It’s been 25 years since I took a graduate engineering class on tribology. But my first reaction was, yeah, sure, why not? As long as the viscosity is in the general ballpark, bananas will work just fine. Maybe not long term as the water boils off (or corrodes the heck out of the engine), but until then, no prob.
None of lubrication and bearing equations include anything about the source of the fluid. Just viscosity, density, velocity, geometry, and force. Sometimes flow rate for pumped bearings. Bananas, synthetic oil, molten metal, zit oil, whatever. If the viscosity will support the load, the bearing won’t crash and everything works honky dory.
( Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear.)
