After a close reading of the diesel engine research, I realized how asinine the entire exercise seemed to be:
1) A '170-kW' engine was used to generate '11.9-kW' of energy ( 14-X overkill )
2) The engine was operated, from 'idle' ( zero % mechanical efficiency ), to as high as 900-rpm ( the Lamborghini Temerario twin-turbo V-8 operates at up to 10,000-rpm ).
3) 'Idle' constitutes an engines worst brake thermal efficiency ( BTE ), in the John Deere example, as low as 6.49% ( compared to a Caterpillar-powered 18-wheeler tractor of 42% BTE )
4) Engine heat loss is 'maximum' at idle ( 93.268% for the John Deere's 'best-case ).
5) At 'idle', the lubrication never moved beyond 'boundary film' or 'mixed film' regions, never reaching the 'full hydrodynamic lubrication' region of a road vehicle.
6) The engine operated between 0.94 m/s, and maximum 2.82 m/s, 88.7% below the requirement of an automobile engine.
7) Brake specific fuel consumption was 'improved' from, 2.036-pounds/bhp-hr, to 1.961-pounds/bhp-hr ( compared to 0.314-pounds/bhp-hr with the Caterpillar diesel engine in the 'semi').
8) 'Base oil' was SAE 20W-50, at 688 cSt @ 40-C, and 21.2 cSt @ 98.9-C.
9) The 3.6% fuel consumption decrease, based upon the reduced shearing load of the BA-modified oil indicates that the BA-modified oil was equivalent to SAE 16.4W-41.
10) SHELL T4 ROTELLA HD DIESEL Motor oil, favored by most diesel engine owners is SAE 15W-40.
11) So congratulations PhDs!. You could have just used SHELL's motor oil and experienced even higher performance!
12) The PhDs spoke of 'contact loads' and 'coefficients of friction', neither of which are applicable to automotive engines.
13) The PhDs spoke of 'especially at low speeds, low temperatures, high loads', which extremely narrows the limits of the efficacy of BA-modified engine oil when considering automotive applications.
14) Since the engine test was of extremely-short duration, we don't have any evidence that the engine would survive a 100-hour, SAE J1082, Recommended Practice, dynamometer load test.
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I suppose that, if you grew up, totally within an academic environment, going from high-school, straight into college, then, straight into grad school, then into a doctoral program, having never 'gone outside'; one could design an experiment that, while 'interesting' in a purely 'clinical setting', would leave something to be desired, if attempting to represent the 'real world.'
This is is exactly how I'm experiencing the John Deere, Diesel engine-powered electric generator experiment.
I put it in the same category as 'dimpled' cars and Chrysler's 'Turbo
https://www.google.com/search?q=Chry...W0bx_Ooq4,st:0Encabulator'.