Oil

Specified oil for the Philips MP1002CA gen set (early 1950's) is SAE 20, Shell Turbo 27 or Vacuum Arctic. Anyone know if these were detergent or 'straight' types?

Reply to
Nick H
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I'd lean towards a non-detergent oil, but at the same time it is not standard product by any means. Shell Turbo 27 appears to be a turbine oil, and while Vacuum Oil Co brochures do come up on ebay from time to time, I haven't been able to find anything but sales brochures on abebooks. I'd guess they didn't have a detergent oil available unless the Arctic grade was a very thin form of it, for use at very low temperatures.

Vacuum Oil Co has an interesting history, look it up on Google and go to the Wikipeadia link:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Reply to
Prepair Ltd

Thanks Peter. Only lube ref material I have is 20 year old work copy of the AeroShell book which predictably makes no mention of Turbo 27. Being external combustion, the oil in the Philips does not have to contend with any nasty blow-by gasses etc and I believe the crank case area should remain well below 100 C. The working space however is heated to 5-600 C and the whole engine pressurised to around 200 Psi. There should be little if any oil in this area, but I imagine a prime requirement would be that any which does make it through should not form deposits on the heat exchangers as this would seriously effect their operation.

Reply to
Nick H

IIRC, Arctic oils are for use in refigeration compressors. Here they typically see sub zero temps in the crank case and 100C+ in the heads. If the compressor application is different use of a heat pump, the temps could differ from this. That I suspect is why it's suggested for this engine. I don't know if the Arctic range contain detergents. I suspect not. When I worked on refrigeration plant, the oil came out as clean as it went in apart from a horrible stink of ammonia. As detergents are to keep dir in suspension, I wouldn't think there was much need here.

John

Reply to
John

Reply to
Algernon

This is odd but logical!

Over 50 years ago- in 1948-50- I was connected with the RAF bit of the Joint Expedition to the Antarctic. Recent research reveals that they still have an Auster Mk7 at RAF Cosford from that. I ran the Technical Library at RAF Hendon and recall that I ordered dozens of books for the little flight. Many were from RCAF sources.

The question was- did the RAF retain ancient Air Publications and if so where. The RAF Museum at Hendon( Oh, yes) has 60, 000 Air Publications in its possession.

You now have a basis to get the correct information. I reckon that one was AP 1464 and the Gypsy engine would be AP. 2440(ish)

You have a starting point

Norman Atkinson

Reply to
norman

Proponents of the stirling engine often compare its closed gas circuit to that of a refrigerator, pointing out that the maintenance intervals of such a sealed system are vastly longer than those of an internal combustion engine making it more suitable as an embedded power source for domestic equipment. In that respect I would imagine the lubrication requirements are indeed similar, though the temperature range will be somewhat different.

Regarding detergents or dispersants, the reason for my question was that virtually all commonly available oils now contain such additives and, even if not actually needed, I wondered whether they were likely to do any harm, either disturbing long dormant clag or by being more likely to leave deposits in the heat exchangers. If the original spec was for a detergent oil then it should be no problem, however, like Peter, I suspect they were more likely to be straight.

BTW. I have several gallons of OC600 (a heavy compounded gear oil) and OMD40 (a light, SAE 10 I think, detergent oil) neither of which will be any use at all!

Reply to
Nick H

Snip

Just a wild thought - what about automatic transmission fluid as a good quality & easily available lubricant?

I understand it is an excellent lubricant and has to withstand highish temperatures in the torque converter etc. It must be lacquer resistant because it would play havoc with the clutches if not.

I await the learned replies.

Tony Brooks

Reply to
Tony Brooks

Mike Hodgson came up with this:-

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Looks interesting - I didn't know the 'Gargoyle' trade name was still used - sort of thing one sees in old ads etc. I guess the only remaining question is whether the 'Arctic' designation was used for refrigerator oils in the

1950's?
Reply to
Nick H

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