When an engine oil is cooled, the rate and duration of cooling can affect its yield stress and viscosity. In this laboratory test, a fresh engine oil is slowly cooled through a temperature range where wax crystallization is known to occur, followed by relatively rapid cooling to the final test temperature. These laboratory test results have predicted as failures the known engine oils that have failed in the field because of lack of oil pumpability. These documented field failing oils have all consisted of oils normally tested at –25°C. These field failures are believed to be the result of the oil forming a gel structure that results in either excessive yield stress or viscosity of the engine oil, or both.
Cooling Profiles:
For oils to be tested at −20°C or colder, Table X1.1 applies. The cooling profile described in Table X1.1 is based on the viscosity properties of the ASTM Pumpability Reference Oils (PRO). This series of oils includes oils with normal low-temperature flow properties and oils that have been associated with low-temperature pumpability problems (1-5). Significance for the −35 and −40°C temperature profiles is based on the data collected from the “Cold Starting and Pumpability Studies in Modern Engines” conducted by ASTM (6,7).
For oils to be tested at −15 or −10°C, Table X1.2 applies. No significance has been determined for this temperature profile because of the absence of appropriate reference oils. Similarly, precision of the test method using this profile for the −10°C test temperature is unknown. The temperature profile of Table X1.2 is derived from the one in Table X1.1 and has been moved up in temperature, relative to Table X1.1, in consideration of the expected higher cloud points of the viscous oils tested at −15 and −10°C.
1.1 This test method covers the measurement of the yield stress and viscosity of engine oils after cooling at controlled rates over a period exceeding 45 h to a final test temperature between –10 and –40°C. The viscosity measurements are made at a shear stress of 525 Pa over a shear rate of 0.4 to 15 s–1. The viscosity as measured at this shear stress was found to produce the best correlation between the temperature at which the viscosity reached a critical value and borderline pumping failure temperature in engines.
1.2 This test method contain two procedures: Procedure A incorporates several equipment and procedural modifications from Test Method D 4684–02 that have shown to improve the precision of the test, while Procedure B is unchanged from Test Method D 4684–02. Additionally, Procedure A applies to those instruments that utilize thermoelectric cooling technology or direct refrigeration technology of recent manufacture for instrument temperature control. Procedure B can use the same instruments used in Procedure A or those cooled by circulating methanol.
1.3 Procedure A of this test method......
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