Yep, a huge liability. The gum everything up, corrode parts and seperate in the fuel very easily.
I read a lot of your post on oil. I have been using the same 2 oils for years (all synthetic) but it is good for someone post their tech knowledge on them GOOD INFO. I am old school and got a habit of shaking my can up everytime, even when you don't have too. haha, cheers
When castor seperates shaking up the fuel is of little use. It almost immediately drops out of suspension. The cooler the temps the worse this problem gets.
It's interesting to read how poor castor oils actually behave, I've never used them. However growing up, we knew this family that drag raced anything that moved, snowmobiles, dirtbikes, motorcycles, cars, atvs, they would have drag raced a wheelchair if it had a 2-stroke engine with an expansion chamber.
Back in the day before nicisil cylinder, coatings,liquid cooling and rudimentary knowledge of head and pipe designs castor was needed in many cases. The engines just could not get rid of the heat. They were on the verge of seizure all the time.
The era for those castor antics were the early 90's right up to present day, but the old patriarch was racing the old air cooled stuff you described for decades. So he probably just kept using castor oil out of habit haha.
I get the sense the castor oils do have some legendary lubricity qualities, but just come with baggage.
How does it taste? Can you fry potatoes in it?
Actually more like the 70's with some exceptions like Yamaha KT100 kart engines and the like.
Yep we're saying the same thing, the guys I knew started using castor in the 70's in the old air-cooled sleds, and then even by the 90's when they were running liquid-cooled, nicasil bore engines, they kept using castor religiously. I guarantee they STILL do.
Early 70's is correct within the Castor era for race applications , ran it in numerous race engines , never had an engine failure . Decarbonizing was routine maintenance protocol . Dirty oil , but it was what is was back then lol. Today several castor based oils have been blended with ester oils for a cleaner final product , however I still see no need for their usage in any of my recreational engine applications .
Exactly , ledgendary protection lol. Castor bonds to local hot spots instananously preventing galling between metal to metal surfaces . In extreme service , back in the day this ensured reliable performance short term but at a cost of religious tear downs for required cleaning of piston crowns & rings , cylinder heads & exhaust ports . The only things i miss from the castor oil days is the aroma of castor & racing fuel on a Saturday afternoon at the track !
The problem with castor in snowmobiles is that it drops out of suspension very easily in the cold. I never new of anyone to use it in sleds, but I wasn't racing in the 70's.
Same as other modern ester oils....but without Castor side "effects"
Super Techniplate mixed with VP MR2 gives off a heavenly odor. Of course it's not good to smell the fumes of leaded fuel doped with MTBE..
Not even close to the same. When an ester reaches its end point it unzips and turns to gas. When castor reaches the same point it polymerizes into a grease like substance.
Could not aggree more Ben , a dirty sludge like homogenous mass . I would rather tear down any commercial x frame diesel , then an 2T engine running Castor for 50 hrs .
