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Additives for mineral oil

rv8ch

Well Known Member
Patron
I have some 100 straight mineral oil - bought too much. (https://www.aircraftspruce.eu/total-aero-100.htm) I now like Total Aero DM 15W50 oil which has the recommended Lycoming additives. I add Camguard to it.

https://catalog.lubricants.totalenergies.com/en/products/116-1/AERO-DM-15W-50

total-aero-dm-15w-50_1.jpg

Besides the very expensive LYCOMING OIL ADDITIVE LW-16702 - 6 OZ for $60 - is there another way to get some anti-scuff and other enhancements into the W100?

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/eppages/lycoiladditive.php

Is Camguard alone enough?
 
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Camguard is an alternative to the Lycoming anti-scuff secret sauce but I don’t believe either of those has all the goodies that a standard aircraft oil would have. You want ashless dispersants in your oil for normal use for example. There is no free lunch. Sell your excess straight mineral oil and buy some standard Aeroshell or Phillips oil with or without the antiscuff additive. If your get it without the antiscuff, add the Camguard.
 
You want the Ashless Dispersent additives to keep the debris in suspension and that is not included in "straight mineral oil," nor either the Lyc additive nor the camgaurd. If you use this oil, any debris in the oil will fall to the bottom of your pan and various other areas, creating what is called sludge. There is a reason that ADs are recommended, so best to follow them. Highly doubt you can buy AD additives, as pretty much all the oil used already has it.

There are a handful of people that always use this oil because they see it come out cleaner at oil change time (thinking some magic is happening) and think that is better for their engine. WRONG. It just means that all the crude was not held in suspension and instead was deposited as sludge into various parts of their engine. You want the debris held in the oil so that you can get rid of it during an oil change.

Larry
 
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W prefix in Aeroshell world is with AD additives

To clarify... W prefix in Aeroshell world is with ashless dispersant additives. Aeroshell W100 is single-grade aka straight-weight and with AD additives.

The term "straight" is slang with at least two meanings from what I have seen... could mean without additives... could mean single-grade aka single-weight aka straight-weight.

BTW it might be lost to history why Aeroshell 100 is an SAE 50 grade oil. (Aeroshell W15W-50 is an SAE 15W50 grade oil.)

In case my notes are useful: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GLOeiKppw0weBq4f0p5WtegCR661x6NDLiXFEpT3CH8/edit?usp=drivesdk

You heard it from some guy on the internet with references to other guys on the internet.
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Camguard is an alternative to the Lycoming anti-scuff secret sauce ...

That is not quite correct. The Lycoming LW-16702 additive has an anti-scuffing agent that serves to reduce wear.

Per Ed Kollin, the developer of Camguard: "Camguard uses 11 high performance additives most of which are multi-functional. They are all commercially available and expensive. It uses multiple ferrous and non ferrous corrosion inhibitors, multiple anti-wear chemistries, a very potent antioxidant/deposit control package."

Kollin recommends Phillips 20W-50 with Camguard year round. According to Kollin, "the additives in Camguard SWAMP those in Aeroshell 15W-50 and Exxon Elite so why pay for them."
 
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