Hi Guys :)
New here
I researched the hell out of this.
US5431830A - Lubrication from mixture of boric acid with oils and greases - Google Patents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44722874
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043164817302545
Sci-Hub | Lubrication Properties of Vegetable Oils Combined with Boric Acid and Determination of Their Effects on Wear. Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 32(3), 275–285 | 10.1080/15567030802606053
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2010.0183
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10402004.2014.909549
Sci-Hub | Effect of surfactant on tribological performance and tribochemistry of boric acid based colloidal lubricants. Tribology - Materials, Surfaces & Interfaces, 6(3), 134–141 | 10.1179/1751584x12y.0000000016
https://www.anl.gov/article/argonne...ineering-for-pivotal-discoveries-in-tribology
Sci-Hub | Experimental Investigations to Enhance the Tribological Performance of Engine Oil by Using Nano-Boric Acid and Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes: A Comparative Study to Assess Wear in Bronze Alloy. Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, 27(6), 2782–2795 | 10.1007/s11665-018-3384-9
My Experience With adding Boric Acid in Engine oil
Consequence of Blowby Flow and Idling Time on Oil Consumption and Particulate Emissions in Gasoline Engine
Sci-Hub | Investigation of the Effects of Boron Additives on the Performance of Engine Oil. Tribology Transactions, 57(4), 740–748 | 10.1080/10402004.2014.909549
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ent_of_Self-Contained_Water_Injection_Systems
And am currently in a hell of an argument, with lots of links to the peer reviewed published research on BA, starting around here:
BORPower additive? - Page 3 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com
Interesting reading where I debate this with... Is he a complete skeptic, or someone choosing to not come out from under his rock?
It's like he's being paid to take a dump on any and all research!? Even scientific field tests in vehicles!! And experiences like yours.
(I'm currently looking for more research papers pertaining to research on it in engines, engine oil, gearboxes , diffs, etc, plz)
Anyway this is what I learned:
(All the links are in my posts are here on:
BORPower additive? - Page 3 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com
Plz feel free to join and post your experiences with BA there. It'd help what I'm trying to do there a lot if you )
The Boric Acid powder we buy is actually more Boric Oxide, which is not the active ingredient you want:
Boric Oxide is very hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs moisture from the air forming Boric Acid, which is why Boric Acid and Oxide are interchanged so much in literature.
The Boric Oxide reacts with water to form Boric Acid which is what you do want.
Fortunately all engines burns Hydrocarbons in oxygen, forming water.
Well ideally they would. But the reaction is far from ideal.
There's CO2, CO, unburned HCs, etc but my point being; a car produces about a liter of water (steam/vapour) for every liter of fuel burned.
Because of blowby you end up getting around 6.9 liters of steam/water vapour flowing through your crankcase per minute.
When the engine is cold, some of that may condense, forming an emulsion with the oil.
That hot water (solvent) gets into contact with the hygroscopic, water absorbing Boric Oxide powder (solute) in your oil, forming the Boric Acid (solution)
A chemical reaction:
B2O3 + H20 = H3BO3 or B(OH)3 (same thing; different notation)
Exothermic: releases energy as heat
Even in your filter, which wont filter out the water based solution.
BO is a lot more soluble in hot water than in cold, as found in engine oil most of the time.
So now you have an emulsion of BA and water as tiny droplets floating in the oil.
When and wherever this solution touches metal it reacts with it forming an extremely thin, extremely hard, chemically inert ceramic layer on the metal surface.
This is the first layer of the layer BA forms. It's so inert = resistive to chemical attack that once the layer is formed no acids of combustion can get to the surface to erode it anymore.
Not even itself..!
This 1st layer then transitions to an extremely thin, strong layer of microscopic platelets that are weakly attracted to each other.
Think of a huge number of lightly oiled, microscopic playing cards, on a table, that move very easily over each other if you put your hand down on them and drag it.
If the table isn't flat but has card sized dents or pits in it, the cards will collect in them, filling them...
So its Boric ACID you want..!
Based on what I learned; I dissolved the BO in hot water:
- I dissolved the finely ground BO in boiling water till the solution was over-saturated so there was around a teaspoon of undissolved powder in the mixture.
(The undissolved extra was for any water already in or soon to be in the oil...)
I added that to a warmed up car engine that was full to the top mark with oil.
Then I drove off, taking it easy as the BA-water emulsion will thin the oil.
After around 10 km the treatment kicks in and you can feel the difference!
Most of this water will boil/evaporate off in short order, leaving the treated surface and micro platelets.
You can imagine for yourself just how small the recrystallized platelets are that are formed as the water evaporates..! Much smaller than anything you can grind...
The stuff gets in under sludge, loosening it.
NB This can block the very fine strainer on VW (Golf, Jetta, etc ) oil pump pickup, requiring a sump drop and replacing the fine sieve with a coarser one.
NB This only happened with VWs, for me...
In most cars its fine, but I chose to change the oil and filters on the cars I have treated about 50-100km after the treatment kicks in, to get rid of the sludge.
I add a tiny amount of Solution to the new oil, just for good measure!
If you're still awake; thx for listening. :) I hope it was informative.
I hope to see you on the ecomodder thread too.
