I read all messages in this board. In my view Mr. Prabakar's concept of extending oil drain period is possible (no questions are asked about top up oil quantity here) as long as oil analysis report findings are O.k. I mean the following:
Viscosity @ 40 & 100
VI
TBN
SAN
Insolubles
Wear metals
Soot
Nitration
Oxiodation

I also have one question for Mr Prabakar: How TBN depletion is controlled (unless high top up oil!) for such a long hours using disel as fuel?
I tell you that no filter in this earth can come for a rescue to arrest TBN depletion. Is ultra low sulfur diesel is marketed in India?

Kumar
kumartr2@yahoo.com

Dear Mr Kumar,
Sorry for replying after such a long gap, you would have found your answer if you would have gone through my other postings on this topic, might be you missed that
This purifier continuously removes moisture and blowby gases dissolved in the oil coming to sump. Naturally in the absence of both, the acid formation is slowed down considerably, so there is very little depletion of TBN value. Initially it will deplete from12 to 7 or 8 where it will stabilize.Topping up is a normal phenomenon in every engine, so whatsoever little acid is formed to reduce the TBN is made up by alkaline additive going with the topping up oil.
Mr Xavier! You have correctly said that oxidation increases with temperature and is doubled with every rise of 10 degree.But that is a natural phenomenon and has been taken into account by the engine designer. Whatsoever portion of oil is oxidized it is converted into oxidation products which combining with moisture form varnish, sludge and acid.It reduces the quantity of oil in the sump, thats why make up oil is added regularly. These insoluble oxidation products go on increasing in the oil and they change the viscosity and act as catalyst for more and more oxidation. Now if these undesirable products are removed continuously, oil will be cleaner, oxidation rate will not increase, topping up will be normal , no more change of oil will be required.
My request to all those people who read this topic now should go through all the earlier postings , then only they should put up their comment or doubt. It is a very interesting topic and needs widespread discussion.Just imagine, if with the help of a purifier no more change of oil is needed, a dream will come true.

If you want to delay oil changes should you look at the kind of oil. There is a company called Synlube that advocates no oil changes for automobiles.

http://www.synlube.com/

I don't think they say anything about filters. Their web site makes the claim that you don't have to change there oil. I have no idea if anything they claim is true, but their web site appears to be a real business.

So if you combine a filter that leads to extended oil change intervals with an oil that does not need to be changed you might have a solution.

Prabhakar,

Why can't you buy an engine at your own cost and
conduct trials whatever you want....post your
analytical results......

Regards

Bala.

The subject no more change of engine oil is very interesting. Tribological developments are leading towards such elevated standards. In practice, there are many limitations and restrictions.

I am working with a ship management company taking care of High power marine diesel engines.
In this particular field the engine rpm is about 400 -900 revs/min for diesel generators, mostly 4 stroke trunk piston type, about 80- 190 rpm 2 stroke cross head type.

Lubrication is major issue in our profession and many accidents, incidents occurred in maritime environment due to lubrication oil disorders.

the most important point is lube oil managemnt- purification(continuous even when engine is running) is still posing lot of problems.
The major cause is contamination and lubricity properties depletion.

All these leading to oil changes and there are many real time analyses and experiences are with me to share with you all.
thanks to see some productive discussions on this forum.

Prabhakar & All,

I believe in your post, by profession I am a Reliability and Maintenance consultant here in our country and one of the courses I teach is lubrication and contamination control. I do not want to speak more of this as to comply with the forum rules and guidelines.

As far as my estimates will go, around 90% of the population will change oil based on the running hours their car, equipment had been in service since this is the way of doing things.

Oil must be change not based on the running hours it had been in service but by the number of contaminants your oil have and this will reflect the acidity of your oil (TAN).

Now for engine oil, is this possible, yes, but if your equipment is equipped with what you call a by-pass filtration (secondary filtration) with a high beta rating 200 or more, say from 1 to 3 microns in range plus a regular oil analysis check from time to time in order to achieve an extended drain or indefinite oil drain interval. Now a lot of brands of bypass had been seen on the net most specially in the US, why, because it had already been approved by their congress as a means of energy conservation act.

Now if your consider the cost of oil vs the cost of your by-pass and oil analysis check then definitely the latter (bypass and oil analysis) will be much more expensive than the cost of oil itself.

But if you consider the dear life of your engine and the breakdowns you encounter plus engine overhauls after 100,000 200,000 running hours then this is were the Total Life Cycle Costs had been achieved.

Cheers,

Rolly Angeles

Angeles,
OK, if you don't agree that "No More Change Of Oil" is possible with all the economics in favour of the user, will you agree that the engine oil life can be extended more than 10 times.
I will again like to raise the question what parameters of oil are to be tested to decide whether the oil is fit for further use or not. Ifafter using 100 hours only, i say that the oil is unfit, what parameters are to be tested to prove me wrong. The same parameters will hold good when oil will become older and older like 500 hours, 1000 hours, 1500 hours 2500 hours and so on.An oil purifier is possible which can keep all the parameters within allowable limits, its fitting and running will be economically justified.