Need ideas for mock experiment...?

Question

Design an experiment using a radioactive tracer to evaluate the amount of wear of steel auto engine cylinders using different types of lubricating oils.

Answer 1

The way the oil-testing industry does it:
1. Take a brand-new engine and blue-print it (i.e. measure the exact shape and size of the pistons, rings, and cylinders)
2. Run it for 100,000 miles with oil "brand-A" (with oil changes every 3,000 miles)
3. Take it apart and blueprint it again.
4. Compare the size and shape of the pistons, rings, cylinders, etc. and note the amount of wear.

What you might do is to take some new pistons and mechanically coat them with a hard substance that is radioactive, such as Aluminum-26 oxide (radioactive isotope of aluminum).

After running the engine for 100,000 miles (including oil changes) with "Brand-X" oil instead of measuring the pistons, you could just measure the amount of radioactive oxide that has worn off and dropped into the oil-pan.

But after your experiment you'd be stuck with a gallons of radioactive oil, and a radioactive engine block.

One slight advantage this experiment has, is you can monitor the levels of radioactive aluminum after every oil change and see how the wear on the pistons changes over time (i.e. lots of radiation for the 1st oil change, but hardly an radiation for the next 10 oil changes, then more and more progressive wear until the final oil change at 99,000 miles).

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