The Total Base Number, or TBN of an oil represents the amount of active detergents and dispersants that are present in the oil. Many people only consider the purpose of oil to be for lubricating the engine. Although this may be its primary function, an oil is also intended to clean and maintain the cleanliness of the engine and its components. Detergents are used in oils to help prevent rust, break down engine sludge and stabilize acids to prolong oil life. Dispersants are lubricant additives that help prevent sludge, varnish and other deposits from forming on critical surfaces. Together, detergents and dispersants protect an engine from damaging wear, as long as they remain present.
As time goes on and oil is routinely cycled throughout a hot engine, the detergents and dispersants begin to deplete. As this occurs, acid will build up within your oil. This acid is corrosive and can cause wear to your engine. Unless you change your oil every 1,000 miles, chances are you will be driving around for a while with oil that is not performing as well as intended. That is, unless you replenish those detergent and dispersant additives back into the oil. Diesel engine oils are normally formulated with a higher TBN to protect against the formation of acids caused by incomplete fuel combustion. The TBN of fresh oil is typically in the range of 7 to 10 for gasoline engines and 10 to 14 for diesel engines. To best use TBN Booster on oil aynalist should be taken. The treatment rate varies, depending on the desired TBN increase, initial Total Base Number and the oil capacity of your engine.Hot Shot’s Secret TBN Booster is scientifically proven to increase the TBN of an oil up to 7 points, helping to restore the lost detergents and dispersants and helping to extend the life of your oil.
Hot Shot’s Secret TBN Booster not only increases TBN, it fortifies and stabilizes the host oil. TBN Booster is a concentrated formula that contains 100% active ingredients of a CK-4 additive package, a TBN Booster and Hot Shot’s Secret FR3 Friction Reducer. Many oil “stabilizers” or “fortifiers” are simply thick base oils. While these products fix the problems associated with a loss of viscosity due to shearing and potential oxidation of oil, they actually dilute your additive packages. TBN Booster is the only product available that addresses all the issues associated with aging oil and the only product that raises TBN. This allows for extended oil change intervals, improved viscosity stability and a decrease in oil oxidation.
By extending the life of the oil, you are also extending your drain intervals and saving money in oil changes. Let’s take it a step further and talk about how you can extend these oil drain intervals even longer; so long you can almost write them off all together. Bypass filters work alongside a vehicle’s factory filter and remove wear particles down to 2 microns. By removing particles at the 2 micron level, you are not only dramatically reducing the amount of wear to the engine, but it also helps the oil perform more efficiently and helps prevent it from falling out of spec. The most cost effective solution to extending oil drain intervals is to add a Frantz Bypass Filter to the oil system. These cost effective systems use a paper media that is by far the least expensive on the market today. Rather than draining and replacing the oil every 5,000 miles, just pop off the Frantz Filter canister, drop in a new paper media and you’re back on the road with confidence that every wear particle down to 2 microns has been removed from the oil. Add a treatment of TBN Booster through the oil fill tube to restore those depleted detergents and dispersants, and your oil will perform like new.
This may go against everything you may think you know about oil. So for a little peace of mind, there’s no harm in taking an oil sample and sending it off to the lab for an oil analysis. The lab will study your sample and send you back a report showing how many damaging particles were found at various micron levels, as well as other data like its viscosity, oxidation levels and TBN. Once you understand the makeup of engine oil and how it changes over time, you are able to better manage your preventative maintenance schedule and save yourself some money with confidence.