For over 60 years, WD-40 has been one of the most used products in the world. It’s one thing to use WD-40 in a safe way, where nothing bad can happen if it doesn’t work. But these guys took things to a slightly unsafe, uncharted territory. It started off as an innocent experiment. Just a bunch of guys gathering around, joking about hypotheticals. It turned into something real, a practical test that all kinds of people around the world can learn from. There were valuable lessons learned – and some tolls were paid in the process.
Home Depot
Our journey starts at the one and only Home Depot. When people normally go to Home Depot, it’s because they are generally trying to get a variety of household items that may improve their way of life.
They might even purchase WD-40, knowing well that it has a number of viable uses in the house. Of course, our group of teenagers had a much different agenda on their minds. They were on a mission to take WD-40 to its absolute limit.
No shortage of WD-40
As they walked through the aisles, one of them said to his buddy, “Dude, they have no shortage of what we need here.” He was obviously referring to Home Depot’s abundant supply of WD-40, and they were excited to get the party started.
“We gotta test the theory,” one said. It seems they’d been talking about this quite a while, and perhaps had been planning on putting their words into action for a long time.
Says ‘engines’ on the bottle
Still in the store, the boys picked up one of the jumbo-sized WD-40 bottles, and scanned the back. As somewhat of a precaution, they figured they’d read what it says and perhaps gather some new information for their mission.
But to their delight, the WD-40 bottle literally said “engines” on the back. Armed with the knowledge that the product is supposed to work for an engine, they were confident it would work on one of their cars.
Draining the oil
Once they left Home Depot, they were ready to get started. One of them volunteered to use his car for the experiment, well aware of the possibility that many things could go wrong. But before they could put the WD-40 inside his car, they had to drain the preexisting oil that was already in the car.
“We’ll drain all of this outta here,” said one of the excited teens. Now that they had gotten rid of the car oil, it was time for WD-40 to step up to the plate.
Filling her up
So they started to fill up the car. As they started pouring it through a funnel, one of them said “that definitely smells like WD-40.” He even reached out and touched some of it, commenting that it was “slippery.”
Almost as an affirmation that they were making the right decision, he reiterated that “it says on the can that it will definitely do engines.” Another also read off the can that it “lubricates to smooth operation.”
Predictions
Once they had completely filled it up with WD-40, it was time for them to make some predictions. One of them said, “I think it’s gonna run fine.” Another said, “We’ve got five minutes before it blows.”
A third friend, who they called Chau, predicted that the car would only run for a total of one minute. To round out the speculations, the one holding the camera predicted this: “Maybe we might even be able to drive it before it pops.”
Engine doesn’t sound bad
As they turned on the engine, the one holding the camera got very close and said, “I’m standing right in raw territory.” After a few seconds, it was clear to all of them that the engine sounded pretty good. Cameraman said, “I mean, dude!
It does not sound bad…” The one who originally predicted that the car would run fine responded happily saying, “No, it’s fine. It’s a lubricant.” He had remained adamant the whole time that the car would run. But they weren’t done yet.
They hop in the car
The engine seemed to be running swimmingly, so they decided they’d hop in the car and test drive it for a little while. After they drove the car for a few minutes, the one in the passenger seat said, “Dude, it’s fine. The car literally does not care.”
He then asked, “What happens if we do this for like two hours and it does not blow up?” His friend responded pretty bluntly, saying it would be proof that “you can use WD-40 as engine oil.”
Smooth ride
They kept driving the car, and everything seemed to be ship shape. The one in the backseat, who was the original cameraman, said, “Dude, I don’t think it’s ever going to blow!” As they drove past their friends who had been with them from the start, they informed them that the car was working great.
“It’s legit, dude,” they told their friends. Well, they were certainly right about that. Of course, all things do come to an end at some point.
Starting to smoke
It seemed that the good fortune that had come from their experiment would end as quickly as it started. As they kept driving, they heard a groaning sound from the engine. “Oh, she’s struggling,” said the driver. The backseat rider also said, “It’s starting to smell weird.”
Before they knew it, there was smoke coming out of the front of the car. They all started screaming, but not in a scared way. It came from pure exhilaration, and they knew what they had to do next.
Pulling the car over
This wasn’t any ordinary group of friends. They weren’t looking to drive the car like people normally drive cars. They drove it pretty fast, did all kinds of crazy turns and reversals, and worked the car as hard as possible.
When it started smoking, they realized it was time to pull over. But instead of calling it a day, they decided to take things up a notch. It was time to really see what the car, and what the WD-40, was really made of.
The lead pipe
This is how they planned on pushing the car to its absolute limit. After pulling over, they exited the car. Next, the group took a long and thick lead pipe, and placed it in such a way that it would be flooring the gas pedal on its own.
After turning the engine back on, the abilities of the WD-40 would then be tested better than they could ever have hoped. Obviously, they would keep the car in “park,” so that it stayed in place.
More predictions
They seemed pretty sure that the car was about to reach its demise. “This is it, this is where she meets her end,” the cameraman said, talking about the car. But the question was, how long would it take?
One guy said, “Dude, I think it’s gonna last like ten minutes.” Another said four minutes. Who would be the winner this time? To make sure they were 100% accurate, they took our their phones and set a timer to begin once they turned on the engine.
Inviting friends to watch
As the close knit friends got themselves excited for the upcoming endeavor, they realized it wouldn’t be enough for just them to enjoy it. They decided to invite a few friends to partake in the festivities, and they couldn’t wait to fill them in once they got there.
One of their friends was surprised that the car had made it as far as it did, and predicted that it might surprise them even further. It was finally time… so they turned on the engine.
Very very loud
Once they turned the engine back on, they quickly ran away from the car. They were also immediately stricken by how loud it was. You can only imagine how exciting it was for all of them to be standing there, hearing the engine scream, and waiting for something crazy to happen.
They all had incredulous looks on their faces, purely from the anticipation of it all. For a while, nothing really changed. And that’s when things took a pretty crazy turn…
Flare up
Soon enough, a flare up occurred in the most unexpected of place – one of the back tires. Their first reactions were simply to keep screaming, barely audible above the loud engine, “Oh my God! Oh my God!”
This went on for quite a while, and they continued to point at the back tires. The orange-red activity going on back there seemed to be alive, as if it was hinting about something bigger that would come later…
Fire up front
As the back tires continued to pulsate like a throbbing miniature volcano, smoke came out of nowhere from the front hood, which then culminated in a giant fire that erupted suddenly. If you thought the young men were going crazy before, it was nothing to how they were reacting now.
They were jumping up and down, too excited to handle themselves, and couldn’t believe how lucky they were to experience something this cool in front of them.
The engine’s slow demise
The interesting thing was, even though there was a raging fire emanating from the front hood of the car, the engine was miraculously still running. This is a testament to both the strength of the car, and the power of the WD-40 that was the subject of their entire experiment in the first place.
But after a long while of merciless fighting, the engine finally admitted defeat. The car itself, on the other hand, still had more excitement to be had.
Here comes the boom
Once the engine shut down officially, people turned to the girl who was keeping track of the timer. She announced to them all that the engine lasted for a total of three minutes and 25 seconds.
They all got distracted for a moment by this piece of information – which is a shame, because a moment later the entire car exploded. This wasn’t a flare up, nor a large fire up front – this was on another level, as you can see for yourself.
That was intense
As they started driving back, with the remnants of the car attached to theirs (they had to tow it), they were still going pretty crazy over all that had just transpired. They kept saying things like, “That was intense,” and “that was dope,” and “it exploded!”
There’s nothing quite as fun as reminiscing about an event soon after it happens – and in this case, they were still fresh off the event. They were absolutely burning with adrenaline.
Accurate prediction
So after all that, whose prediction was correct in regards to how long the engine was going to last? As they were driving back home, they girl who kept track of the timer gave the crown to the one who was the closest – the guy who predicted two minutes.
At the same time, the one who originally predicted ten minutes acknowledged that he’d overshot it by a mile. But then again, he had been the optimistic one from the start.
Final recommendation
To cap the video off, the one who had been the cameraman the whole time gave his final recommendation. He wanted to remind everyone about the purpose of the experiment, which was to discover if WD-40 can be used as engine oil.
His concluding answer to that question? “Sorta. Kinda. Not really. Wouldn’t recommend it.” Of course, this is just one man’s opinion. It’s possible that other experiments that people have done over the years have led to differing conclusions.
Extra goodies
In addition to his concluding statement, the narrator also had another announcement to make. In addition to inviting the world into the exciting adventure that he and his friends partook in, he had another special gift to give everyone.
He announced that he was giving away a Mazda RX-7 FD, a classic car that was manufactured primarily in the 90s. If people so desired, they could actually participate in a raffle to acquire the car.
YouTube star
It turns out that the one making the entire video, and the one who narrated it as well, has a pretty big following on social media. His real name is Orion Dajnowicz, and his YouTube channel (under the name “Life OD”) has about 465k subscribers.
Indeed, it’s impressive that he has such a large following, and when you have a channel as big as that, you tend to get a lot of views on your videos. But some folks weren’t so happy with what they saw.
Interesting points
Indeed, there were a solid amount of comments on YouTube that brought up interesting issues regarding what they saw in the video. One commenter wrote, “I think it would have blown under that abuse with any engine oil.”
Another wrote, “So it overheated and caught on fire, just like it would have if it was normal oil.” The point these commentators made is pretty clear. Maybe the WD-40 wasn’t to blame after all, and it was simply due to the way they treated the car.
Only for cleaning
Another commenter was a little bit more upset with them. He wrote that “WD” actually stands for “Water Displacement,” adding that it’s actually not intended to be used as actual engine oil. Rather, it’s meant to be used to “clean the individual parts of the engine upon assembly.”
It would seem that we have yet another comment with an interesting take on the matter, citing that perhaps WD-40 was never intended to be used as engine oil in the first place.
Penetrating oil
Someone else commented on the video from a place of concern, noting that they could have seriously gotten hurt. They wrote, “WD-40 is NOT formulated as a high temperature oil. It is a ‘Penetrating Oil,’ used to free up frozen parts.”
They continued that it could probably have been used as engine oil in the case of an emergency, but only if they drove it reasonably (and not run it through the ringer like they did).
Good idea?
There is a lot to take in when you consider the points that these various YouTube commentators made. Were these boys in the right for doing what they did? Should they have done more research?
The comments that were made make a strong point against it. But then again, there is a whole other side to the story that needs to be understood. And that, of course, is the fact that the ones in the video know a thing or two about cars.
Master of cars
Remember when we mentioned earlier that the one who made the video, Orion Dajnowicz, actually has a pretty big YouTube channel? Well there’s actually a good reason for that. It’s because he’s someone who knows a thing or two about cars.
Pretty much his entire channel is dedicated to cars, and every video he posts is related to them on some level. Anyone who watches Orion’s clips knows that he wouldn’t have done it unless he knew it was safe.
Professional racer
In fact, Orion is more than just a guy who “knows a thing or two about cars.” He’s one who races them professionally. He may not be competing in the Indy 500 just yet, but he seems to be on the rise, and we may very well see him racing on some of the world’s biggest tracks in a few years time.
If you check out his social media accounts, he is constantly posting pictures of himself racing, as well as standing proudly with various trophies he’s won.
Solid credibility
When you consider that Orion isn’t just some schlub off the street, but rather a master of cars, and one who races them at an elite level, then it adds a level of credibility to the video.
While the commenters are correct in that there were probably some dangers involved, Orion and his friends were extra careful to make sure they were out of harm’s way before things got out of hand. As they say on television, “Don’t try this at home, kids.”
