Motor Oil as Gun Lube

[Heavy Metal]

And combustion byproducts contain water vapor, which get blown into the insides of your engine all the time. (See crankcase ventilation.)

Without the anti-rust additives in your engine oil, it would be ruined in short order.

The heat of your engine drives that moisture out thru the CCV.

I guarentee you that when you burn hydrogen compounds and oxygen, you will get some water.

You will get water from the combustion of gunpowder too.

[lanceriley]

back in the 70s Philippines was under Martial Law. Civilians weren't allowed to own firearms. for those who did. they were asked to surrender thier firearms to the Police.

some who didn't want to surrender thier prized possessions. they built a metal pan put all thier guns in. filled it with engine oil. closed the door. sealed it with silicon. burried it in dirt. until the 80s when martial law ended. 86' I think. all the guns never rusted. that was a 15year martial rule.

I have an anschutz 22 cal that came to me that way. it is licensed now.

[mtk]

The heat of your engine drives that moisture out thru the CCV.

I guarentee you that when you burn hydrogen compounds and oxygen, you will get some water.

You will get water from the combustion of gunpowder too.

Well, the reason I've spent the better part of two decades being involved with a rust test to evaluate engine oils is because, wait for it, the engine will rust without the proper additives in the oil due to those combustion products.

And for the record, your engine oil drives out the moisture if you drive it long enough to get the oil temperature over 212F to boil it off. Grandma's short-drive cycle will never reach that temp, resulting in all kinds of problems.

[lanceriley]

haven't rusted my firearm internals due to engine oil. and just like my previous post... nor will it after 15years soaked in cheap engine oil. We didn't have synthetic back then.

[bkb0000]

Some more evidence in the case for Mobil1- i'm pretty much a full believer after yesterday's shoot. after last session about a week ago i cleaned up and heavily lubed. gun sat until yesterday, with no additional lube.

we weren't expecting to be able to run our drills for long, being Obama day and all, so we headed down range figuring we'd get a couple cycles in before other people showed up to celebrate- nobody showed up till 3:00, and by then we were pretty pooped and about done for the day anyway.

i got home and stripped her down, noticed eveything was muddy but still plenty wet- the only two dry spots on the upper assembly were the carrier ramp and the barrel extension, and even the extension wasn't bone dry- just thick mud. cleaned everything up easily and got out my bullet book to tally up rounds for the day- to my surprise, 15 empty 30 rounders and 4 empty 20 rounders- 530 rounds fired, a lot of that rapid and smoking, without adding lube, and it was still wet and running smooth.

and most of the ammo was wolf.

not mind-boggling, but i was impressed.

FWIW

[lanceriley]

always have worked for me. engine oil doesn't really dry up that fast. specially the synthetics.

[dcmdon]

A friend of mine was in the Seal teams. He served in the humid jungles of the Carribbean and Central America in the late 80s and early 90s. The first time we went shooting I was astonished at what he brought along.

He took out his AR and before loading it he pulled out a quart bottle of motor oil. Poking out through a hole cut in the top was the loop end of a baby bottle brush. He took the top off, pulled out the brush and slathered the internals of his AR with all that oil. He made sure that plenty got into the bolt carrier.

yech.
Having been a handgun guy, I always ran my guns with judiciously applied dabs of grease on the rails and lots of dry lubricant on the internals.

But I'll tell you what. His guns never jammed. He also mentioned that in the jungle, they didnt rust either.

With that said, some comment on the oil.
I really dont think what kind of oil you use is that important. The punishment a firearm will subject oil to is nothing compared to what an internal combustion engine dishes out. Particularly an air cooled engine that is run at high throttle settings for long periods. Like a reciprocating aircraft engine.

One other thing about aircraft engines. They sit unused for longer periods of time than car engines do, and their cam shafts are in a location where they tend to dry out between runnings.

For that reason aircraft oil has more and better anti-corosion additives. (and other additives to improve "cling") So if you are a real wacko, I'd bet that the somewhat inferior lubricity of aircraft oil (leaded av-gas precludes the use of a full synthetic base) is more than made up for by the improved corrosion protection.

Don

p.s. I still cant bring myself to do it. Even though I know its the right thing to do.

[Bimmer]

Mobil 1 is a synthetic based oil, not a petroleum based oil.

Hmmm... I don't think so. They're both ultimately based on petroleum. They're not making "synthetic" out of nothing. AFAIK, "synthetic" is just better refined, better additives, etc.

[Bimmer]

The punishment a firearm will subject oil to is nothing compared to what an internal combustion engine dishes out.

I think you're wrong here...

Engines have oil pumps, and the real pressure points are fed pressured oil to keep metal from rubbing metal.

Guns don't have oil pumps, only residual oil, which is quickly flung off/cooked off. Then it's metal-on-metal.

Somebody posted a thread on the "friction modifier" in Weapon Shield or Militec a week or two ago. It made for fascinating reading...

[lanceriley]

engine have oil pumps and oil filters since your run them 3000miles before an oil change.

a 4cylinder engine running at 800 rpm idle. "explodes" 400 times per cylinder for a total of 1,200 times. And that is just in 1 minute @ 800 rpm.

so imagine 3000 miles.... that's why they need pump.

as for the AR. you could just manually add the oil. but even at 500 round count. oil is still there. to viscuous to get blown off. as for the cook off.... that's why we use synthetic as they don't cook off easily.