You can put olive oil in your hair, your skin, your salad, your bakes, but, can you put olive oil in your car, and what can olive oil do for your car; is it useful or destructive?
A peculiar combination! Best to start at the beginnings.
What is Olive Oil
Olive oil is obtained from olives, which are the fruits of the olive tree, which is cultivated in regions with Mediterranean climates. Most of the world’s olive oil production is around the Mediterranean basin, which consists of countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Tunisia, and Morocco among a few others, and apart from that we have the Americas, which provides a temperate climate needed for olives. The oil is extracted by pressing whole olives and separating the oil from other fruit contents.
Olive Oil Uses
90% of all olives harvested are turned into olive oil and only 10% of the olive produce are being used as table olives. Olive oil has important culinary uses in Mediterranean cuisine, and olives are one of the three staple crops after wheat (used for pasta and bread) and grapes (used as a fruit or for making wine). Refined olive oil is usually used for frying and sauteing while the extra virgin variety is mostly used for salad dressing or is consumed with foods that are to be eaten cold. Olive oil tasting can be similar to choosing wine as there can be significant variation in its flavor depending on the region, ripeness, and age.
The catholic church used olive oil to bless and give strength to those preparing for baptism and the oil has been traditionally used to anoint monarchs during their coronation. Olive oil was the only oil allowed to be used as fuel in the Permanent Temple in Jerusalem. It is also used as fuel for the menorah at Hanukah.
Studies have found that olive oil can be used to prevent dermatitis in infants. Due to being rich in antioxidants, olive oil can reduce premature ageing and may also fight off cells that can cause cancer. It also contains Vitamin E which is beneficial for the skin and has been used topically as a treatment for skin conditions such as psoriasis.
Olive oil is a natural lubricant and can be used to lubricate kitchen equipment. It is traditionally used as fuel in oil lamps and used olive oil could be used as biodiesel. Olive oil is used in cosmetics, soaps, and detergents as a base.
Why Do We Need Oil in Our Cars
Internal combustion engines i.e., the engines in cars burn a mixture of fuel and air to generate torque and power. Fuel and air are compressed together, and then, ignited to create a series of small explosions that push down a piston which in turn rotates a crankshaft making your vehicle move. Combustion in the engine creates heat and friction as the piston moves up and down the cylinder. Fuel can also be corrosive to metal (aluminium or cast iron) used for the cylinders.
Engine oil is used as a lubricant to enable the smooth operation of all engine parts and it also cools the engine to some degree. While modern cars use water as coolant for cooling, motorcycles, and older cars such as Volkswagen Beetles and Porsche 911s use only oil for cooling their engines. Engine oil minimizes friction between part, thus, reducing wear, and the engine oil cleans the engine by removing dirt and debris as it flows. It cools the engine by absorbing heat from hot surfaces, prevents corrosion, and forms a seal in the combustion chamber. Modern systems such as Honda’s VTEC and BMW’s variable valve timing use engine oil as a hydraulic fluid to actuate the valves.
Types of Motor Oil
- Conventional motor oil: Conventional motor oil is extracted from crude oil during its distillation process. This type of oil can have various viscosity grades and qualities. Conventional motor oil is the cheapest, but it is also less durable than synthetic oil. It can be used for inexpensive cars with simple engine designs.
- Synthetic motor oil: Synthetic oil is engineered from chemical processes and has a molecular structure with better properties than that of conventional motor oil. This type of oil contains fewer impurities which make it great for cleaning and much more resistant to extremely high and well as extremely low temperatures. Synthetic oil also lends itself well to being formulated with performance-enhancing additives. Synthetic oils last much longer than conventional oils with vehicle required less frequent oil changes. The only downside to using synthetic oil is that it is expensive.
- Synthetic Blends: These types of oils are a blend of synthetic and conventional motor oils. Synthetic blends offer the best of both worlds by having properties similar to synthetic oil but are more affordable with middle of the road prices between conventional and fully synthetic motor oils.
- High-mileage motor oil: High-mileage oil is specially designed to be used in older vehicles that have run more than 120,000 km. High-mileage oil can either be synthetic or a synthetic blend this type of oil is formulated to reduce wear on your car’s engine.
- Bio-based oil: Bio-based oil is being researched. The raw material for which is vegetable oil, canola-based engine oil has shown some promise but is still far from be commercially usable. It also doesn’t offer the same level of protection that modern synthetic oils provide. The advantage of bio-based oils is that they are biodegradable thus being more environment friendly.
Engine oils the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) rating for viscosity which the rate at which liquids flow. Oils with multigrade viscosity flow even at a temperature below 0 degrees Celsius and still protect engine running at high temperatures. For example, a rating of SA 0W-20 means that the oil flows adequately with the lowest temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and the highest atmospheric temperature of 20 degrees. You can select the oil most suitable for your vehicle by looking at the rating and deciding if it is best for the climate, you live in.
Can You Put Olive Oil in Your Car
Olive has lubricating properties and is used as a lubricant for simple equipment like kitchen appliances. Car engines are much more complicated, and the insides of a cylinder are extremely hot. Olive is not as durable as synthetic engines oil and will break down much faster if used in your car as an alternative to engine oil. Engine oils also have a certain viscosity which is a measure of how quickly the oil and how resistant it is to temperature. Olive oil is too thin to protect engine parts as well as traditional engine oil and extreme heat may cause it to become even thinner while extreme cold may cause the oil to sludge which means that the oil pump will not be able to pump oil to the engine effectively.
In theory, if you do use olive oil to lubricate your engine, you should be able to operate your vehicle for a short while before it seizes. Your engine will most likely burn olive along with your fuel much like a 2-stroke engine and the emission would be hazardous. 100 years ago, fighter pilots did use castor oil to lubricate their engines. The engines would burn castor oil along with the fuel and the oil had to be discarded after every flight. The pilots would also be breathing in the fumes from the engine which were toxic.
Another reason why olive oil is a poor alternative to engine oil is that it will cause engine parts to stick together once it burns and gets oxidized. The moving parts such as the pistons and valves will stick to their surfaces causing them to seize which would eventually lead to engine failure. Olive oil will also oxidize much faster than your traditional engine which would negate the cleaning properties you need in your engine oil.
Olive oil can be blended with synthetic engine oil can be used in your car in theory. However, doing so doesn’t make sense as other oils such as palm oil and castor have higher smoking points and better viscosity. Olive oil is also very expensive and makes no economical sense to be used as a blend with motor oil. Which is one of the main reasons that are not being considered suitable for research as a bio-based oil. Price is one of the things manufacturers of bio-based oil must consider and keep at par or lower than synthetic oil is what make consumers adopt it as a suitable alternative.
While not suitable for use as motor oil, olive can very advantageously be used for your car’s interior, it works great as a polish. Apply some olive oil on a cloth or a microfiber cloth and wipe your seats. This especially works best with leather upholstery. Olive oil can be used to get rid of unwanted stains while giving your interior a natural shine. The oil can be used to clean and polish your dashboard, grille, license plate, and seals with highly effective results. It is great for removing stains left when you peel off old stickers from your windshield or your vehicle’s body.
You don’t need to spend more and use extra virgin olive oil as it will leave your car smelling like olive oil for weeks. The best option is to use refined olive oil which does not have any smell, is cheaper and works much better as a cleaning agent. Olive oil moisturizes dry surfaces in your vehicle which give a natural-looking sheen. Additionally, olive oil can be used to lubricate the tools you use for cleaning as well as working on your vehicle. Olive oil helps remove rust and grime from your tools like screwdrivers and spanners and can keep them operating smoothly.
Conclusion
Various factors can help you determine the type of oil best suited for your car. The oil’s viscosity, resistance to temperature, and additives in the oil formulation are some of the factors to be taken into consideration. The type of vehicle you or use and its use case, whether you’re only going to use it for commuting, towing, or performance driving determine what kind of oil you should use in your internal combustion engine.
Olive oil is not suited to be used as a lubricant instead of motor oil in your vehicle’s engine. It oxidizes rapidly and its viscosity at different temperatures and operating conditions are not reliable. Even in theory olive oil is too expensive to be considered as an option for lubricating engines as bio-based engine oil. Other oils including palm oil, canola oil, and coconut oil are significantly cheaper and have much better lubricating properties when compared to olive oil.
Olive is, however, used to lubricate simple equipment such as household appliances and kitchen tools. It works great to lubricate tools that don’t operate in extreme conditions and prevents rusting. Using olive oil for cleaning and polishing your vehicle is a great way to refurbish old interior trim and upholstery. You don’t even have to spend much as refined olive oil works best as a cleaning and polishing agent. Olive is eco-friendly unlike the chemical agents used to clean vehicles which can be harmful to skin and then end up polluting water once washed off.
The shift towards bio-based oils may take place depending on their performance compared to the synthetic variety of engine oils. With environmental concerns becoming more prominent and vehicles themselves moving towards electrification the need for environmentally friendly motor oils has increased. An important that may lead to the adoption of bio-based oils is price. This is one of the shortcomings of olive oil to be tested as a medium for bio-based oil because olive is expensive which would hamper the economic viability of bio-based oils.
The use of olive oil for cleaning can be explored by automotive ancillaries where consumers can get purpose-made olive oil-based cleaning agents. Manufacturers can add a few other organic additives as a blend to olive oil to improve its cleaning and polishing abilities. Refined olive oil which is unfit for consumption and is currently blended with virgin olive oils can find an alternative use as a cleaning and polishing agent for vehicles that are eco-friendly.