I went to a bearing inspection school at Timken (one of, if not, the leading tapered bearing manufacturer in the world... or so they said) about a month ago, and part of the classes had to do with lubricity and longevity of certain oils, among other properties.

They have a state of the art lab, in which they test oils to failure and check additive levels and, in general, abuse the oils in an incredible variation of environments (high load, low load, high temp, low temp, with foriegn material in it, etc.). They test all sorts of oil, for all sorts of applications, as well as doing contract work as an independent laboratory.

During the part of our training that took us to the lab, I asked one of the heads of that department if they did testing on motor oils. He said they've tested every motor and gear oil known to them (since they have a good chunk of the automotive bearing industry), and that the single, best performing oil on the market is Mobil One. He said the oil was a little "thin" for their tastes (as in, the layer of oil that seperates the parts allows them to come very close together), but it outperformes all other oils they've tested by a large margin.

He also mentioned Red-line Gear oils, but we didn't have much chance to talk after that, so I never got the scoop on it.

I just thought you guys might appreciate knowing.

 

So they claim Mobil 1 is better than Royal Purple or Redline motor oil? That's surprising, I think most other tests usually find RP and Redline to perform better.

 

interesting.

 

not completely independant ones....

 

He didn't mention Redline or Royal Purple Motor oils, specifically, so I can't be certain that they tested those, but he did mention Redline gear oil specifically, so I would assume he is at least aware that those motor oils exist and he made the comment that they had tested "every brand of motor oil out there".

Take it for what it's worth, I guess, but to my knowledge, Mobil doesn't have any affiliation with Timken.

 

Oh yeah, I thought I'd mention that he was specifically talking about their properties in regards to protecting the metal. They test on the microscopic level (they use an electron microscope in the process, one of 3 on site) for metal to metal contact.

It's a very sophisticated arrangement, though I wouldn't have any idea if it's any more or less sophisticated than another labs.

I bring it up because the other tests may have been looking for something else in regards to oil performance. This is a bearing company and, as such, they are primarily concerned with bearing life and metal wear (which would put foriegn material into the oil).

 

too bad the designer of the renesis said to avoid mobil one as it doesn't mix correctly in the oil metering pump...

https://www.rx8club.com/1081336-post/

there's been some discussion that that wasn't necessarily the case though.

 

Yes, I saw that. I should have added that our conversation was not rotary specific.

Honestly, I'd like to see some more on that subject, but, obviously, it's not exactly the top priority in the Rotary community.

I've considered running it in my 8, but, I have some reservations...

Thanks for pointing that out.