Corrosion Inhibiting Product Undergoing FAA Approval
Testing
By ANN Reporter Juan Jimenez
Aircraft Specialty
Lubricants is showing off its CamGuard product at S-N-F 2004, and
in particular the results of its independent testing that appear to
show significant advantages to using the product vs. its
competitors.
CamGuard is a supplemental lubricant additive product for
infrequently used piston engine motor oils, including piston
aircraft, passenger vehicle, marine and heavy duty diesel oils on
aircraft, marine, motorcycles, emergency equipment, backup
generators, classic and antique vehicles, agricultural and all
seasonal equipment. The product is currently limited to use in
experimental aircraft only, but FAA approval testing is ongoing and
certification is expected sometime in the fall season.
According to company information, CamGuard is an active blend of
eleven components designed to address rust and corrosion
protection, wear protection, and deposit control and seal
conditioning. It was designed by company chemist Ed Rollin to
improve the performance all mineral based, semi-synthetic and fully
synthetic motor oils.
The product got its name from the catalyst for its creation,
Aircraft Specialties Services, a company that among other things
claims to operate the largest aircraft engine machine shop in the
United States. As part of their services, they inspect and repair
thousands of internal engine parts on a monthly basis, including
camshafts, lifters and crankshafts. This type of work means that
they see what happens to these parts, representative of millions of
hours of engine operation, and in particular the parts from engines
that make TBO, and those that do not.
Their conclusion was that rust and corrosion was associated with
virtually every premature wear-related failure of internal engine
parts. Armed with this information, they contacted ASL and their
chemists to determine if a solution could be found, and the result
is their CamGuard product.
The independent testing results of the product show, among other
things, that CamGuard significantly delays the onset of trace
corrosion on key internal engine parts such as the camshaft, and
with regular use appears to indefinitely delay significant 50%
corrosion coverage. Using standard aircraft engine motor oils
(15-50 and 20-50), trace corrosion was found between 12 and 18 days
into the tests, and 50% coverage was reached in between 15 and 22
days. The addition of CamGuard to these oils increase the interval
to trace corrosion detection to nearly 40 days, and the test was
terminated after 60 days with no evidence of significant corrosion
rust coverage.
When the tests were repeated with 100 weight motor oil, with and
without third party additives, the results were even worse.
Straight 100 motor oil produced trace corrosion after some 12 days,
but tests with competitive additives decreased this interval to
less than 10 days! The addition of CamGuard resulted in detection
of trace corrosion after some 38 days, and the test was again
stopped at 60 days without any evidence of significant rust
corrosion coverage.
Full details of the testing as well as other information about
the product are available on the company's web site. ASL is
offering a show special of $19.95 per pint for the product, enough
to treat the contents of an 8 to 10 quart sump. The additive should
be added to every oil change to fully protect the engine
components.