Does old oil go off?

[DieselMonk]

Chainsaw oil is made "sticky" so it clings to the bar during the extreme heat generated from cutting. It may sound like a good use for that old oil but my unfortunate experience taught me it will wear the chain, sprocket and bar. You won't notice it for a while, however. I now use winter weight bar oil all year round.

yeah what he said. been there done that.

Regarding the oil, If you knew the oil was stored in a controlled environment with minimal temperature changes and in a sealed container I think it would safe for a vehicle of that era that had that API oil rating as acceptable. Short of that, you could have enough oil-can oil for 40 years.

no. Oil has a shelf life of 2 to 3 years. After that its cuttn lube for the pipe threader, lubmer treatmen or fuel for a waste oil burner, nothing else. Same thing applies for current synthetic motor oils.

 

[mjarrels]

I have a few old quarts of motor oil in the garage... worth much more in a antique store then anywhere else.

mark

 

[Diamondpilot]

I have been following this thread and I am wondering why you would risk any machine over a few bucks saved in old oil. My least expensive machine is my snow blower that is worth $300. I would not chance it.

Chris

 

[patrick_g]

I have been following this thread and I am wondering why you would risk any machine over a few bucks saved in old oil. My least expensive machine is my snow blower that is worth $300. I would not chance it.

Chris

Chris, Being logical huh? There are ways of dealing with that!

So far the three best uses for old oil seem to me to have been:

1. gen purpose lubricant for thread cutting and general shop use

2. heat production

3. Sell to collector

Pat

 

[SPYDERLK]

This may be a dumb question but I have two 20 litre containers of engine oil that the previous owner of my farm left behind - we basically bought everything. I'd reckon it is about 10 years old but still looks ok and smells sweet.

Any risk with using it?

Thanks

Mark

I know theres the additive going bad problem. Maybe serious in an IC engine where it has to deal with water and other combustion byproducts. But for a comparison in other cases, many never change the oil in gearboxes and other applications where contamination does not occur. The life of these items are measured in decades and with perhaps a little make up oil added when needed. Even then they often outlast the host equipment.
Since it is engine oil, if theres no oil consuming engine around that you would trust to have it in, Ild consider mixing it 10-20% in with your diesel and burning it in your tractor. Thats a lot of nice clean oil. You can get a lot of useful energy out of it.
larry

 

[patrick_g]

Thats a lot of nice clean oil. You can get a lot of useful energy out of it.
larry

Larry, When I don't know the results and the downside is an expensive diesel engine, I think I would probably stay under 10% and not even consider approaching 20% but that is because I tend to get conservative in the face of the unknown.

If I knew for a FACT that the additive package would not cause combustion chamber deposits or injector clogging or other problems then I'd advocate up to the 10% mix.

Pat