Smart Music

Cold cars are often difficult to start. Cars that get too hot overheat and break down. Cold engines fix themselves, after they’ve been running for a few minutes they are no longer a problem. Hot engines are a different matter though. Left to it’s own devices an engine would get extremely hot, so hot in fact it would begin to melt. Therefore, to keep an engine running at it’s best performance levels a car needs a cooling system to stop it from overheating.

Water is the key ingredient when it comes to cooling engines. By circulating water around the engine using the water pump, adding antifreeze to increase the boiling point of the water and cooling the water in the radiator at the front of the car when it receives the maximum airflow the engine is kept cooling off to function efficiently without being damaged by the heat. Motor oil helps this process by extracting heat from inside the engine. As it comes into contact with the hot surfaces it absorbs some of the heat and then falls down into the oil pan where it has a chance to cool. Some high performance cars have a dedicated extra component, an oil cooler, to assist with this process.

One important aspect of oil’s cooling ability is its viscosity. Viscosity is a measure of the thickness of a liquid, or more precisely how easily a liquid flows. Water is not very viscous; it has a low viscosity because it flows easily. Honey is very viscous. A quality lubricant should maintain a constant or thereabouts level of viscosity at a variety of temperatures. This helps it to effectively lubricate and extract heat. Oil contains additives to maintain viscosity. Overtime these additives are used up and this is why an oil change is needed. It is possible to find a cheap oil change coupon on the Internet, usually on the site’s of oil manufacturers. You can learn more about motor oil at this great blog, the oil pressure gauge guide.

The most important function of motor oil is to keep the moving parts in the engine running smoothly. It does this by lubricating them, and by that we mean covering them with oil so that when they come into contact with other moving parts there is a protective layer of oil around both components that prevents them from coming into direct contact with each other.  Such contacts would result in both parts suffering wear and becoming damaged. Also because of the extreme heat in the engine they could also become welded together.

Once of the most dangerous times for an engine is when it is first started. At this point the motor oil has collected in the oil pan beneath the engine. When the ignition is turned the parts start moving instantly but the oil is sitting in the oil pan. A pump is used to circulate the oil and this is started at the same time as the engine but there is a problem. Oil gets thicker when it is cold. Thick liquids do not flow as easily as thin liquids.  The measure of the thickness of liquid is called viscosity. Water, a thin liquid, is said to have a low viscosity. Honey is very thick and has a high viscosity. So when oil is cold (because of the outside temperature) it has a higher viscosity and it is much harder to pump around the engine. That is why the oil pressure gauge comes on when you start your car because the pressure is indeed low until the oil heats up and it can be circulated more freely.

Oil manufacturers include additives to decrease the viscosity of oil when it is cold. This is one good reason to avoid a cheap oil change and stick with American Petroleum Approved brands of oil.