wear
The video opens with a discussion on whether the brand of fuel can be more important than the brand of oil in protecting engine wear. Shell’s V-Power fuel claims to form a protective layer on metal surfaces, reducing wear and corrosion. The speaker explores the relationship between fuel additives and engine wear, citing research from Southwest Research and German labs. Tests using irradiated piston rings show that fuel additives can significantly lower engine wear, contrary to previous beliefs that fuel generally harms engine oil.
⚙️ The Quality of Fuel Matters
This section emphasizes that not all fuel is created equal. The speaker highlights how using high-quality oil with poor-quality fuel can lead to disappointing results in engine performance. Research from ACT and Southwest Research shows that fuel additives like friction modifiers can reduce wear on piston rings and cylinder liners. The varying quality of fuel between different brands, despite coming from the same pipelines, is attributed to the differences in the additives added at the final stage before distribution.
🔬 Engine Wear Variability: Fuel and Oil Chemistry
In this segment, the speaker explains that oil in the piston ring zone is chemically different from oil in the sump due to temperature and fuel dilution. Fuel in the ring zone can exceed 10% concentration, influencing engine wear more than the oil in the sump. The research using a specialized engine sampling device reveals that the chemical composition of oil varies significantly based on where it is sampled, particularly in high-wear areas like the ring pack. The fuel’s additive package plays a critical role in reducing wear under these harsh conditions.
🛠️ Friction Modifiers and Premium Fuel Benefits
Here, the speaker delves into the role of friction modifiers in fuel, which help reduce friction at the ring-liner interface, leading to less engine wear. In Europe, fuel is available with and without premium additives, allowing researchers to compare wear differences. Findings reveal that premium fuel with friction modifiers significantly reduces wear, as opposed to basic fuel. The section also touches on how the ZDDP additive in oil, which reduces wear, gets consumed faster in high-temperature environments, but friction modifiers in premium fuel can help mitigate the damage.
🔧 Testing the Difference Between Basic and Premium Fuels
This part of the video discusses a study where two engines were run—one on basic fuel and another on premium fuel. Piston rings were irradiated to measure wear over time. The study found that engines using premium fuel experienced significantly less wear (1.7 microns) compared to those using basic fuel (7.32 microns). Visual wear differences were apparent through 3D surface measurement, confirming that premium fuel with additives is far superior in protecting engine components.
📊 Used Oil Analysis: Validating Fuel Impact
Concluding the video, the speaker shares the results of used oil analysis, which shows how iron levels in oil increase significantly with basic fuel (from 6 to 10 ppm), whereas premium fuel results in lower wear. The speaker stresses that fuel quality directly impacts wear, and while oil brands and viscosity are often discussed, fuel quality is an overlooked factor that contributes to the variations seen in used oil analysis. The claims made by fuel companies like Shell, that their premium fuels reduce engine wear, are scientifically supported.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Fuel Additives
💡Friction Modifiers
💡Piston Ring
💡Fuel Dilution
💡Tribology
💡STLE Conference
💡Used Oil Analysis
💡Wear Reduction
💡Radiation Method (RI)
💡ZDDP (Zinc Dialkyldithiophosphate)
Highlights
Shell V-Power Nitro+ premium gasoline forms a protective film on metal surfaces, helping to protect metal fuel system components against wear and corrosion.
Fuel choice, particularly the correct additive package, can lower engine wear, as shown by research.
Fuel can impact engine wear despite being a known contaminant for oil, illustrating the complex relationship between fuel and oil.
Research presented at the STLE conference showed that fuels with friction modifiers reduce wear in engines compared to those without.
A test method using radiation to measure wear from piston rings in the engine oil was highlighted, revealing that piston ring friction is the largest source of engine wear.
Oil in the piston ring groove is chemically different from oil in the sump due to higher fuel dilution and temperature in the piston ring area.
Higher fuel dilution in the piston ring groove leads to significantly different oil performance, making fuel chemistry critical in reducing wear.
Used oil samples show variation in wear performance across different oil brands, largely influenced by fuel quality.
Premium fuel with proper friction modifiers showed significantly less wear than basic fuel in various tests, such as radiation methods, surface topography, and used oil analysis.
Fuel with friction modifiers reduced wear from 7.32 microns with basic fuel to 1.7 microns with premium fuel in engine tests.
The ZDDP (zinc dialkyldithiophosphate) additive in oil, responsible for anti-wear properties, depletes faster in high-temperature zones like the piston ring area.
Friction modifiers in fuel act as a backup when ZDDP is depleted, further reducing wear in the piston ring zone.
Engine wear is significantly lower when switching from basic fuel to premium fuel even after the break-in period.
Total iron content in used oil analysis jumped from 6 ppm to 10 ppm with basic fuel, compared to only 7 ppm with premium fuel, highlighting wear differences.
Fuel quality is a major variable in wear analysis, explaining the variation in used oil sample results across different engine brands and types.
Transcripts
can the brand of your fuel be more
important than the brand of your oil hi
I'm Lake the motor oil geek let's dig
into the research to get the
answer in the ads for Shell's V power
fuel they mention wear protection shell
V power Nitro Plus premium gasoline is
designed to protect your car's
performance it also forms a protective
film on metal surfaces helping to
protect metal fuel system opponents
against wear and corrosion wait how can
the fuel impact engine wear we
understand things like injector deposits
and intake valve deposits but where can
the choice of your fuel actually impact
the wear in your engine it can and we're
going to show you the research in this
video that proves that it can shell just
didn't make that up they mentioned that
because the choice of fuel to be precise
the correct additive package can lower
engine wear just like they said in that
shell V power ad that choice of fuel
that proper additive package does lower
wear but wait isn't fuel the enemy of
your oil we've shown that in a previous
video so how can fuel actually help
improve engine wear well you see here at
my day job at total seal we spend a lot
of time researching and working with
that relationship between Fuel and oil
the piston ring and the sinder wall cuz
they all work together I like to call it
ring seal soup and that fuel and how it
interacts with the oil and those parts
is a key ingredient to that ring seal
suit so this topic it's near and dear to
my heart at the stle conference a couple
of years ago a presentation was done by
one of the German research Labs so here
in the US Southwest research swri is one
of the big research Labs Dr Peter Lee is
a good friend of mine he runs the
tribology lab at Southwest research over
in Europe their equivalent is act and at
the recent stle conference they
presented some information showing how
they measured the wear difference
between fuels without friction modifiers
INF fuels with friction modifiers and
the test method they used to measure
that wear is super super cool they
actually used radiation where they could
take different parts of the engine and
this one they used a piston ring because
I'm a piston ring kind of guy you know
that they used piston rings that they
irradiated then they could measure in
the used oil while the engine was
running they could see the wear from
those p piston rings fun fact the Piston
Ring rubbing against the cylinder wall
is the number one source of wear in your
engine we've shown that in previous
videos in the zdp testing we did at
Southwest research we were able to
demonstrate that just by changing the
coating on the Piston Ring we were able
to reduce wear so that just goes to show
how important that relationship is
between the piston ring and the cylinder
wall the oil and the fuel so no wonder
the fuel chemistry plays a critical role
in engine wear now here's the other part
the oil that's in the Piston Ring Groove
is chemically different than the oil in
the sump because of two things the
temperature and the fuel dilution the
oil in the Piston Ring Groove is
chemically different than the oil in
this sump there's tons more fuel in the
piston ing Groove oil than there is in
the sunm so sometimes when we see a used
oil sample that may have 1% or 3% fuel
in the oil in the Piston Ring Groove
it's going to be over 10% it can be 20%
it can be even greater than that so
what's happening in the Piston Ring
Groove and against that cylinder wall is
different than everywhere else in the
engine because of that fuel dilution the
contamination of the fuel therefore
what's in in the fuel makes a bigger
difference to the performance of the oil
essentially that fuel can lower wear if
it's formulated properly how freaking
cool is that actually this explains a
lot of the variation that we see doing
used oil analysis cuz every day I'm
looking at used oil samples and I can
tell you for a fact we see good and bad
results with every brand of oil it
doesn't matter what the brand is we see
good ones and we see bad ones for all of
them why one of the variables is the
quality of the fuel if you're using a
high quality oil with a high quality
fuel you're probably going to get really
good results but you can be using a high
quality oil with a poor quality Fuel and
get not so great results and we can see
this from the data that not only the ACT
presented at that conference the guys at
Southwest research Dr Peter Lee my
friend and his group has also presented
independent information that shows the
exact same thing that when you put
friction modifiers and different
chemistries that can affect ringing
liner wear in the fuel you can reduce
wear how cool is that okay let's go
ahead and get into some of those details
because this stuff is wicked cool
chemistry but wait doesn't all fuel come
from the same pipeline regardless of
brand that is true all fuel coming
through the pipeline is the same in fact
your 87 octane gasoline is only 83
octane gasoline in the pipeline both the
ethanol and the additives that are in
the fuel are actually added in the tank
that delivers the fuel to the gas
station but those additives are
different from Brand to Brand so first
things first how do they even know that
the oil in the ring zone is different
than the oil in the sump well they
outfitted an engine with a little device
that could sample oil while the engine
runs from the back of the oil ring isn't
that crazy they actually developed this
where they could pull those samples
directly from the piston and the
cylinder wall to compare what that oil
was like chemically in those areas of
the engine versus the sump Incredible
use of used oil analysis but from an
engine while it's running just by
sampling it in different areas so they
were able to see that in that ring pack
you have much higher temperatures and
much smaller volumes so that the thermal
effects and the fuel dilution effects
are much greater in that area compared
to the sump where that's a lower
temperature and there's a real large
volume of oil in that resonance time
that oil stays down there a lot longer
so it's really different what's going on
with that oil in the ring pack versus
the sump and that sampling method
allowed them to see it and what they
found was massive differences in the oil
from the sump versus what was in the
ring Zone and the harder they ran the
engine the more fuel you put in the
engine the more it changed so there was
a great variation in what was happening
with the chemistry of the oil based on
the operating conditions of the engine
as well so the fuel itself made an
impact on the performance of the oil and
the amount of fuel also made an impact
so there's two big variables going on
the fuel itself and how much fuel is
being consumed is impacting the oil
that's also called the oil to fuel ratio
we're going to mention that when we do
the video about oil life indicators
because this is a big part of that all
right now back to the results and what
they saw was every time they added a
friction modifier to the fuel they saw a
reduction in friction at the ring liner
interface which correlates with the
other published literature and the
results shown by act speaking of them
let's get back to their engine in Europe
they have both premium fuel and regular
fuel in the same octane so here in the
US we're used to having 87 89 and maybe
91 or 93 octane gasoline where as the
quality varies so does the octane but in
Europe they have the same octane fuel
with and without the premium additive
package in the fuel so this actually
makes for a much better comparison of
the results and that's what the guy act
saw that the basic fuel had more wear
than the premium fuel and they were able
to understand what was going on
chemically by looking at that used oil
and what they found was that the zddp
the zinc dialco theop phosphate which is
an antiwar additive in the oil actually
gets consumed rapidly because it's also
functioning as an anti
antioxidant not just an anti-war
additive so what happens when the zdp
gets consumed in that ring Zone because
of that high temperature it's no longer
able to function as an anti-wear
additive therefore the wear can increase
because your primary antiwar additive is
no longer able to function as an antiwar
additive in that particular area and
this is the window of opportunity for
that friction modifier coming in fresh
with every intake stroke right every
time that injector fires and puts a
little bit of fresh fuel in there here's
that chance for that fresh friction
modifier to come in and actually save
the day to help make up for what the oil
can't do because of that rough
environment in the ring Zone I mean how
cool is that obviously my day jump I
work for total steal piston ring so I
love tribology I love piston rings and
how cool is that to see that in this
little area of the engine it is intense
there's crazy heat there's crazy fuel
dilution all this stuff's going on it's
like the pressure cooker of the whole
engine and it's really taxing the
tribology and making all this stuff work
I me okay all right I'm
going Cal calm down a little bit get too
excited about this cuz this is just
really really neat stuff and it explains
so much so they took two in and they
irradiated the piston rings in both
engines they ran one engine on the
premium fuel the other engine on the
basic Fuel and at the end they were able
to measure all the wear results not only
from the piston rings rubbing but also
in the used oil after the 120 hour test
and these results are incredible
remember we have three ways we're
looking at the wear from both the engine
run on basic fuel compared compared to
the engine run on the premium fuel with
the friction modifiers looking at where
via the radiation method r i we're also
going to look at where using a 3D
profometer to measure the surfaces and
we're going to look at used oil analysis
so the first thing is the RC that
radiation method and it's a giant
difference we're looking at
7.32 microns of wear with the basic fuel
compared to
1.7 microns with the premium fuel and
just to be fair after running the engine
with the basic fuel that same engine was
run again with the premium fuel and it
yielded even less wear which makes sense
a little bit because of the break-in but
also shows that that difference between
the premium fuel and the basic fuel is
real that was also validated when we
went and looked at the surface
topography when you look at that 3D wear
measurement yeah you don't even need a
tool to measure that you can see with
your own eyes how much pitting and wear
occurred with the basic fuel compared to
the premium fuel big difference in
measured wear between that basic Fuel
and premium fuel and the used oil
analysis confirms all of it we look at
the total amount of wear over time we
see that the from the Zero Hour sample
to the end of test sample the iron
jumped from six parts per million all
the way
to10 with the basic fuel compared to
only 70 parts per million with the
premium fuel huge difference between the
basic Fuel and the premium fuel showing
that in that ring liner contact with all
the fuel dilution with all the Heat and
pressures that additional friction
modifier
in the premium fuel makes a giant
difference in terms of wear if you want
a more indepth video on fuel leave a
comment below and let me know this is
why we see such a variation in wear with
used oil analysis if you're looking at
Brands only because people will tell you
what the brand of the oil is they'll
tell you what the viscosity of the oil
is but no one tells us what fuel they're
using but now we know that fuel quality
is one of those variables that leads to
the variation we see in used oil
analysis results so that premium fuel
isn't just higher octane it's that
premium additive package that makes the
difference so the guys that shell when
they said that their fuel can actually
reduce wear that wasn't just a marketing
claim the science says it does and as
you know what this channel is all about
is science not speculation and these are
incredibly cool results hope you enjoyed
the video thanks for watching
[Applause]
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