Was just curious if synthetic motor oil like Mobil-1 5W20 would be a good lubricant for firearms? ...It has some excellent properties.

I'd stick to CLP, and save the motor oil for your vehicle......

Mike

Mobil-1 is an automotive oil.
It has additives that are designed to protect an engine from all manner of combustion byproducts,and detergents and other stuff in it.

None of which is going on with a rifle.


In a pinch,yeah,why not.It's oil.

The fact that it is a synthetic means nothing other than the long chain whateveryacallums break down slower than the ones in organic dino oil.

Fat chance either one is going to suspend carbon,and work specificly with the crud that a rifle puts out.

Our Military has the option of using whatever is the best within budgetary constraints.

Mobil-1 being 5 bucks a quart is Mondo cheap compared to CLP,TW25B,FP-10 etc.....
If the stuff was anywhere near being decent,the cost factor would have our grunts using it.

Firearm specific lubes have propertys that set them apart from Motor oils for a reason.

Good lube is cheap considering the amount used,and the return from using them.

Breakfree CLP is a no brainer.The stuff works.From there get particular and brand loyal.

Good luck to ya!
S-28
P.S.
I run the Mobil-1 in the vehicle and Motorcycle.
GREAT stuff!
Just not for the weapons.

I've used motor oil as a lube twice, once when stationed at Ft. Hood at an M-60 range where there was no CLP/LSA to be found, and again in Korea at an M-16 range with simular circumstances.

Niether time did I experiance any real adverse effect, other than it making the M-60 a real Mother to clean. Having said that however, the M-16 is not designed, (or rather, it's design does not lend itself) to be operated with such a thick viscosity lubricant, especially under dusty or debris laden enviroments.

10 Weight machinist's oil in small doses would be far better than a 30 weight motor oil, but still superior to all of those are the CLP, LSA, Rem-Lube, graphite-based lubricants, TW25b, and Novum Solution's Armadillo.

Motor oil will work, as will any other oil, it just won't be ideal.

ATF would probably be a better choice, but it, again, would still not be ideal.

I never liked the smell of "burnt engine" or "slipping transmission" though.

uhhh, "combustion byproducts" like CARBON?

WTF do you think happens inside the chamber when the firing pin hits the primer? combustion, or "magic"?

[url]http://home.sprynet.com/~frfrog/homemade.htm[/url]

ATF works great, and it's BETTER at disolving CARBON than CLP.  BTW, ATF is 5-weight oil.

I remember when my buddies and used to go out shooting AK's my friend would use motor oil sometimes diesel fuel for a lube. But the AK is a different beast, I wouldnt use it on my AR.

The Cheat

Tried some Mobil 1 on the bolt/chamber area of my M16 on the last outing with it.  300 rounds fired in the afternoon.  during cleanup, i did notice the bolt was cleaner than normal after that many rounds on FA, and cleaned up easier to boot.  dont know if its a good idea to use it or not, but as compared to breakfree, it did a pretty good job keeping things cleaner than "normal..."

TW25B will make you even more thrilled. [bounce]

Edited to add - I have used Mobil1 as a lube, and then tried TW25B.  I like TW25B MUCH MORE.  The TW25B lubes better, and cleans easier (baked carbon wipes off).

Fixer,

Imagine that rounds per Min. were Cylinder firings per Min. in a internal combustion engine.

You are cruising down the freeway at 2,800 RPM.

Tell me......
What kind of evil,nasty,foooked up goo would you have in the motor after just 5 Min.?

Internal combustion engines are a gazzillion times less stressed than a rifle.

internal combustion engine byproducts are in no way related to the gorp created by nitrocellulose.

Firearm specific lubes suspend the gorp.

Motor oils are designed to chemicly neutralize  the acids and such from burning petrol,and there is no worry about life or death if carbon causes a bit of stickiness,and the gorp will be caught by a filter or pushed out of the way of critical moving parts.

Do what you gotta do as far as lubes go.

I will not tell you NO.

However,better minds than my own have chosen  firearm specific lubes over motor oils for the rifle in question while under some serious hard nosed budget wrangling.

All carbon is not the same,nor is the volume between a small block and a AR-15.

All the best!
S-28

had an extensive talk with a friend of mine who just got back from afganistan.  his issue M4 w/203 had zero problems in the desert.  he did note that they used a very small amount (that being basically a dabbing...) of clp on the wear points on their M4 bolts in the desert environment.  again, zero problems with reliability as long as the weapon was cleaned regularly.  dust and dirt got in everything he said and he even brought some back inadvertently.....

Well, if CLP is such a great lube then how come we don't fill our cars crankcases with it or how come hookers don't use it to lube themselves up?

That'll shut the CLP crowd up....

<> Conspiracy by the gasoline companys.  If your car engine used CLP, you would get 329.68 mpg because CLP would reduced the friction to nill.  And, then the gasoline companys would go out of business.


<> They do not use CLP because CLP is so slippery that their customer would not feel anything from the lack of friction [sex](hint - no friction in this application is a bad and an undesirable effect).  And, the hooker would go out of business.

Speaking of 3-gun,I went to the Tennessee Tactical 3-gun championship this past week end.I ran into George Fennell and Team Firepower there and got to spend sometime talking with them.Darn nice folks.
The FP-10 clp had a large following there to say the least.
I was rather suprised to not see George pushing the FP-10.In fact the only bottle of FP-10 I saw
displayed was the one George used to clean his weapons.

I would say it was a good two day torture test for the FP-10 as it was extremely hot dry and humid as it has been here.Added to the mix was a flash flood and saturating humidity.
About the only thing I saw malfunction was a few holsters breaking.

I dont know why folks want to try and save a few bucks by using automotive lubes on weapons.
I for one will continue to use my firearms specific FP-10 and TW-25B on my guns and keep my Torco engine oil in my truck.
Raymond

I've used motor oil for years on my guns, including .45's I shot @5,000 rds per month, shotguns, AR's and AUG's.
Works fine. Doesn't seem to burn off of the rails on my .45's as easily as some others.
I find that if I slop some into a leaded chamber/bore on a .45 and let it sit for 1/2 hour, it cleans up very well.
Go for it.

[thinking] I think that I may do a test and run one AR15 with Mobil-1 and another AR15 with a top quality firearm specfic lube, like FP10 or TW25B.

If Mobil-1 can withstand the temperature and pressure of a, high performance internal combustion engine, then an AR15 is a "piece of cake"

BEEEP!   Wrong answer, gang!  A rifle burns much hotter than an engine in real life...though in the short term this is not too much of an isse except in machine guns.

 When motor oil is subjected to the extreme heat of intense rifle or machine gun fire is can turn to lacquer once it's cooled. Remember, boys...MOTOR OIL IN YOUR VEHICLE GETS CIRCULATED BACK TO YOUR OIL RESEVIOR TO COOL...IN YOUR RIFLE IT IS GONNA COOK!!!  This is bad, m'kay!

 An interesting anecdote to this occured to me recently.  About four or five months ago I procured a mint condition Costa Mesa AR-180.  Upon my initial disassembly of the rifle I thought something wasn't quite right with it. Though I couldn't determine what.  I took the rifle completely apart and discovered it was almost glued together.  Whoever owned the rifle originally had fired it for one session, disassembled it, cleaned it and then lubed it with motor oil before assembling it.  This was probably around 1970....so the rifle sits for 33 years before I run across it...by that time the motor oil turned to lacquer.

My own personal experience:

I was really curious what would happen if I used a motor oil with a teflon additive like Slick 50 or Greased Lightening so, I bought a bottle of Greased Lightening and a bottle of a thinner oil like machine oil (Gunk super oil) and mixed together so it would not be so thick.
After cleaning I liberally applied the mixture and let it stand thinking it would soak in the metal like they claim it does to internal engine parts.  Before the next outing, I ran a patch through the barrel and shot about 150 rounds that day.  All went well.  The thing that I found most interesting was cleaning the weapon.  The AR cleaned up with very little effort.  The bolt and carrier assembly did not have as much powder deposits and what was there cleaned very easily.  There was hardly any copper fouling in the barrel and the chamber was nice and shiney. It makes me wonder if barrel wear and bolt carrier friction is reduced.
Things to note:
I live in the swamplands of Texas where there is no blowing sand and debris to stick to the internals.  It's been hot lately so, in a cold climate if you were going to try this you may want to thin it out a little more than what I did. I have been told but, don't know for sure,
that burning teflon is not a good thing for us humans.
My unofficial and un-scientific opinion is that friction has been reduced in all parts of this weapon leading to longer life of the firearm.
Clean up was much faster and easier.  I have not done this with any other gun and I am doing this as a test just for my own curiosity.  If this seems to work well for an extended period, I will probably start using it on all of my firearms.