Moly Additives

[mrutkaus]

Does anybody use Moly (MOS2) engine oil or hydraulic oil additives?

I have used them in cars for decades, hard to tell if they helped but never caused any problems. Motorcycle seemed to run cooler afterwards (they say you shoudn't use them in motorcycle cluthes but never caused problems there either).

Mike

 

[mrutkaus]

Guess not!

 

[Bird]

I guess most of us are reluctant to answer such questions. Personally, I am not a chemist and do not have the technical knowledge to accurately evaluate such products. However, there's no way I'd use such a product either. Having grown up in the auto parts business as a youngster and having been a fleet manager for several years, it's my personal opinion that the best you can hope for with such additives is that they do no damage.

 

[kenmac]

There are several brands that use moly .The amount differs from brand to brand. Some oil companies will tell you the amount (in ppms) others will not.You would have to have an oil analysis to find out.most motorcycles & some ATV'S with a wet type clutch ,call for an oil with no friction motifiers.

 

[HomeBrew2]

I didn't know any were available. I've always used a general purpose, extreme pressure, lithium based grease with Moly such as Stalube's product.
I would not be reluctant to answer if I used Moly oils, just never heard of them.

 

[Dargo]

I would not be reluctant to answer if I used Moly oils, just never heard of them.

I didn't use Molly Oils, but I did go out with her sister once...

 

[HomeBrew2]

I heard she wound up marrying Wimpy

 

[DieselPower]

I'm a salesman for Texas Refinery Corp. Do Moly engine oils and gear oils work, yep, they greatly reduce friction, wear and heat. Would I suggest a "Moly" additive for use in a hydraulic oil system, probably not, at least not as much as I would for other systems. The additive you want to see a large amount of in hydraulic oil is zinc and depending on the exact type fluid, Sulfated Ash and Calcium, not moly. Moly works great in engine oils and in gear oils where you are trying to prevent metal to metal sliding friction under extreme loads but low fluid preasure. Hydraulic oils and hydraulic systems pose some unique lubrication needs and problems that are best handled with zinc rather than moly.

Best practice is that you should start with a high quality lubricant and never have to "add" to it. For high quality hydraulic oils you should look for one that has a zinc contnet of 0.10 Wt. % and in universal tractor fluids they should be around 0.20 Wt. %. Most every day quality hydraulic oils have around .05% or less by weight and average universal tractor fluids around 0.10% or les by weight.

The only time I recomend using a additive is if your trying to boost the performance of a lower quality lubricant. High quality lubricants are enginered with (how should I put this) all the "good stuff" already there, so there's no need to add more additives to it.

The best advice is to spend the money on better lubricants at the start instead of trying to boost their performance later after problems arise.

 

[mrutkaus]

Hey DieselPower, I see you all have some motor oils with moly! You carefully restrained yourself from advertising them!

I have gotten Motor Eze from TS Moly down in Texas for years. They have a bunch of moly products seemingly oriented toward the oil rigs and heavy equipment industry.

Yes, moly in hydraulic oil is new and you appear the be the person to answer such questions.

I guess one key is, as in your and TS Moly products, "non-settling" or "collodial" moly in the 1 micron range or less. In which case it would be difficult for it to harm or clog anything. And there is the whole 80 year history of moly lore in lubrication circles, to me it is impressive.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[DieselPower]

That's so true about the "history of moly lore in lubrication circles". There are alway's sceptical people about certain oil additives. I think (personally) one reason some people have a hard time convincing themselves to use moly products is that the oil starts out blackish gray and "looking" like used oil.

Simple fact is that there have been hundreds if not thousands of technical papers and research studies done over the last couple of decades that prove it's safe to use. Even the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have done their own independant studies and all use moly lubricants in one form or another.

Simple advice when making a choice of a moly oil or additive is to make sure that it is either Molybdenum Disulfide (known simply as Moly) of less than .5 micron in size or that it is Molybbendum DialkylDithiocarbamate (known as soluble Moly, which is soluble in oil). When picking a oil with Molydbendum Disulfide the reason you want a particle size of .5 micron or less is that at this size it is not filtered out of the oil and can stay in suspension in the oil and not fall out/settle. Particle sizes of larger than .5 micron can get traped in high efficency filters and due to their larger size tend to settle out of the oil.

All TRC lubricants use either Moly Disulfide with a particle size of .33 micron or the soluble type moly. Both of which easily stay in suspension in the oil and are not filtered out.

Another type of moly you may hear about is Molybdenum di-2-ethylhexylphosphorodithiolate. This form of Moly is mainly used in hydraulic oils only.