Lubricant compositions containing metal complexes as detergents

Claim 1

A lubricant composition comprising a major proportion of a base oil selected from the group consisting of oils lubricating viscosity and grease thereof and a minor amount sufficient to improve detergency properties thereof of a metal complex prepared by (a) reacting a metal compound capable of forming a Werner complex selected from the group consisting essentially of zinc oxide, zinc carbonate, zinc acetate, zinc nitrate, nickel acetate, and nickel carbonate, at a temperature of from about 40° to about 150° C with a phenolic compound selected from the group consisting essentially of alkyl phenols containing from about 4 to about 30 carbon atoms, the reaction product of said alkyl phenols and a sulfur halide, dimers of said alkyl phenols, and said alkyl phenols which have been crosslinked with an aldehyde, to yield the metal salt of said phenolic compound; (b) reacting the resulting metal salt at a temperature of from about 25° to about 250° C with a polyamine having the formula H 2 N(C 2 H 4 NH) x H where x is 1 to 5; and (c) reacting the resulting product at a temperature of from about 70° to about 250° C with an alkenylsuccinic anhydride characterized by a molecular weight between about 400 and about 3,000.