Engine friction has a lot to do with engine design. Some engine designs will have more friction than others; obviously the more friction an engine has, the greater the benefit of a better lubricant: less friction, less heat, longer engine life, greater fuel savings (better fuel economy).

Oil in itself is a lubricant; it works but is not always adequate. Oil, before Everoil,when it gets hot, breaks down, vaporizes and burns. The oil industry has tried using additives consisting of molybdenum, chlorinated paraffins, PTFE, zinc compounds… and others. The problem with all these additives (apart from being toxic and plugging oil passages) is that they are suspended in the oil but they don’t permanently adhere to internal engine stress points. It’s presumed that the oil is going to carry the additive to the high stress points of the engine where the extra lubricating properties are needed. Herein lies their problem.

Vise Dynamics: Metal on Metal When the engine is under heavy load conditions there can be so much pressure and friction at some of those points that the oil is "missing in action". It burns up from excessive heat, or is “squeezed out” (exceeds its load bearing capacity) due to excessive pressure.

Let’s discuss oil briefly. One of the tests that we had performed on by an independent lab is called the Falex Pin & Vee Block test. It is a fairly common test to see how well a lubricant performs. Simply, it spins a steel pin between two vee blocks acting as a vise. The pin is first coated with oil, spun and pressure is applied up to 4500 PSI  or until something bad happens, all the while measurements, time, torque and  pressure are recorded. (A link to the test results is provided at the end of the page.)