Publisher's Note: Welcome to our 22nd edition of Tech Tips Tuesday on "Mastering Four-Stroke Engine Maintenance".  We'll be re-publishing an edition of AMSOIL Tech Tips for you every Tuesday.  Click on the Blog Category "Tuesday Tech Tips" to see everything published to-date.

Mastering Four-Stroke Engine Maintenance

John Gardner: Welcome to Motorhead Garage. You know, Nicholas Otto invented the four-stroke cycle engine back in 1875. Man, that's a long time ago, and it's still around today. Let's talk about the four-stroke cycle. Welcome to this AMSOIL Tech Tip.

When it comes to the four-stroke cycle, well, there it is. You can see the piston on its way down. That stroke number one, called the intake stroke, the intake valve is open, and the air-fuel mixture is being drawn into the cylinder. Then it's on its way up. Well, that's the compression stroke. It's squeezing that fuel; it's getting ready to combust.

Once it combusts, well, that's the power stroke. You see the third one over there? That's when it actually happens. Bang! Pushes that piston down. The piston's moving down, and then the last stroke, it's on its way back up. As it's on its way back up, that exhaust valve has to open, and when that opens, all the exhaust comes out of there.

Now, along with that four-stroke cycle, you have some wear issues that are going on. You see the first graphic right there? We're talking about 4,500 degrees inside of that cylinder, 1,500 going to the outside coolant jackets. And even more important, the ring wear. You can see that on the cylinder, going up and down from the lower to the top there. You got a lot of ring wear, and you could create a ridge.

Len from AMSOIL, buddy, this is a lot going on here. We have some rings, compression rings, but this oil ring right here, this is supposed to scrape the cylinder and keep the oil from going up there. And if it's doing its job well, you're not getting much lubrication, are you?

Len Groom: That's exactly right. The piston rings, as we all know, are about sealing, and that oil ring is about scraping away any oil so you're not burning it and putting it through the catalyst system and into the atmosphere. So, if it's doing its job, it gets dry up there, and wear can happen.

So, one of the good ways to bring in some lubrication is in the fuel, and you can do that with a fuel additive. AMSOIL Upper Cylinder Lubricant is designed just for that. So, we're going to bring it in in the injector, and some of the chemistry that we're using in this particular additive is designed to hold up to some of those extremely high temperatures that you mentioned earlier about combustion. So, they're going to stay around, and they're not going to burn off. They're going to help reduce some of that wear that you can see inside of these engines.

John Gardner: Now, I can't see it as a customer, but it's a good idea to put it in there because of the longevity of keeping my vehicle.

Len Groom: Correct? People are keeping their cars longer; you're seeing more miles being put on these vehicles before they're traded or sold off. So, you need to maintain it because, at the end of the day, you're maintaining performance; you're maintaining fuel economy.