RE: Oil Temps

["Glen Powell" <gpowell@acacianet.com>]

Glen Powell wrote something to the effect of...

You want you oil to be at the minimum above boiling of water to rid the system
of moisture...

A few points here:  If the moisture were to be "gotten rid of", where would it
go?  Aren't the oil systems closed.  Suppose then it stays in the system as
steam.  Steam is worse than water for corrosion, aggressive tendencies, etc.
And a final point:  The boiling point of water is 212 F or 100 C at standard
pressure  (1 bar).  My engine oil (system) is only at 1 bar when the motor is
off.
<snip>

Not quite. On older pre-emission cars the crankcase was totally open and vented to the atmosphere. Modern emission cars vent the crankcase to the induction system. Some amount of gas always escapes from the combustion chambers, passing the rings and into the crankcase, called 'blowby', creating positive pressure in the crankcase. These gasses recirculate back into the engine via the induction system. Moisture in the oil does get boiled off, turns to 'steam' and is then reingested by the engine, via the inductin system and into the combustion chambers and ultimate exiting via the exhaust system. The 'air' in the crankcase is slowly but constantly replaced by blowby gasses.

-glen

-glen