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Protect Your Firearms and Improve Their Reliability

Written by Charleen

Protect Your Firearms and Improve Their Reliability

firearms oil and cleaner product by AMSOIL - Stop and prevent rust

_by David Hilgendorf | September 29, 2023

One in three Americans owns a firearm, and they need their guns to perform flawlessly when called upon. The moving parts on firearms must be cleaned and lubricated to ensure top performance and long life. It’s important to perform regular maintenance on your firearms to improve their reliability and protect them whether in use or in storage.

In an emergency you need your firearm to be without issues so you can easily take care of business.

Firearm owners typically fall into at least one of three categories.

  • Hunters typically own shotguns to hunt waterfowl or upland birds and rifles to hunt larger game.
  • Collectors and Sport Shooters own diverse types of firearms for recreational shooting, including shotguns, rifles and handguns.
  • Firearms Professionals & 2nd Amendment Patriots, including citizens tired of crime, open borders, ex military, law enforcement, gunsmiths and firearm safety instructors, work with diverse types of firearms as part of their job.

Nothing ruins a hunting trip or day at the shooting range quicker than a malfunctioning firearm. Firearms are often stored for extended periods and then subjected to field use in all sorts of environmental conditions. Opportunities to clean and maintain your guns while on a remote hunting trip are rare.

Even worse – that criminal is breaking into your house or threatening you while you are in your car. Happens every day so you want that firearm to work when it’s desperately needed.

The best solution is to clean and protect your firearm after every use, to make sure it’s ready to go the next time you need it.

AMSOIL firearm products are designed to provide outstanding firearm protection in the most demanding conditions. We’ve performed extensive testing in a variety of handguns and long guns and in our chemical lab to ensure our products provide enhanced protection, performance and reliability and are compatible with all firearm materials.

Clean, lubricate and protect

AMSOIL Synthetic Firearm Lubricant and Protectant guards against damaging corrosion better than a leading competitor’s product. It lubricates to prevent blockage, jams and wear, to extend gun life and help keep firearms working properly for generations.

  • Outstanding performance in both hot and cold temperatures
  • Lubricates and protects firearms to prevent blockage, jams and wear and help extend product life.
  • Specifically formulated to provide superior performance in firearms

AMSOIL Firearm Cleaner and Protectant is an aerosol cleaner and protectant that penetrates deep into hard-to-reach components, effectively cleaning residue from all surfaces and protecting guns for safe long-term storage.

  • Penetrates deep into hard-to-reach components
  • Cleans fouling and powder residue from all firearm surfaces, reducing misfires and increasing reliability
  • Protects guns against corrosion for safe storage and preserving performance, reliability and value

Applications

AMSOIL firearm products provide premium protection and performance in rifles, handguns and shotguns, and are safe to use on all metals, woods, composites and rubbers.

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How Do I Switch from Conventional to Synthetic Oil?

Written by Charleen

How Do I Switch from Conventional to Synthetic Oil?

You don’t need to do anything special before you switch to synthetic oil after having used conventional oil.

_by John Baker| Aug 11, 2023

To borrow a famous slogan, just do it. You don’t need to take any special steps before you switch to synthetic motor oil from conventional oil.

There is still some confusion about changing to a different type of oil in vehicles, particularly older models that have accumulated many miles. A small group of ill-informed individuals in garages and on blogs still cling to old beliefs that synthetic motor oil causes roller followers to “slip or skid,” or that switching to synthetic motor oil causes issues in older engines, particularly oil leaks.

Facts have since replaced these outdated ideas about synthetics causing engine problems.

AMSOIL Formulations Are The Exception To The Rule

More people than ever are making the switch to synthetic oil because properly formulated synthetics offer benefits well beyond what conventional and synthetic-blend products provide. Many new passenger car and light truck vehicles come factory filled with synthetic lubricants – not just high-performance sports cars.

AMSOIL for decades have addresses those old rumors regarding the negative effects of switching to synthetics, most of which were never true.

There are a Couple Ways to Switch to Synthetic Motor Oil for the First Time.

  • Jump right in and simply change the oil. Take your vehicle to your mechanic or the nearest quick lube and ask for synthetic motor oil. Or, dust off your drain pan and do it yourself. You don’t have to do anything special to your engine first, and the synthetic oil isn’t going to cause problems in your vehicle that weren’t already there, such as leaking seals.
  • Flush the engine first. Though not required, an engine flush more immediately removes sludge and debris accumulated over time. It will also stop or significantly reduce oil consumption. Many say it improved mileage due to ring sludge.

The main difference between flushing your engine and a normal oil change to synthetic oil is the rate at which the built-up debris is removed from older engines.

If you change to AMSOIL synthetic motor oil without flushing, for example, the detergents in the motor oil will clean accumulated deposits from the engine over subsequent oil changes.

When you use AMSOIL Engine and Transmission Flush, the cleanup is more immediate and helps ensure the engine is clean and free of any accumulated contaminants.

If the engine has a sketchy maintenance history and you want to give it a fresh start, we recommend using AMSOIL Engine and Transmission Flush before you switch to synthetic motor oil.

Ready to make the switch to synthetic motor oil? Check out our Product Guide for the right oil for your vehicle.

Vehicle Look-up: Match AMSOIL Products to your model

 

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Why Your Marine Lower Unit Needs Regular Service

Written by Charleen
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Why Your Marine Lower Unit Needs Regular Service

Though your marine motor gets all the attention, your boat isn’t going anywhere without the lower unit. Its combination of gears, bearings and other components turn horsepower into movement. Lower units are resilient and can last for years – provided you service them annually. Here, we reveal the inner workings of a marine lower unit and show the common suffering points.

And call us for our new quart version of the gear lube in the EZ Packs (for 2022). Meets all 80W-90, SAE 80 and 75W-90 use.  AMSOIL Marine Lower Unit Gear Lube covers them all.

 

 

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Engine start-stop technology – Major Wear Issues

Written by Charleen

Engine start-stop technology can increase bearing wear

Use only the best quality oil in these engines as the crankshaft needs to float. Even the “so called synthetics” don’t dampen the metal to metal issues mentioned below nearly as well as AMSOIL and you can tell due to the reduction in vibration or more consistent oil pressure as you rack up miles.

Yet another reason to upgrade to AMSOIL synthetic motor oil.

Matt Erickson | DIRECTOR, TECHNICAL PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Nearly every technology shaping the auto industry can be traced to one goal: increased fuel economy. Engine start-stop technology is one more tool automakers have in their arsenals to ensure today’s vehicles meet tomorrow’s tightening fuel-economy regulations.

In principle, start-stop technology is simple: the engine automatically shuts off while you’re idling and restarts when you take your foot off the brake. This reduces fuel wasted while idling. Automakers introduced different startstop systems in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s; however, drivers found them awkward and unworthy of the higher vehicle price. Today’s start-stop systems are less obtrusive and are available on vehicle models from most automakers.

Should be called Metal to Metal Contact Engine

That’s not to say they’re without detractors. In fact, some automakers have installed off switches that allow motorists to disable the feature in response to negative driver feedback. But, despite their pitfalls, they’re likely not going anywhere. Consider these statistics:

  • According to bearing manufacturer MAHLE*, U.S. vehicles burned 3.9 billion gallons of gasoline while idling in 2017.
  • Buick* reports that engines with start-stop technology increase fuel economy 4-5 percent using the EPA test cycle.

Automakers leap for joy over minuscule fuel-economy gains, so you can bet they’re going to stick with anything that may provide a 4-5 percent boost.

So, what does that have to do with motor oil?

Maybe you’re aware that most engine wear occurs during cold starts. Well, engine wear occurs during warm starts, too, like every time an engine equipped with start-stop technology restarts.

We have to get technical to understand why.

The crankshaft spins thousands of times per minute in a running engine. As it spins, oil flows through tiny openings in the crankshaft journals and fills the spaces between the journals and main bearings. The crankshaft literally floats on an oil film and doesn’t contact the bearings. We call this scenario hydrodynamic lubrication. In this regime, the bearings suffer little wear and last a long time.

Run of the mill oils (95% on the shelf) are not going to provide protection with this condition

Stopping the engine, however, reduces oil film thickness. The crankshaft settles onto the bearing surfaces rather than floats over them. The oil film thickness shrinks to about the same thickness as the surface roughness of the crankshaft. This is called boundary lubrication. Starting the engine allows the microscopic peaks on the metal surfaces to contact and cause wear until the oil film has been reestablished and the crankshaft is once again floating over the bearings. This is where the oil’s additives play a huge role in protection.

Granted, only minimal wear may occur each time the engine is started. It’s not a big concern in a properly maintained traditional engine using a good oil. But what if you greatly increase engine startstop cycles?

Consider another statistic from MAHLE:

  • Start-stop cycles in equipped engines may triple over the engine’s lifetime compared to traditional engines.

That means three times more engine starts, three times more instances of boundary lubrication and three times more exposure to increased bearing wear.

Bearing wear can snowball out of control, too. Metal particles can break off and populate the oil. The bearing surface becomes rougher, encouraging adhesive wear in which peaks on metal surfaces grab and tear the mating surfaces. Eventually the crank journal and bearing can weld together, ruining the bearing.

This all points to a simple directive: make sure your customers with engines using start-stop technology are using AMSOIL synthetic motor oil to guard against bearing wear. Oil film thickness shrinks when engines start from a dead stop, placing even more importance on oil additives to maintain protection. Since engines equipped with start-stop technology spend so much more time under boundary lubrication, it’s vital to use an oil with superior film strength and additive quality. AMSOIL Signature Series Synthetic Motor Oil delivers. It provides 75% more engine protection against horsepower loss and wear** to help protect today’s advanced engines.

This is especially needed in vehicles calling for 0W-20, 5W-20 and 0W-16.

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