For all you who use Mobil-1 to lubricate.....

[481]

I hadn't thought about using motor oil on guns, but in the Army we used 10w on M85 machineguns on M60-series tanks in hot weather when we were firing lots of .50 cal.

I'll have to give it another try.

ECS

I'd like to hear more about this, if you care to provide some details.

How was and from where was the motor oil obtained? What brand? What lube regimen did you follow or was it just lube the .50s when they needed it? How'd it perform in your opinion?

 

[wishin]

I'd like to hear more about this, if you care to provide some details.

How was and from where was the motor oil obtained? What brand? What lube regimen did you follow or was it just lube the .50s when they needed it? How'd it perform in your opinion?

Never did that, but when I was on a tank we got our oil from the motor pool in OD cans that weren't brand marked.

 

[Al Thompson]

Ditto what wishin said. I was mech Infantry when we had M113s. The M2 .50 cals were mounted in the open on top of the M113, so protection from the rain and snow was important. We used the 30w (IIRC) oil that was available from the motor pool. When we live fired, we found that motor oil seemed to last longer than CLP in the crew served weapons and was available in bulk.

 

[BURN]

if you are firing one of the M2's I am responsible for and I found you were using anytihing other than approved lube.....I would be upset....


more for liability reasons of maintinance than anythnig else....

if it is your M2 a heaver motor oil would be fine I guess.....

 

[D!rty H@rry]

i use M1 5w-40 in my truck.

use PP 5w-20 in the cars.

i use machine oil on my machines(guns),

just sayin'!

oh and my G34, shes got about 4K down the pipe. looks like it has 400.

 

[Al Thompson]

Burn, if you look into it, motor oil and ATF were (may still be) substitute standard. In fact, you could run gasoline in a diesel engine as long as you followed the protocol for adding various blends of motor oil to the fuel tank on the M35 series trucks. The TMs tend to have more in-depth information than the FMs. And the POL guys have some very interesting TMs for their products.

 

[Slamfire]

I would like to see some data on why ATF is a better lubricant than motor oils.

Transmission fluids first and foremost are hydralic oils. Excellent at transmitting power through the fluid. Maybe transmission fluids also act as lubricants, I really don't know.

I do know that motor oils are great lubricants. They are not good at rust prevention, probably not so good at other things. But as lubricants, they are excellent and cheap.

I was able to pull, and have on my computer, a 1999 version of SAE J300 Engine Oil Viscosity Classification.

“Scope—This SAE Standard defines the limits for a classification of engine lubricating oils in rheological terms only. Other oil characteristics are not considered or included.”

I also have a 1998 version of SAE-J2363, "Lubricating Oil, for Wheeled Military Vehicles with Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines".

Scope- this SAE Standard describes lubricating oils meeting the API performance categories CF, CF-2, and CG-4, and the SAE J300. These oils are suitable for the lubrication of wheeled vehicles with compression-ignition (diesel) engines. This document is equivalent to the military’s Commercial Item Description A-A-52306 when all requirements are met.”

These specs have limited page count but the matrices call out all sorts of ASTM test standards.

Motor oil has to pass a bunch of tests. If you want to see the federal specs on tests, you will find detailed test methods in : FED-STD-791—Lubricants, Liquid Fuels and Related Products; Methods of Testing. http://www.everyspec.com/FED-STD/FED-STD-791D_6211/

Take a look at Method 6508.2 “LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY OF LUBRICATING OILS” Tests are not cheap, eh?

I have not gone looking for the ATF standard But based on the documentation I have, motor oils have to meet a lot of requirements and are just great lubricants.

I used a quart of 5W-30 Mobil 1 up and now I am using 15W-30. I may go back to 5W-30.

CF, “compression ignition” oils for diesels have more additives than SF “spark ignition” oils. Diesel engines run dirtier that gasoline engines and need more oil additives. Additives are both good and expensive. This explains why Diesel oils cost more.

 

[wishin]

Al Thompson

Yeah, you had those Jimmy diesels in the 113's. I remember the Multi-fuel engines in the early M35's were terrible on straight gas, although they were originally designed to run on either gas or diesel fuel.

 

[Al Thompson]

wishin, I have to admit that I never had the guts to run mogas in a 2 1/2 ton, though the book said we could.

Did a little Google-Fu, looks like CLP for temperate climates is the only Army authorized lube these days. Getting CLP in our unit in Iraq was sort of hit or miss. Motor oil worked just fine.

As I've said before, I think using the right amount of lube in the right place and right frequency is more important than which exact lube.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Burn, if you look into it, motor oil and ATF were (may still be) substitute standard.

Definitely not! ATF can sometimes be used as power steering fluid though. Switching ATF and engine oil in any vehicle I am familiar with is a great way to harm both.

Also, there is not one standard for ATF. Pretty much each transmission manufacturer has their own standard, many have several. GM has had at least four ATF standards, although each newer standard is supposed to be back-compatible. In the '90's, alot of problems were caused with Chrysler 4 speed FWD transmissions when the manuals mistakenly said that ATF+4 (the right fluid) or Dexron IV ATF could be used. Dexron has different friction characteristics and caused terrible shifting in those transmissions because their clutches and controller were designed for ATF+4. This is not to say that Dexron IV is bad - it is what should go in the appropriate GM transmissions - but it is a different standard and aside from both being red they are not the same.