Sport_Pilot
Posts: 7634
Joined: 1/21/2002
From: Acworth,
GA, USA
Status: offline
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quote:
Take a drop of water on a piece of steel and swirl around with your finger. Now do the same experiment, but swirl a drop of oil with your finger. You will notice a significant difference on how the water reacts to the metal surface compared to the oil. The water will bead and be phoebic to the metal....the oil will not.
This is quite true, which is why I said there is a film of oil left on the metal. If it is a small amount of water the water will be a simi spherical bead and only a small amount will seem to be in contact, but actually a film of oil will seperate the two. But water is the universal solvent, with enough time the film of oil will slowly disolve in the water.
I have worked with water treatment of large medium pressure boilers. To prevent the bare steel from rusting from contact with bare steel there is two major things you can do, decrease the oxygen in the water or make the water non conductive. The later is not practible in a boiler but does work in a closed system. Water itself is non conductive, only impurities such as salt or acid make it so, it is possible to distill water, or use softeners to remove minerals, and this reduces corrosion alone. Oil, at least most oils do not conduct electricity so a small amount of water should not cause any harm, but if little oil is in the case such as may be the case with two strokes, then it may not take that much, especially on parts with a thin coating.
Another factor that is unknown to me, how is the oil water mixture differant than oil alone? Does it thicken as does mineral oil when agitated by the crankcase and the oil water mixture settles as sludge on the bottom of the pan and heads? Or does the mixture thin out and drain off the parts?
I understand that castor is only partially solvent with water, may explain why some have good luck with castor and others have good luck with synthetic. Synthetic with corrosion inhibitors may be better with smaller amounts of water which mix into the oil, but castor clings better and does not mix well so it does better with larger quantities of water. It may also explain why Mr. Wagner of Model Aviation can mix 20% water into his fuel, but DownUnder can only mix a few percent before the oil seperates. That was only one series of synthetic oil that Union Carbide said was water solubale, others may not or be partially solubale.
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All Forums >> Glow Engines, Gas Engines, Fuel & Mfg Support Forums >> Glow Engines >> RE: Castor oil - The Longest Word? 
RE: Castor oil - The Longest Word? - 
the only advantage i see in using a blend of synth/castor is less mess to clean off the plane. thanks but no thanks, i'll continue using all castor.