<MISC> freezing oil

[bolhuijo@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

 A friend brought me a few kg of crushed dry ice for fun.  So
naturally, I tried freezing some stuff.  I had no idea how easily a
kitten could shatter.  Whoa, just kidding there.  No, I decided to
freeze automotive fluids instead just to see how much fun it would be.
I broke out my digital VOM with remote thermocouple temperature sensor
and jammed it in the ice to measure -98F.  (I apologize for the
non-metric units, but I'm just trying to relate to others like me who
know how what it's like to take a deep breath at 20 below and
instantly freeze all your boogers.)  My meter is only calibrated to
- -20C, so it's a few degrees off at this extreme, but not too far for
my purposes. 

 Anyhoo, I tested the only 2 oils I had for low temperature
characteristics - some Amsoil synthetic 0w30 and 20w50.  The result? 
Oil is fun to play with when it's cold.  I took my own measurements of
the pour point. (Pour point being defined as 5 degrees warmer than the
point where the oil sample does not visibly move when inclined.)  I
got -55F for the 0w and -42F for the 20w.  It becomes very obvious
when you see this that pour point is nowhere near what you could
expect your engine to pump.  At 20 degrees warmer than that, you're
beginning to do ok.  At that point though, it's still pretty goopy,
but at least it resembles a liquid.  If left in the ice overnight, the
samples dropped to less than -70F.  At this temp, I could still stick
a screwdriver into the 0w oil, but the 20w was kinda hard to dent.  If
you live in this sort of climate, I highly recommend some sort of
heater. :)

 I also recently bought some Prestone long-life coolant - the orange
stuff that says it's phosphate free, silicate free, amine free, fat
free, and cholesterol free.  I mixed some up 50/50 with the Prestone
super water (also fat free) and froze that too.  -25F was the magic
temp where it froze into a yummy orange popsicle.  So you northern
bimwads may just want to mix it a little stronger than 50/50...
 I may be able to get ahold of some liquid nitrogen soon - if I can
get oil to shatter, I'll let y'all know.

- --
  John Bolhuis  | Since announcing concubine auditions in April,
 bolhuijo       | I have received not a single reply. Foolish females!
  @domain.elided | Do you not realize that I am one of the richest and
                | most powerful men in the Republic?  -T. Herman Zweibel

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