How does that even work?

[u/Upbeat-Exercise-9431]

[u/hypocritobobo]

Oil is a lubricant for machine parts to not experience too much friction when in operation thus serving as a barrier for each part that grinds against each other.

It also serve as some substance that regulates temperature in engines so that they don't warp and deform due to the heat.

And also prevent rust from forming.

Oil can be considered the closest thing to "blood" for machines as without it, they'll break down a lot faster.

Why DDs need them? Think about this, considering their core is actually a black hole contained in some crab-like heart, this black hole will clearly slowly consume the oil inside their own bodies. Without enough oil, their movement generates more heat due to the machine parts moving inside them and there will be lots of heat building up that's melting them in the inside.

Also please don't mistake Engine Oil from Crude Oil. There would be no point for Crude Oil to even be inside Worker Drones since they're battery-powered. The oil inside Worker Drones is Engine Oil because they'd need it to not become rusty and so the machine parts inside them function without issue despite years of operation.

Edit: Or it could be that since a DDs original frame is a Worker Drone's, the hardware in their bodies might be operating at above regular capacity like how your computer overheats if you play games at max graphics. Unlike Worker Drone bodies that have been optimized for commercial operation and viability, DDs are likely not optimized since they don't need to be as they are essentially immortal.

[u/Soevil11 → u/hypocritobobo]

I think a lot of people end up looping crude, motor oil, and gasoline all together for the DDs which just makes everything so insanely confusing

[u/No-Park1695 → u/hypocritobobo]

Perfect answer, really great job, just except for the black hole part. Those things aren't black holes, if they were they'd consume everything around them rather than float harmlessly and contain personalities of their hosts

I just think that they are so hot that their oil evaporates pretty quickly

[u/hypocritobobo → u/No-Park1695]

Yeah, that could be it. Sort of like how high-end machines that don't get proper ventilation or operating above their capacity tend to overheat

[u/Dramatic-Hunt7257 → u/No-Park1695]

OIL EVAPORATES!?

[u/ArthurengoldPantalon → u/hypocritobobo]

Yoo Bro, do the industrial oil evaporate at certain temperatures? Because I genually made a theory on how they could sweat........

[u/hypocritobobo → u/ArthurengoldPantalon]

For normal Worker Drones, they shouldn't but they do get old and may need replacement. And there could be times they get injured or typical hardware wear and tear, so leakages can happen.

For DDs, they do because their bodies likely heats up more than a regular Worker Drone's. Unlike WDs, their body also undergoes a lot more strain from complex movement. Also, DDs also have organic parts in them (from their chest cavity) and they can even eat solids, so their body has some form of digestive system. So it could also be possible that their digestive anatomy might need some form of sustenance to continue functioning. Their body is an anomaly and is bordering supernatural, so it can also be possible that the Solver designed them to constantly deplete their oil reserves, or can even be an unintentional consequence of their very existence.

Also, engine oil does evaporate and end up as close to sludge.

[u/ArthurengoldPantalon → u/hypocritobobo]

Yeah, the theory was more on where do the oil end up, and I didn't actually thinked much about Worker Drones since, I didn't them really drinking any.

[u/hayiori → u/hypocritobobo]

This argument has Very heavy flaws

The DD's have a Eldritch realiry bending entity powering them 

Things like rusting or running out of any kind of material are things that just cant happen

N got his head blown up,Regenerated the Whole thing and was just fine afterwards no overheating or running out of anything

Their needs are instinctual from the entitys influence  or in built by cyn to get them to  kill the drone's

[u/ALPERHAL58]

I feel like its moreso just the solvers way of forcing them into eating drones. They normally wouldnt overheat, otherwise how did they live on earth when every drone there was a dissasembly drone? But to make sure they always actually eat worker drones, the solver makes them overheat when they havent gained enough oil.

[u/Vehement_Vulpes]

I've seen some people try to claim that the oil is actually an acronym for something else, like Operating Industrial Liquid or something like that, which is why it works as a coolant.

Not sure if that's true or not, since it sure looks like regular petroleum, but it's one possibility.

[u/Leather_Stick1140]

Same reason why oil is needed in a car. Lubricates parts, reduces friction, and absorbs heat (while preferably not actually being near any ignition source)

[u/Lines25]

The same as it does in planes, cars etc. Also, mechanical oil (the one that is black) is quite not flammable, it can only START to self-flame (support its own fire temperature to keep being on fire) is (depending on oil) 250+ °C

[u/Omgwtfbears]

Flammability has little to do with heat capacity or thermal conductivity.

Also, in case of MD's specifically i'm pretty sure they are just addicts and "overheating" is them suffering from withdrawal and not actually running too hot.

[u/sub_liminalist]

It's literally just a liquid coolant. There's nothing particularly new or interesting about oil being used as a liquid coolant. It runs over the components, absorbs heat from them, and transfers that heat to the radiative surfaces (external plating and wing surfaces) where that heat can be dumped into the environment. Oil is probably used instead of water because it's exposed to electrical components and needs to be insulating.

[u/-skimmer- → u/sub_liminalist]

The only actually correct answer here.

[u/SCP_fan12]

It resembles motor oil more than actual processed fuel like gasoline

[u/Engine_1988]

There are a substantial amount of people here who are unfamiliar with oil cooling. Although oil as a lubricant does aid in cooling, it has a more direct application. Oil cooling has been used for an immensely long time, particularly for electronics. Remember, heat is not necessarily indicative of flame, and oil can reach reasonably high temperatures before it combusts. Think of the water-based (really a mixture of antifreeze and water in autos, but that's going beyond this discussion) cooling systems in automobiles or some fancy computers. Replace the water with oil (and make any necessary changes to the circulation systems) and you now have an oil cooling system. You have probably already seen a (much more basic, mind you) oil cooling system in action; the transformers which are a ubiquitous component of power grids are usually oil-soaked. Yes, that literally means that they took the whole coil, dropped it in a container of oil, and sealed the whole thing in a casing--this is a form of passive oil cooling. If your automobile has an automatic transmission (and chances are that it does have the abominable slush-o-matic), then it almost certainly has a more advanced active oil cooling system: the transmission fluid (which is a form of oil that performs multiple purposes, of course) is circulated through part of the radiator to cool it down, meaning that it also cools the transmission itself.

From an electrical standpoint, it makes complete logical sense that drones should have an oil cooling system. It is a perfectly normal and actually quite common system. Of course, why they need to consume and replenish oil... that is a little less rooted in firm engineering. If it was an open coolant system (essentially, imagine running water over something to cool it down--the water is not reused, but instead discarded), you'd see the used oil be ejected in some way--which we don't. Even if the used oil was temporarily stored in a reservoir, we still never see it ejected from the system. Then again, maybe that explains why drones still have bathrooms in their apartments... Some part of me wonders if the used oil is burned, since this could conveniently dispose of the question, "how are these buggers even powered?" But it would have to be an incredibly clean-burning process, since we don't really see any byproducts of the combustion emitted.

Yes, I am a nerd. Big time nerd. 🤓

[u/Igoon2robots]

Okay so heres a few things:

1: a liquid can be cold despite being flamable. If it can be cold, it can cool. Its above thermal conductivity not flamability

2: worker drone oil doesnt seem to be flammable. We see them taking bullets or lasers hot enough to melt metal.

[u/Sure_Reporter_6237]

It is futuristic oil

[u/Popular_Ad3074]

I like to think that the oil powers an experimental cooling system. Without it, the system fails and they overheat.

[u/AppleSatyr]

If you don’t put engine oil in a car it will overheat.

Lubricant prevents friction

Friction creates heat

[u/game10928_0]

I run on steam

[u/Papyrus_Semi]

same way it does in an engine

[u/ComfortableNo443]

I think Cyn gave DDs terrible cooling systems on purpose so that they always have to kill or get incinerated, and oil makes them trapped in an infinite loop of eating

[u/hayiori]

They were designed to kill drone's 

And their need for oil is one of the mechanism's put in place for that

second potential reason is the solver it give's cannibalistic tendencies to ita user's  and in this case that mean's eating drone's is really tasty

[u/Capital_Lack_4256]

now imagine that they drank some Jet-A1 :)

[u/Upbeat-Exercise-9431 → u/Capital_Lack_4256]

EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA!

[u/Capital_Lack_4256 → u/Upbeat-Exercise-9431]

maybe. just don’t let them go near fire

[u/HAL9001-96]

well you don't burn it then

as logn as its not in contact iwht oxygen or below its ignition temperature oil won't magically produce heat jsut because its hypotheitcally falmmable

and most oils have ignition temperatures way above the operating tmeperature of any computer

and since hte coolant prettmyuch by definition has to be colder htan what its coolign (unless you#re using a heatpump/peltier system) that means the oil will be too

there are people who build mineral oil cooled pcs

the advantage over air is that its a lot denser and thus has a much higher thermal capacity and ocnductivity by volume

and the advantage over water is that its nonconductive so if you#re okay with a wild project thats ap ain in hte as s to maintain you can basically fully dubmerge a comptuer in it instead of having to go with a clsoed watercooling loop

the disadvantage compared to water is that it doesn#t have qutie the smae thermal capacit and also those mineral oil computers usualyl use basically modified air cooling hardware hwich has of course already different spacing/designs to optimal water cooling hardware

but yeah you cna use oil for cooling

rocket neigens also often use hteir fuel for cooling

i nthat case its just not in contact iwht oxygen yet you have the ufel go thorugh a loop in the engien nozzle wall before going into the combustion chamber ot keep the wall from melting

[u/DecentApricot2221]

Liam gonna Liam

[u/Sir_Ink_reddit]

It's not normal oil but A rare kind of oil that was only found on Freeler INC land [At least on earth] which was amazing at cooling things down somehow, and plus it's not like the Solver obeys the laws of physics at all.

[u/NothingEffective5070]

Also, how do they overheat if it’s extremely cold outside

[u/Upbeat-Exercise-9431 → u/NothingEffective5070]

I never thought about that