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.Parmanant Preprint
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29 W. 39 S t . . N. Y. C.

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0 Filtration Problems
With
High Detergency Lubricants

By
H. M c QADEBUSCH
Detroit Diesel Engine Division,
General Motors Corp.

R. T. KABR
Purolator Products, Incorporated
And
W0 B. BASSETT
Lubrizol Corporation

-I'^l

For presentation a t the

SAE NATIONAL HJELS & LUBRICANTS MEETING
The Drake, Chicago, I l l i n o i s
October 30 - November 1, 1951

r SOCIETY of AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS, Inc., 29 West 39th Street, New York 18, N. Y.
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Foreword

No problem involved in the operation of internal combustion engines has

probably been more bitterly disputed over the past tw«aty-five years than the
importance of lubricating oil filtration,

On one side, many well-conducted tests have proved time after time that
presence of even minute amounts of abrasive materials in the crankcase oil
will accelerate the wear of all moving parts at a tremendous rate and that
considerable relief can be gained! from intelligently applied oil filters„

On the other hand, engine builders remained for a long time unconvinced of the
necessity for oil filtration and considered filters as additional gadgets
complicating the design and taking up some valuable apace, lubricating oil
marketers grew apprehensive of the ejxfaprblt ant claims made by some filter
manufacturers with regards to lengthened oil life and feared service reper­
cussions, Itogine users, finally,; objected to the continuous expense for
filter element replacements which! did not always appear to be compensated by
the promised longevity and more economical operation of their equipment,

By 1935* these pros and cons had fairly well reached a balanee0 Pleasure car
manufacturers still alternated between making oil filters available as an
option or using them as standard equipment,. But in the commercial field
where uninterrupted service and long power plant life are of foremost
importance, oil filters had become standard equipment on all makes of engines0

However, with the advent of determent lubricating oils one of the most con­
vincing promotional oil filter arguments seemed lost, Begardless of whether
or not filters were employed, the; crankcase oil always turned black and the
dipstick ceased to "tell the tale!', Operators accustomed to change fiiter
elements on an oil color basis, began to question not only the quality of the
new oils but also that of the filters since the slndge-^eposits normally coat­
ing used filter elements were no longer e2qjerien$ad after comparable periods
of use,

During the last three years this condition has grown considerably more dif­
ficult, Mot only have detergent lubricants become so widely accepted that.
even some passenger car manufacturers recommend their use for ordinary
driving conditions but the general level of detergeney in crankcase oils
intended for bona fide "heavy-duty" service has increased at a rapid rate,

It may therefore be well to dispense some of the fog surrounding the action
of highly detergent lubricants by a review of their effect on crankcase oil
condition, oil filter efficiency and engine cleanliness,

Why Oil Filtration?

The crankcase lubricant of internal combustion engines undergoes a con­

tinuous contamination process (Fift^ l)„ Dust entering the cylinders with
the intake air and, in some cases, the crankcase wi,th the ventilating system
provides abrasive matter. Worn off metal from piston rings and cylinder
walls mixes with this dust and is flushed into the crankcase. Water con­
densation on cylinder and crankcase walls tends to act as an emulsifying
agent.
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Considerable quantities of solid as well as liquid contamination may be con­

tributed by the fuel, Unburned carbon particles, lead salts from octane
improvers and, under adverse combustion conditions, partially burned fuel
fractions or even raw fuel are requently found in the lubricant,

All these external oil contaminants pass into the crankcase from the combus­
tion chambers, they have no relation whatsoever to the quality of the lubri­
cating oil arid may form, at low coolant and lubricating oil temperatures such
as commonly encountered in stop-and-go service, obnoxious "cold sludges",

In addition, the lubricant may also develop some deterioration products of its
own. As a result of oxidation under the influence of the elevated oil tempera­
tures synonymous with high engine output colloidal carbon, granular carbon,
oil-soluble varnishes and organic acids are being formed,

The magnitude of this internal phase of the oil contamination depends on the
oil temperature, the crankcase content, the oil consumption, the change periods
and, last but not least, the characteristics of the lubricant itself,

The potential effect of all these contaminating materials is schematically

shown in Fjgr 2. Dirt, metal and larger carbon particles contribute to engine
wear. The oxidized hydrocarbons, high-boiling fuel fractions and water,
augmented by fine dust, metal and colloidal carbon, form the basic ingredients
of engine deposits. Organic acids are of corrosive effect on certain types of
lead-containing bearings. The relative magnitude of these contaminants may be
seen from the typical average analysis values of twenty-five sludge samples
removed from the oil filters of gasoline engines used in road test work as
given in Table £.
~" Magnitude
Absolute Relative
Carbonaceous Material 19.50* 42,00*
Resinous Material ■ 6.50* 13.95*
I«ad Salts —■ a,oo* 17.20*
Iron • 2,05* 4.40*
Misc, Metals 1.75* 3.75*
Silica - ■ 030* O.64*
Organic Acid 7.40* 15.92*
Water and Mineral Acids — 1.00* 2.14*
Oil Content — 53.50*
(517 grams) 100,00* 100.00* (240 grams)

TABLE I

As a result of the circulation of these contaminants engine parts show pre­

mature wear, brown or black varnish deposits on piston skirts and valve stems
and liberal sludge accumulation at all points of the engine where the oil
velocity is relatively low.

Before the development of additive-type lubricants it was generally assumed

that most of the operating difficulties caused by oil contamination could be
avoided by maintaining the lubricant in color-clean condition. The problem of
engine cleanliness was therefore first placed squarely into the lap of the
filter industry,
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What Types of Filters?

Ingenuity and evolution have produced a wide variety of filter constructions

which may be broadly classified under four major headingss Surface Strainers.
Depth-Type Filters. Multifold Paper Filters and Chemically Active Oil Condi-
tioners^

The simplest type of strainer consists of fine wire mesh such as still general­
ly used at the oil pump intake (Fig;* 3 ) . Since only particles of fairly large
size such as granular carbon and metal chips can be removed in this manner and
since the suction side of the oil pump does not tolerate any appreciable re­
striction, strainers of the cloth bag type were next developed for use on the
pressure side of the lubrication system (Fig. k)« The demand for cleanable
rather than replaceable elements then led to the metal edge-type strainer de­
signs still frequently employed as a coarse stage of full-flow filtration
(Fig» 5). While these early types of oil strainers can retain some sludge and
relatively large particles of foreign matter they are ineffectual as far as
oil discoloration is concerned,,

In line with the demand for color-clean filtration and following the basic rule
that filter efficiency increases with the density of the filtering medium and
also with a lowering of the oil flow rate, depth-type by-pass filters came now
into existence. This principle employs a relatively thick layer of fibrous or
granular materials such as felt, cotton, cellulose, paper, mineral wool or
sawdust (Fjjg., 6 ) .

With use of straight mineral oils such filters can do an excellent job of main­
taining visible oil cleanliness and they have therefore dominated the filter
market for many years by virtue of their ease of application to existing engines
and the simplicity of element changes. Their natural shortcoming is that only a
relatively small percentage of the circulated oil (5 to 2D%) is filtered at any
one time. Consequently, no assurance is obtained that some of the solid
particles may not have done their damage before they can be finally eliminated
by the filter. The filtered oil is in most instances directly returned to the
crankcase where it is again mixed with the bulk of the contaminated lubricant.
Some engine manufacturers, however, have found it expedient to utilize this
cleaned oil for the lubrication of such critical parts as the valve gear,
speed governors, superchargers, etc., before returning it to the crankcase.

Realization of the principle that the beneficial effect of an oil flow reduc­
tion on filtration quality may be also obtained by a corresponding increase of
the filtering area, led during the last decade to the development of multifold
paper filters (Fig^ "?)* As compared to a depth-type design of equal size this
unique arrangement of paper folds provides an increase of 700$ to 800$ in
filtering area and, at the same time, a tremendous increase in dirt storage
capacity.

Even though filters of this type may not immediately achieve color-clean
filtration of straight mineral oils, they are producing excellent results
once a small layer of sludge has been established. Due to their increased
operational life multifold paper filters have not not made substantial in­
roads on the use of depth-type by-pass filters but have also found wide­
spread application in full-flow filtration systems where their increased flow
capacity permits a reduction of the exterior dimensions.

Oil conditioners containing activated clay, bauxite or alumina form a class

all by themselves. While the action of surface strainers and depth-type
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filters depends on a purely mechanical process and achieves, therefore, mainly
the elimination of solid matter, the filtering media used in oil conditioners
have the additional ability to adsorb the oxidized varnish-forming petroleum
fractions and to neutralize the oil oxidation acids0

This type of filter is, therefore, capable of restoring contaminated oil al­
most to its original condition. However, they are unable to cope completely
with fuel dilution, have a high susceptibility to "caking" in the presence of
even small amounts of water and possess for a given filter volume a very low
capacity. While widely used for "batch-type" oil reclaiming, these drawbacks
together with the tendency to remove the chemical additives from heavy-duty
oils, have prevented chemically active oil conditioners from reaching major
importance in the high-speed engine field.

How Clean .Should Oil, 3e?

The filter industry thus responded quite successfully to its challenge by

providing a wide variety of equipment capable of removing solid as well as to
a minor extent even dissolved contamination from the lubricating oil while
being circulated through the engine. As previously shown, the degree of
filtration achieved depends on the construction of the filter, the type of
filtering medium employed and on the filter area in relation to the oil flow
handled. For the latter reason, filter manufacturers always like to see their
larger units used. High-speed engine designers, on the other side, are faced
by some very real space limitations for the manifold accessories required by a
modern engine. Although the advanced design of multifold paper filters has
been of material help by providing large filtering surfaces in a small con­
tainer volume, the question of oil filter size and thereby of filtration ef­
ficiency still remains important.

To prevent accelerated abrasive wear, oil filters should remove all solid
foreign matter exceeding the thickness of the oil film separating the moving
parts. Depending on load, speed, running clearances and oil viscosity, film
thicknesses from two ten-thousandths to three thousandths of an inch may be
encountered in high-speed engines. The size of small particles is usually
quoted in "MICRONS", one micron being one thousandth of a millimeter or
roughly four hundred-thousandths of an inch.

Pifl. & shows a comparison of these two scales. Normal automotive engine
clearances extend over the range from one^half thousandth to four thousandths
of an inch equivalent to twelve and one-half to one hundred microns. To
minimize wear, elimination of all abrasive particles exceeding five to ten
microns in size appears therefore desirable. In new condition, metal strain­
ers will filter out particles as small as 75 microns, cloth bag strainers
down to 35 or 40 microns. They will effectively trap larger particles of
dirt or metal chips but cannot be relied upon to eliminate most of the wear-
producing fine solids or to maintain oil color. Well-designed depth-type
filters at low flow rates will possess a filtration quality as low as two
microns. ..

To illustrate the importance of filtering efficiency, Fig. 8 also shows the

particle size distribution of a mixture of both grades of the standardized
road dust widely used for air cleaner and oil filter development work. With
decreasing size the percentage of dirt particles increases rapidly from 4»5#
larger than eighty microns to 5905# exceeding ten microns and 74.5$ in excess
of five microns. Since most of the larger particles may be quite readily
removed by the air cleaners these figures place additional emphasis on the
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necessity for removing frem the oil by suitable filtration the considerable
amounts of fine air-born, abrasive contaminants.

Typical samples of the same two types of standardized road dust are shown in
3500 times magnification by the electron micrographs of FJftT 9* The fine
grade appears at the left, the coarse grade in the center and the picture at
the right shows small styrene balls of 0,25 micron diameter for size comparison,
The presence of numerous potentially destructive particles in the range from
five to approximately twenty microns is self^eviderit.

jfay Pofcerfient Oftls?

Properly selected and applied filtration equipment thus permits .maintenance of

straight mineral oils in transparent condition and elimination of most of the
wear caused by abrasive solids. However, little or no effect can be found by
even the most efficient oil filtration on those engine parts whose condition
governs reliability and life* the pistons, piston rings and cylinder liners.

As pointed out before, that portion of the abrasive material introduced with
the intake air stream which is not eliminated by the air cleaners as well as
all by-products of fuel combustion must first pass the pistons before reaching
the crankcase. This passageway is normally coated with a film of highly
oxidized oil forming a perfect bond for the solid contaminants. Much of the
piston ring and cylinder wall wear and most of the deposit formation on piston
skirts and in the ring groove's will therefore have been accomplished before
the oil filter ever gets its chance to render these materials harmless.

Realization of this fact confronted the oil industry with the challenge to
develop motor oils which could effectively prevent the formation of deposits
on these most vital engine parts. Two means were employed to achieve this
goal. First, fortification of the oil with chemical compounds increasing its
resistance to oxidation and second, addition of cleansing or «detergent"
materials. The results achieved in this" manner during the past decade have
exceeded a U expectations. Use of oxidation inhibitors accomplishes much
lower oxidation levels not only in the oil sump but also on the cylinder walls
than obtainable with even the best straight mineral oils. The formation of
varnish-like oxy-hydrocarbon compounds and corrosive organic acids is thus
effectively reduced. The detergents, in turn, counteract the coagulating
tendency of the already lowered amount of oxidation products thus keeping the
varnish-forming materials as well as the colloidal earbon particles dispersed
in the oil.

During the early period of engine operation without oil filters, the dis­
carded dirty oil left its sludge deposits behind in the crankcase. In the
following stage with filtration clean oil could be drained from comparatively
clean crankcases but pistons and rings still remained unaffected. With use
of detergent lubricating oils engine maintenance has now progressed to the
point where the entire engine interior can be kept in cleaner condition than
obtainable from straight mineral oils with the most perfect type of oil
conditioning. '
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How Much Detergency?

The amount of organic contamination which can- be handled by a heavy-duty

lubricant will obviously be in proportion to the quantity of detergent
material present. The two sources for this type of contamination are first,
incomplete fuel combustion and second, oxidation of the lubricating oil.
Table II contains a list of the conditions conducive to high organic con­
tamination values «

INCOMPLETE FUEL COMBUSTION LUBRICATING OIL OXIDATION

Poor burning quality of the fuel Low oxidation resistance

High sulfur content High oil temperatures

Low combustion temperatures Low crankcase oil content

Overrich fuel/air mixtures Excessive oil change periods

TABLE II

It must be pointed out at this time that the effect of these adverse condi­
tions is basic for all types of engines regardless of the fuel being used.
Both gasoline as well as Diesel engines will therefore be found equally
responsive to the effects of cracked fuels, high fuel sulfur content, low
combustion temperatures and overrich mixtures. However, the method by which
the fuel and air are being mixed, has a noticeable bearing on the formation of
unburned carbon during the combustion processc Fuel injection into the com­
pressed air, such as employed in Diesel engines, generally provides less uni­
form mixture ratios than found in carbureted engines. Overrich mixture strata
thus formed account for the considerable higher quantities of carbon "soot"
contaminating the crankcase oil of Diesel engines even under normal operating
conditions„

To take care of the detergency requirements of both types of engines under all
possible operating conditions and with fuels of widely varying combustion
characteristics and sulfur contents, the petroleum industry has made available
lubricating oils of five different detergency levels as approximately shown in
Table III,

GRADE DESIGNATION COMPARABLE DETERGENCY

"Premium" 1
"Heavy-Duty" (2-1D4B) 3
"Heavy-Duty (MIL-0-2LQ4) 4o5
"Heavy-Duty" (2-104B S-l) 8
"Super-Duty" (2-104B S-2) 16

TABLE III
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For proper choice of one of these five types of detergent oils all fuel fac­
tors contained in Table II must be taken into consideration.

Whiijia the light load level of gasoline engines in passenger car use generally
permits their satisfactory operation on "PREMIUM11 or "2-1D4B" oils, the same
engines in commercial use may already require the higher detergency of
"MIL-O-2104" oils, particularly if highly cracked gasoline is used.

Under the operatisag conditions for which Diesel engines have become famous as
low cost power producers, i.e. high load factors, high oil temperatures and
inexpensive grades of fuel oil, use of one of the three highest detergency
level lubricants is required for longest life, As a rule, M£L-0-2H)4 lubri­
cants will satisfactorily handle fuel oils with a sulfur content below 0.5&
S-l oils will tolerate sulfur percentages approaching 1.0$ and beyond that
point, or under particularly severe operating conditions, super-duty lubri­
cants of the S-2 type may even be recommended.

How to Filter Detergent Oils.

The physical size of the carbon particles originating from incomplete fuel
combustion or as the result of lubricating, oil oxidation is submicronic.
Their coloring value is very high, as little as 0.2/6 of this type of carbon
visually blackening.the lubricant. Color-clean filtration of crankcase oils
would therefore be impossible even with the best-constructed depth-type
filters and low oil flow if it were not for the help of the coagulating action
exerted by even small amounts of the resinous oxidation products upon these
colloidal particles. With straight mineral oils, this coagulation of the
carbon to larger globules establishes on all types of filters a "sludge bed"
which increases the filtration efficiency and can, therefore, normally be con­
sidered as a sign of satisfactory filtration,

A typical example of this condition is given in Fip. 1Q. The metal edge-type
strainer shown has free openings of 125 microns in one dimension and should,
by all rights, retain only solid particles exceeding approximately five
thousandths of an inch. let it has accumulated with use of straight mineral
oil, a heavy layer of carbonaceous sludge known to consist mainly of colloidal
materials. Chemical analysis data of this sludge are shown in Table IV.

Carbonaceous Material - - 30.8$

Resinous Material - ■— 5.9£

Miscellaneous Metals - - ko&%

Oil Content - - - - - - $0,7%

100.0*

TABLE 17

Since this coagulating tendency exerted by the resinous oxy-hydrocarbons

is broken by the detergent oil additives, the submicronic solid contaminants
' will appear in heavy-duty lubricating oils in their true unfilterable size.
The same mechanism which effectively combats the formation of engine deposits,
is therefore likewise responsible for the impossibility to establish a filter
sludge bed and the resulting blackening of the oil.
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With use of detergent lubricants, oil color has therefore completely lost its mean­
ing as a grademeter for oil cleanliness and the necessity of filter element changes.
The rapid blackening of heavy-duty oils and absence of the tell-tale sludge de­
posits on used filter elements, have instilled in some engine operators the feel­
ing that since the effects of lubricating oil filtration are no longer visible,
filters could be completely dispensed with or at least the filter elements need
not be changed any more0

Nothing, of course, could be farther from the truth. The cleansing and dispersing
action of heavy-duty lubricants is most effective on deposition of organic col­
loidal contaminants and has lesser influence on minute metallic, abrasive or hard
carbon particles. To profit from the wear-reducing effect of oil filtration the
inorganic solids must be removed from detergent oils just as completely as from
ordinary lubricants,

The overall efficiency of most oil filter designs developed for use with straight
mineral oils depends to a large extent on speedy establishment of a density-
promoting sludge bed. Since with detergent oils this sludge bed can be no longer
relied upon, the density of the filtering media must be increased to assure satis­
factory filtration quality,

Detergent lubricants have supplied to the age-old question "full-flow or by-pass

filtration" a better answer than practically obtainable with straight mineral oils,
Removal of the excess heat in high-speed engines necessitates circulation of large
quantities of lubricating oil. In industrial high output engines with oil-cooled
pistons the oil circulation may be as high as 1,4 to 1,8 gallons per minute for
every ten horsepowers or 35 to 45 gallons per minute for a 250 bhp engine,

To filter such formidable amounts of lubricant with the same degree ©f efficiency
as obtainable from a by-pass filter handling only 5% to 1D% of the total a full-
flow filter would obviously have to be materially larger in filtering area. True
full-flow filtration of straight mineral oils becomes therefore largely a problem
of space which is usually solved by a compromise between filtration quality and
filter size,

The almost simultaneous advent of heavy-duty lubricants and multifold paper

filters now permits a combination of the space-saving advantages of both. By
eliminating the necessity for storing the bulk ©f the sludge-forming colloidal
contaminants in the oil filter elements, detergent lubricants have made a con­
siderable reduction in filter dimensions possible. While this reduction would
normally also produce a corresponding increase of the oil velocity with sub­
sequent loss of filtration efficiency, the large filtering area provided by the
multi-fold construction may be employed to restore normal oil flow rates.

In installations where space and accessibility considerations are preventing use

of a full-flow filtration unit sufficiently large to obtain the desired efficiency,
combination of a relatively coarse full-flow strainer for direct protection of the
bearings against damage by larger solid particles and a by-pass filter for gradual
elimination of the wear-producing smaller solid contaminants will give adequate
overall engine protection,
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When to Change Detergent Oils

Use of additive-type lubricants together with properly selected filtration

equipment permits a lengthening of the oil change periods which more than
offsets the higher initial cost of these lubricants. Under high temperature
operating conditions where straight mineral oils would have to be discarded
after as little as thirty to fifty hours, heavy-duty lubricants of the
KCL-O-2104 type may be employed five times as long without any danger of
bearing corrosion, piston ring sticking or sludge deposition,

However, two factors limiting the life of heavy-duty lubricating oils must be
understood, first, the fact that while detergent additives prevent the
organic contamination from depositing on engine parts, they do not remove it
from the crankcase. Consequently, the oil viscosity will show a gradual in­
crease due to the dissolved and suspended organic contaminants until finally
a point may be reached where satisfactory oil supply to splash-lubricated
parts is no longer assured,

The second point limiting the usefulness of heavy--d.uty lubricants is

realization of the exhaustible nature of the detergents. Their polarizing
action depends on the quantity of detergent material available in proportion
to the amount of contaminating matter present, Fig ^ 1 1 represents the three
theoretically possible cases, "A" shows fine dispersion of the colloids
with an excess of detergent still available for the handling of additional
contaminants. In Case "B" the balance has been reached, all active detergent
having been used up by the maximum amount of contamination which can be
handled. Case "CM is indicative of the final contamination stage where sup­
ply of still more contaminants will prevent the detergent from doing its duty
any longer. Incipient sludge formation will then take place in a similar
manner as if non-detergent oil were used,

Considerable attention has been directed during the past few years to the
possible use of oil drain analyses as an indication of oxidation resistance
and detergency effectiveness. Since most of the current heavy-duty oils
derive their detergency from compounds containing either calcium or barium,
much can be learned about the condition of used oil samples by sulfate ash
determinations. These metals may thus be readily analyzed in new oils and
have very definite values for each particular lubricant,

In used oil samples, however, the same metals may show up in identical amounts
without necessarily indicating their presence in an effective form. The sul­
fate ash analysis of used oil may also be increased by presence of undis-
solved or dissolved organic salts contributed by iron, lead and dirt con­
tamination products. Or reduced sulfate ash values may be found in the used
oil which could then probably be attributed to removal of some organic com­
pounds by effective filtration. While it is generally felt that analysis
for the calcium or barium present as the detergent compound is possible
after filtration of the used oil through paper, these methods are far too
complicated to be recommended for field use,

Another approach to ascertain the relative effectiveness of heavy-duty oils

in service, is use of some type of neutralization number. Since it is pos­
sible to show, with certain types of additive compounds, acidic neutraliza­
tion numbers as high as 1,0 in new oils, ordinary ASTM neutralization number
determinations using a color indicator will not give a true measure of
heavy-duty oil effectiveness. The electrometric titration method for
determining neutralization numbers undoubtedly provides a more complete
story of effective oxidation resistance and detergency of heavy-duty
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lubricants. With this method the presence of a strong as well as a weak base
can be shown and it is probably the latter which Indicates the reserve alka­
linity. Even at such time as the weak base becomes completely neutralized
there undoubtedly will still be present a considerable amount of detergency
which may be then attributed to the neutral type materials .

It is extremely doubtful if any of these laboratory methods will ever reach

importance for the establishment of suitable oil drain periods in the field.
Since the case of perfect balance between detergent and contaminants repre­
sents a rapidly passing stage, the engine operator will have to ehoose between
either limitation of the oil drain periods to a point where excess detergency
is always insured (Case "A*1) o r inspection of the oil filter elements for the
first tell-tale signs of coagulated sludge resulting from exhaustion of the
available detergent (Case B C») 0 In either case, the oil viscosity should be
measured as assurance against excessive thickening of the lubricant by the
accumulated organic contamination.

Occasionally, the observation may be made that in continued use the color of
detergent oils gradually becomes clean. This may be caused by selective dis­
placement of the detergent from the heavier carbon particles to the trans­
parent oxidation varnishes* The polarizing action of the detergent may thus
be completely exhausted by light-colored colloidal compounds with the result
that the discoloring carbonaceous solids will be coagulated and can then be
removed by the oil filter. Consequently, with use of detergent lubricants
clean oil color as well as sludge deposits on the filter elements should be a
warning that the internal cleansing action of the oil can no longer be relied
upon and that the oil change periods should be reduced.

To avoid initial contamination of the highly detergent new oil with the con­
taminants stored in the oil filters during the previous period of use, filter
element changes should be made simultaneously with changes of the crankcase
lubricant.

Summation

In spite of the generally increased severity of service conditions due to

raised engine output rates and lower grade fuels, employment of heavy-duty
lubricants has permitted engine operation at a higher degree of internal
cleanliness and, consequently, for longer per&ods of time than ever before.

Use of these superior crankcase oils has created a number of new problems.
The detergent additives not only effectively counteract the formation of
engine deposits by polar suspension of the colloidal contaminants in the oil,
but also render the bulk of the organic contaminating matter unfilterable.
Establishment of an efficiency-promoting sludge bed on the oil filter elements
is thus prevented and color-clean oil filtration made impossible.

By eliminating the necessity for removing the potentially sludge-forming

organic oil contaminants from the oil circulation, detergent lubricants
have freed the filtration equipment for the important duty of trapping more
completely the wear-producing inorganic solids. Absence of the sludge bed
with use of detergent oils requires greater density of the filtering media
employed and considerably reduced dirt storage requirements permit installa­
tion of more effective filter combinations in the available space.
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Two factors influencing the useful life of detergent lubricants must be

considered! exhaustion of the detergency and increase of the oil vis­
cosity due to the suspended and dissolved contaminants. While viscosity
determinations may be relatively easily made in the field, there are no
simple test methods in existence to ascertain exhaustion of the detergent
additives. Observation of the oil filter elements for incipient sludge
formation appears, therefore, as the best practical grademeter for timing
the necessary periodic oil changes.
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FACTORS GOVERNING
FILTRATION REQUIREMENTS

INCHES MICRONS
.0040 100
T
ENGINE
PARTICLE SIZE CLEARANCES
DISTRIBUTION
OF TYPICAL
ROAD DUST
SAMPLE OIL FILM
THICKNESSES

///////////////////////// 'z/
DESIRABLE
25 50 75 100% FILTRATION

FtG. 8

(&*-)

FtG. 9
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"'/

FIG. 6
FIG. 5
frs"0

FIG. 7
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LUBRICATING
OIL
CONTAMINATION LUBRICATING OIL CONTAMINATION

D
I
R
T

■i _ r o u WEAR DEPOSIT CORROSIVE

PRODUCING PROMOTING TO LEAD

COLLOIDAL
CARBON
M W DIRT 1
E A
T T VARNISH
A E
L R METAL 1 I
ORGANIC

•3
ACIDS
FUEL 1
GRANULAR
CARBON
I
WATER 1

i FILTERABLE I I NOT FILTERABLE I

l I
CARBON ACIDS
VARNISH FIG. 2
FIG. |

II
11

.--"fcSS* 8 *

^
w
*w •«*»

FIG. 3 (*"0 FIG. 4

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«*«y FIG. 10

EFFECTIVENESS OF DETFRrFM-re
IN
N DISPERSING C O l I S S K ^

CASE *A
(EXCESS)
CASE B
CASE V
(BALANCE)
(LACK)
FIG. u