German WW 2 Military vehicle motor oils

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x westie

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Curious about WW 2 German military vehicle engine oils, what grade of oil would their Tanks and other vehicles have used , a 30 weight oil for example , also in the Russian winter how did German engine oil compare to Russian engine oil , thanks for all your replies
 
Germany was getting about a third of it`s oil from Ploesti, Romania from their refineries and oil fields. Hence, the US Air Force raid on Ploesti in 1942.

A lot of German tanks were diesel, American were Gasoline.

The oil specification information should be available in army service manuals.

Even an email to Bovington Tank Museum (An operational and running Tiger Tank) in the UK and Aberdeen Proving Ground (US) would surely answer your questions.
 
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L9ts of pics of Germans lighting campfires under their pz3s in Dec 41. That should answer that question. Much of German oil was synthetic from 1942. Grades I am not sure.
 
My Father remembers Grandpa in the 1930s and 40s lighting fires under their vehicles (oil pan) in Alberta during the winter just to get them to start.
 
fraserdw said:
L9ts of pics of Germans lighting campfires under their pz3s in Dec 41. That should answer that question. Much of German oil was synthetic from 1942. Grades I am not sure.
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Same with their planes. Don't think they had multi grade oils in those days, on either side. Allies had those Hermann Nelson heaters to pre heat aircraft engines.

Grizz
 
Coyote Ugly said:
Germany was getting about a third of it`s oil from Ploesti, Romania from their refineries and oil fields. Hence, the US Air Force raid on Ploesti in 1942.

A lot of German tanks were diesel, American were Gasoline.

The oil specification information should be available in army service manuals.

Even an email to Bovington Tank Museum (An operational and running Tiger Tank) in the UK and Aberdeen Proving Ground (US) would surely answer your questions.
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I'm quite sure German tanks ran on gasoline.... It was the Russian ones that were diesel.
 
fraserdw said:
L9ts of pics of Germans lighting campfires under their pz3s in Dec 41
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My father told me that this is exactly what he had to do while on the Russian front in 1941-42. That and having to hang their clothes outside their tents to kill the body lice.

Update: I screwed up my dates, he was in Greece in 1941 and 1942 in Russia: Briansk-Orel area. Good thing for me that he got out before fun started there in 1943. Things must have been starting to go sideways, because the record says nothing about being transferred to North Africa, but the next record shows him missing, then a prisoner of war in Tunisia by Dec.'42. I applied to receive both his service record and POW records from Berlin, so this is how I found out. I should have believed ALL his (very few) stories he told when he spoke of his time during the war. My mother even didn't believe him about being in Russia.
 
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This will probably date me but I remember my father filling a metal container with hot embers from the stove and putting it under the oil pan of the Chevy pick-up to warm up the oil in the winter time. A block heater would have been useless as we had no electricity!
 
OneBarfly said:
My father told me that this is exactly what he had to do while on the Russian front in 1941-42. That and having to hang their clothes outside their tents to kill the body lice.
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Thanks for sharing that story. Its amazing that anyone survived the Eastern Front from all the books I have read.
 
I can only speak for what I know on a couple of German wartime vehicle regarding oils and things done to keep vehicles operational in extreme cold.

The engine oil for the kettenkrad (1.5 liter Opel Olympia engine) was called 3.21 Einheitsöl Der Wehrmacht that today is SAE 15W40. The KDF/Volkswagen Type 82 and 166 using the same 1,130 Cm (25 BHP) was to use the following Above +32f SAE50
+32 to 0 f SAE30
Below freezing dilution of the engine oils with gasoline was required keeping in mind the engine is air cooled, and the oil acted as the "coolant" passing through a oil cooler. The Germans issued a neat little Viscometer to determine the viscosity of oils and detailed instructions on how much gasoline to add to engine oil and warnings to top up the engine after the gas is evaporated out of the oil. The Wehrmacht also issued a pair of wicked lamp style heaters to keep batteries from freezing and placed in a engine compartment keeps the motor nice and warm............I bet they where seldom used as intended and more often used by troops to keep semi warm in a trench under a zeltbahn. The was also a pretty hefty blow torch issued for warming cold soaked engines and one the early Kettenkrad there was a duct work to have warm heated air pass over the intake manifold.

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Wehrmacht issue blow torch

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1943 dated heater lamp

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Polish copy post war in green, wartime German in grey with press lettering, 43 dated printed.
 
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Grizzly Adams said:
The Soviets thrived in it. Shows what a little knowledge and proper preparation can do.

Grizz
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They thrived in it?
Yes I quess but most were peasants uneducated and dirt poor
Born in the 1920 ish Use to being hungry and cold
Plus with the commisiars get shot from the front or the back..choices even back then
 
XRCD011 said:
I can only speak for what I know on a couple of German wartime vehicle regarding oils and things done to keep vehicles operational in extreme cold.

The engine oil for the kettenkrad (1.5 liter Opel Olympia engine) was called 3.21 Einheitsöl Der Wehrmacht that today is SAE 15W40. The KDF/Volkswagen Type 82 and 166 using the same 1,130 Cm (25 BHP) was to use the following Above +32f SAE50
+32 to 0 f SAE30
Below freezing dilution of the engine oils with gasoline was required keeping in mind the engine is air cooled, and the oil acted as the "coolant" passing through a oil cooler. The Germans issued a neat little Viscometer to determine the viscosity of oils and detailed instructions on how much gasoline to add to engine oil and warnings to top up the engine after the gas is evaporated out of the oil. The Wehrmacht also issued a pair of wicked lamp style heaters to keep batteries from freezing and placed in a engine compartment keeps the motor nice and warm............I bet they where seldom used as intended and more often used by troops to keep semi warm in a trench under a zeltbahn. The was also a pretty hefty blow torch issued for warming cold soaked engines and one the early Kettenkrad there was a duct work to have warm heated air pass over the intake manifold
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I was going to say something similar. The majority of the US vehicles in the early 1950s had dilution gauges on their dipstick. You topped your oil up to it's normal level, then added gasoline to the oil until it reached whatever temperature/percentage of dilution was indicated higher on the dipstick and ran the engine for a minute to mix it. The next day, upon starting, the gasoline in the iol would either be evaporated or burned during operation. Not the best for the engine, but there was a war on and a dead head vehicle was no longer an asset.
Pretty sure this simple technology would have been around during the war as well, and used by all sides that experienced arctic conditions.
 
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