Despite the fact that people use the same word to describe them, automotive and cooking oil are completely different. The reason that they’re both called oil is that they’re both insoluble in water. When either is poured into a container of water, it slowly works its way up to the top because oil tends to be much less dense than water.
All cooking oils are made out of plant materials. While there are plant-based automotive oils, these are still generally very different from the kind of oil people like to deep fry their dinner in. In fact, a majority of motor oil comes from geological sources. This article will discuss 3 major differences between cooking oil and auto oil.
1. Automotive Oils Are Often Synthetic
Drivers who demand the most out of their rides rely on high-quality synthetic motor oil to keep their engines in top condition. These include a number of additives that make them capable of dealing with much higher temperatures than conventional mineral oil could. Nobody would want to eat food cooked with synthetic oil, but it works very well in the automotive industry. In fact, it looks like the two different industries are moving in opposite directions.
An increasingly large number of motorists are demanding synthetic oils, since they hold up to hard driving conditions and hot weather. Culinary experts are instead asking for organic cooking oil that doesn’t contain any unnatural ingredients.
2. Cooking Oil Doesn’t Come Out of a Well
Motor vehicle lubricants are generally made out of mineral oil, which comes out of wells dug into the ground. Prehistoric life forms absorbed a great deal of carbon from the atmosphere around them. When they died, their fossilized remains eventually became a liquefied form of carbon molecule that turned into petroleum. Refineries turn this substance into a product that drivers can use to keep their engines running smoothly.
No cooking oil would ever be made this way. Most are made from fixed vegetable oils, such as extracts of canola and olive plants. These only ever change state when they absorb oxygen, so they’re great for frying or making toppings like mayonnaise. Volatile cooking oils have very distinct flavors, which is why peppermint and peanut oil have strong tastes. Turpentine technically fits in this category because it’s made from an extract of certain coniferous trees. You wouldn’t normally use turpentine for cooking, though, and you don’t want to pour it in your engine either.
3. Engine Oil Is More Viscous
Car commercials often talk about engine oil in terms of viscosity, which refers to how strongly it resists the natural rate of flow from one container to another. Good quality engine oil is extremely viscous. Anyone who has ever spilled a bottle of vegetable oil in the kitchen knows that it flows quite readily and can make a mess very quickly. That’s why few engineers have ever seriously considered using cooking oil to replace traditional types of engine oil.
Considering that motor oil isn’t meant for human consumption, you shouldn’t try using it in place of cooking oil anyway. Likewise, you don’t want to pour anything into your engine that could possibly damage it.