Motor oil — fuel economy vs. wear

If you were told you could increase your fuel economy just by switching to a thinner oil, would you do it? We bet a fair number of people (especially those who aren’t mechanically inclined) would. Your fuel economy increases, you help the environment, you pay less (or at least less frequently) at the pump. It’s a great thing …. isn’t it?

The million dollar question is — does the thinner oil provide the same protection? If not, what are you willing to compromise to achieve that higher fuel economy?

We just found this article in Machinery Lubrication that talks about the development of thinner oils, which boost fuel economy but cause more wear.

Obviously this article was written before the current fuel crunch has more and more people concerned about fuel economy, but we still found it satisfying food for thought.

Predictive maintenance at Harley Davidson

“The Harley-Davidson image is the antithesis of predictable. No schedules. No plans. No boundaries. No cares. The unknown lies around the bend. Just strap on the helmet, fire up the engine and ride….
The Harley-Davidson manufacturing image, however, is all about predictability. No surprises. No bottlenecks. No breakdowns. No downtime. What lies ahead is known. Just turn on the production equipment and create.”   read more

This excerpt is from a recent article in Reliable Plant about the impressive predictive maintenance system in place at the Harley plant outside of Milwaukee. We appreciated the comments from the plant’s maintenance manager about reactive maintenance or “fire-fighting” and how this seems to be rewarded in corporate America — but that Harley understands that it’s even better if you can keep those problems from occurring in the first place.

Change your “oil change culture”

At IntelliStick, we try to show people the folly of sticking to the old business-as-usual, interval-based, change-you-oil-every-3,000-mile mindset. We know the dangers — that you’re changing your oil too soon (and wasting oil/not being eco-friendly) or that you’re changing your oil too late (and risking big-time repairs). But people inherently resist change (here’s 10 reasons why).

Change your Lubrication Culture

So even after you’ve found a brilliant new way to manage your engine’s maintenance, you might find resistance in getting everyone onboard. We found an article that we liked in Machinery Lubrication that talks about the 4-step shift to change your “Lubrication Culture”. We think it is helpful to acknowledge that making a change is a process and that it will take time for everyone to make the shift.

nav system

Garmin Nuvi 465T

Another item of interest to come out of the MATS was the Garmin nüvi 465T — a navigation system designed for truckers, RVers and other long-haul drivers. After inputting the specs for your truck/RV/tractor it dials up specific restrictions for height, width, length, weight and hazardous materials.  Plus it’s plugged in to the NTTS directory.

We’d be interested to hear feedback from anyone who already has one or is thinking about getting one.

Early Warning for Intrusion

We’ve all heard the saying “water and oil don’t mix”. While that statement sounds rather benign,  the resulting damage from water in oil can be devastating to all types of motors. According to Noria, water intrusion in lubricants can reduce bearing life by as much as 80%.

IntelliStick has a client which operates a packaging mill in the Midwest. Because of the nature of the mill, it is a “wet” environment and maintenance engineers expect some level of water intrusion, especially in gear boxes in close proximity to water used in the manufacturing process. But while some levels of intrusion are considered acceptable,  others are considered severe and must be identified immediately in order to minimize the damage to the bearings and avoid costly plant shut downs. The graph, below, represents the raw data from the IntelliStick which identified a serious water intrusion and alerted the customer about the problem.

Water Intrusion

that’s one BIG engine

Last month the IntelliStick engineers installed a dipstick product at a paper mill in Los Angeles, CA. When I heard it was being installed in a cogen engine I knew it would be bigger than a breadbox, but I had no idea it would be housed in a cargo container! Check it out:

Cogenerator Reciprocating Engine

The 20 cylinder natural gas engine burns natural gas to make electricity, saving the plant more than 25% in energy costs. Also, its exhaust gas is used to dry the paper. The engine has accumulated 20,000 hrs in run time in 3 years, which is the equivalent of running it 18 hours per day. 

LNG Plant to Fuel Clean Truck Program

In mid-November a new liquid natural gas plant, owned by Clean Energy Fuels (founded by T. Boone Pickens), started production near the city of Boron in the Mojave desert. This new plant will produce 160,000 gallons of LNG per day. There are already expansion plans which will allow it to produce 240,000 gallons per day in about one year.

For those of us living in close proximity to the Ports of Long Beach and L.A., LNG will be one of the alternative fuels used to meet the new emissions standards set by the Clean Truck Program which went into effect October 1, 2008. The goal of the Clean Truck Program is to help the ports reduce port truck emissions by 80 percent by 2012. Up to 15,000 high-polluting diesel trucks are to be removed and replaced with cleaner-burning vehicles.

Note: compressed natural gas (CNG), which is not as heavily compressed as LNG, is what you typically see used in passenger cars.

vegetable oil fuel systems

While several of the IntelliStick crew know people who are running vegetable oil in lieu of diesel oil, there is a company out there that sells a system that converts diesel fuel systems to straight vegetable oil (SVO). This goes far beyond E85. You can check it out at frybrid.com. Be sure to review the FAQs as there are some legal issues with operating this type of fuel system.

If anyone out there is running a vegetable oil fuel system, Fyrbrid or any other, please let us know about your experience. We’d love to hear how it works.

from condition based monitoring to predictive monitoring

While CBM (condition-based monitoring) has proven to be superior to reactive calendar-based monitoring, there is potential for a greater level of knowledge of equipment condition using Predictive Maintenance (PdM). Karl Faller of TI-data authored a white paper for the Society of Petroleum Engineers titled Combining Condition Monitoring and Predictive Modeling to Improve Equipment Uptime on Drilling Rigs.

According to the paper, “Decision-makers must be able to react upon the data that will have the greatest impact on equipment performance and profitability. A condition based predictive modeling system mitigates equipment failing unexpectedly, prematurely, or underperforming, or experiencing excessive maintenance costs.”

While the white paper is specific to drilling rigs, the same approach could be applied to a variety of industries including manufacturing, power generation, and transportation – anywhere that uptime is critical.

Happy Halloween for Everyone at IntelliStick

Here’s a Halloween joke for you, courtesy of Halloween Humor.

Pecans in the Cemetary

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.

“One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me,” said one boy.

Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.

Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery.

He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”
He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane,hobbling along.

“Come here quick,” said the boy, “you won’t believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls.”

The man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk.” When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled to the cemetery. Standing by the fence they heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me…”

The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ the truth.

Let’s see if we can see the Lord.” Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything.

The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.

At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all.

Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done.”

They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the boy on the bike.