Originally Posted by aerohead
Points to ponder:
1) NASA funded the R&D of boric acid, conducted by Dr. Erdemir, at Arch Development Corporation, under a grant from Argonne National Laboratory, from which Advanced Lubrication Technology, Inc., Agoura Hills, California pays a royalty to create Motor Silk.
2) Presently, I know of no motor oil manufacturer who uses the 'Boron-CLS-BOND TECHNOLOGY, a 1991 invention.
3) 'Silk' is to 'displace 'sludge' formed in 'un-warmed' engines, whose standard fill motor oil will already have a 'Detergent / Dispersant' additive package to deal with.
4) 'Silk' is to displace ' varnish', which a OEM standard fill motor oil will have the same 'Detergent / Dispersant' additive package to deal with.
5) 'Silk' is to displace 'carbon'/ 'coking' seen in Turbocharger oil 'cooking.'
6) 'Silk's' 'solid' boric-oxide 'plating' ( of unknown surface roughness ) is to protect from 'surface-to-surface' contact, in an engine that's already 'plated' by a monolayer of motor oil which eliminates surface-to-surface contact, even when 'hot', and when rotative speeds are absent.
7) If 'Silk' performed as in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's notion of 'mixed-film lubrication', at 30-mph, the friction reducing challenge would apply to 1% of the system energy, improving it to 0.7% at 'best case scenario, allowing for a maximum MPG improvement of 0.14%.
8) At 80-mph, if 'Silk' was providing it's best-case, 90% parasitic friction reduction, it would have a capability of a 0.298% mpg increase.
9) A 5% parasitic friction reduction is required for a 1% mpg increase.
10) 'Silk', to replace Zinc, Organic phosphates, acid phosphates, organic sulfur, chlorine compounds, Molybdenum disulfide, and 'Boron', as friction modifier, Extreme-Pressure (EP ) additives, becomes problematic considering that catalytic converter performance is degraded by the presence of 'Boron.'
11) 'Testimonials' submitted as 'evidence' as to the efficacy of Motor Silk's engine performance, lack the scientific rigor of SAE, ASTM testing methodologies.
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WARNING:
* 'chemically balanced motor oil products receive no benefit from aftermarket additives.' General Motors Research Laboratories
* 'The additive may greatly strengthen the ability of the oil for some duties while greatly weakening other abilities.' Professor Edward F. Obert
* ' additives must be chemically compatible with each other as well as with the base oil,... have little negative impact on the performance of the catalytic converter'. Winkelmann et al., REM Chemicals, Inc.
* 'non-textured 'smooth' = less performance than a smooth-textured.' Ditto.
* Arbitrary 'smoothing' of a surface can destroy a micro-textured isotropic surface that facilitates lubrication.' Winkelmann et al..
* 'micro-pitting is tied to fatigue and may not reveal itself until much later in a vehicle's duty cycle, at the expense of major mechanical overhauls.' Ditto.
* ' Outdoor environmental test condition variability make it difficult to produce repeatable results.' Ditto.
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It's 2024. 'Boric acid in motor oil' dates to 1991 engine technology.
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