Pre-lubing doesn’t hurt and of course can often help.
Your case of an
engine sitting for a long time for example.
All I’m saying is there is no evidence to back up the claim that it will make your
engine last much longer than an engine with no pre-lubricator.
I wish it did, I’d have one.
Pre-lubers came into fashion about the same time that high bypass
oil filtration did. High bypass oil filtration of course filters oil down to a very, very fine level removing almost all wear particles.
It also sounded logical that it would greatly extend the life of an engine, unfortunately actual experience doesn’t back that up, apparently below a certain size particles cause little wear on an engine and filtering smaller than that size doesn’t do as much good as we would hope.
While many die from catastrophic
events, I still think many wear out, many that wear out would have lasted much longer with better preventative
maintenance, something that most engines don’t get.
It’s interesting that a new engine will usually get frequent oil changes etc, but older ones do not, but new engines don’t need frequent changes as often as older ones. As engines get old, blow-by increases and the blow-by contaminates the oil with combustion by products of course, so the older the engine is, the more frequently it’s oil should be changed if your trying to max it’s useful life.
A lot of our engine knowledge and practices comes from automobiles, and rarely does a modern auto outlast the engine in it, most often the car itself wears out and or the
electric engine controls etc wear out and the car is replaced, with the base engine still in decent shape.
20+ yr old cars are uncommon, 20+ yr old
boats are not.