Hi all,

I am wondering if any of you have tried to use massive amounts of molybdenum disulfide mixed into your steam oil?

I know that very small amounts of it are put into most all motor oils and there are a few companys that sell it by it self in small flasks. I am rather skeptical about their rather fantastic claims, but who knows, I will believe anything once.

I am curious if anyone knows how this would effect the condenser and boiler tubes if it migrated there. It is claimed that it fills in the crevaces(micro) in the surface of metals, if true that doesn't bode well for heat transfer.

Acording to the hype it should be of great benefit for any slide valve steam engine, especially on start up.

Thanks,

Caleb Ramsby

Hi Caleb,

I don't have anything car-sized running yet, but I have been seriously considering graphite in the crankcase oil to help the babbitt eccentrics & crosshead slides I designed, when starting out from a stop with no hydrodynamic oil film. Also nice for the valve gear pivots, etc.. Graphite has been used in cylinder oil, in fact a light graphited cylinder oil was factory-recommended for early condensing Stanleys, though I have seen reports of oil pumps & lines plugging with it. I have been giving that some thought too, for more slippery slide valves. Graphite fights "stiction". McMaster lists some off the shelf graphite additives for oil. I have used "gear moly" in Old VW gearboxes, it does quiet things down when the box starts to "hum" (usually while coasting), so it must have some slipperizing effect. I wonder if moly would break down in water and steam, at steam car pressures and temps. Probably OK in the crankcase though. In steam systems, graphite has the extra advantage of filling pits & fighting corrosion, it is often added to old boilers with no measurable heat transfer loss, and it is proven to take any temperature and pressure a superheated steam power system can dish out.

Graphite is said to be microscopic plates that plate surfaces and slip and slide over each other with the greatest of ease; moly disulphide is said to be molecule-sized ball bearings.

Peter

US Patent #4090362 issued in 1978 to Robert F Bourque suggests the addition of calcium di-flouride to the feed water to serve as a lubricant. This would be more in the nature of a cylinder lubricant than a lower end lube.

Ken

Ken,

Thanks for the heads up about Mr. Bourque's patent. Never heard of calcium diflouride being used as a lubricant before. Worth checking out, one never knows.

Peter,

Graphite sounds good in the crankcase, anything to help those high load static starting forces is always good.

All,

Well, now too add another wrench into things I just stumbled upon Tungsten disulfide. It looks like it has about twice the high temperature range as that of the moly. Also about 1/3 the friction.

The tungsten powder looks to be about $30 per pound.

1,200 deg F in air for the tungsten powder and it still keeps it lubricity.

Upon further investigation I have discovered that the moly and tungsten is supposed to use the forces of the mating parts to deposit it on the surfaces. So there may not be any dposits on the boiler and condensor tubes. I don't know for sure or if it would matter anyway.

[www.lowerfriction.com]

[www.metcoat.com]

[www.schaefferoil.com]

[www.beslub.com]

[findarticles.com]

[en.wikipedia.org]

[en.wikipedia.org]

[en.wikipedia.org]

Caleb Ramsby

Hi all,

Doing a bit more research it apears as if neither moly or tungsten powder lubricants fall out of solution once mixed up well. Graphite seems to fall out after a while, I don't know this to be a fact though.

With the IC aplications if one adds the powder lubricants the action of the crank and recirculation system mixes them up. However in a steam line oiling system there would be little or no agitation, so I think that one would need to put the steam oil and powder lubricant into t blender to mix them well.

If one has an oil seperator in their system they should be able to capture and re-use the steam oil and expensive powder lubricant.

Caleb Ramsby