MEASUREMENTS OF POUR POINTS, FLASH POINTS, WATER CONTENTS AND VISCOSITY OF SOME SELECTED AUTOMOBILE OILS USED AS LUBRICANTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The aims of this paper is to determine the viscosity of the automobile lubricating oils at 0⁰ C to 100⁰C, and some of the lubricant's specifications( flash point and pour point) obtained with a rapid evaluation device and the standardized method using DV-E viscometer. The study material comprised 5 fresh engine oils, all of which are commercially available. ASTM D5949 was the method implored for determining the pour point of the samples. It was found that all the multi-grades oil coincide at 100⁰C, which is approximately engine operating temperature. That is they have almost the same viscosity at 100⁰C (43.2cst and 51.2cst (centistokes)).  However, some are desirable than others. Therefore, one has to be careful when choosing these oils. The study fills an important gap in empirical research in the context of the reliability of measurement results using various research techniques.