I prefer to use premium oil over anything else because it makes my vehicles last longer and generally has less corn in it.
in 100F my fan runs all the time. and it struggles to say under 210F
in 75F it usually is around 180F on the temp gauge
I am not talking about performance, beyond almost having to turn it off
if my coolant is that much hotter, how about my oil? the hotter the oil gets the thinner it gets.
One thing that is no longer important is the ambient temperature. Older automotive owner manuals often recommended one oil for the summer and another for the winter. This is still necessary for air cooled engines but is no longer a consideration in pressurized water cooled engines. These engine blocks are kept at around 212°F all year round. The oil is around the same temperature as well. This allows for a single grade oil all year round. Again, this is not the same as on the track where the coolant temperature is slightly higher and the oil temperature is much higher.
dear god this is so wrong on a basic level
tell me liquid cooled aprilia that, it hates ambients over 85F unless its moving above 40mph
My air-cooled Ducati runs great when it is hot out. Not so much when it is below 55 degrees.
Engines are designed to run at a certain temperature no matter ambient temperature.
The engine block temp <> coolant temp <> oil temp.
Oil needs to reach temps high enough to burn off moisture\crap while maintaining a low enough temp to stay within its rating.
Coolant temp will change as the cooling system works to maintain a constant operating temps.
The Coolant could be at 190f
The Block at 212f
the oil at 220f
If its 75F outside the coolant\Engine\Oil temps on a running, warmed up engine will be in the same range as if it were 100F out.
The cooling system is where the variation will come in but the engine should stay in the same range. Oil temp variation will come into play under special circumstances.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/
wtf???? D:at 60k miles, the engine sounded like crap, so he ran atf through it to "clean it up".
wtf???? D:
well, it runs great for a slow ducati
On the other hand, its very hot here and especially this summer, today reached 94F and was extremely hot.
The hot humid climate must be taken into account here...am I right?
Beware of synthetic blends. Either go full conventional or full Synthetic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZsPdRxNvoo
94 degrees Fahrenheit is not anywhere even remotely close to hot enough to warrant diverging from the manufacturer's recommended viscosity.
Yes, because there's no possible reason that AMSOil, a company that exists to sell an overpriced and over-hyped product that does not demonstrably outperform Mobil 1, would try to scare people away from synthetic blends. :hmm:
A synthetic blend won't harm anything, so there's no reason to "beware" of it. It will perform slightly better than conventional oil as well, though, of course, not as well as full synthetic. Given that most "synthetic blends" have little to no price difference between them and conventional (both run around $5/quart at the local shop), it's just silly to bother with conventional when, for the same price, you can get something that is at least slightly better.
ZV
I use whatever the cheapest oil jiffylube puts in it. Used to DIY and buy premium brands. Waste of time and money.
I will say, the guy did make one good point about the blends potentially being only 15% synthetic or whatever, but as you say, the cost difference is negligible from straight dino, so it really doesn't matter what the percentage is.
Just a quick word of caution, I know it's only one example but my brother took his Accord to JL for a change after work, next morning he noticed a huge puddle of oil under the car, turns out the drain bolt was hanging on by 2-3 threads and the oil sump was totally dry. Just take a quick check after you get back and make sure everything's OK, heck my dealer overfilled my car by a full quart, I brought it back and made them correct it.
As long as you use any manufacturer approved oil for your vehicle, it doesn't matter.
The vehicle is going to turn into a pile of rust and have everything around the engine fall apart before the fact that you run $10/quart Amsoil over the cheapest approved alternative makes any kind of difference.
I suggest buying the 5 quart jugs at Walmart, very good value.
Just a quick word of caution, I know it's only one example but my brother took his Accord to JL for a change after work, next morning he noticed a huge puddle of oil under the car, turns out the drain bolt was hanging on by 2-3 threads and the oil sump was totally dry. Just take a quick check after you get back and make sure everything's OK, heck my dealer overfilled my car by a full quart, I brought it back and made them correct it.
I guess it's a new month, so we're due for this argument again.
As usual, I will point out that there are countless examples of manufacturers using the same family of engines, with the same bearing clearances, same size oil passages, same valvetrain designs, ect, for many years...and somehow, they were spec'd for 5w30 or 5w20 one year...then the next year, the same engine is 5w20 or 0w20.
And, of course, there is the simple fact that a select few manufacturers still list multiple weights for the same engine. Hell, I've seen BMW list 5w30, 0w40, 5w40, and 10w40 for a single car. OH, THE HUGE MANATEE. SURELY ONE OF THOSE OILS WILL CAUSE INSTANT ENGINE FAILURE.
In some other cases, manufacturers will sell cars in regions outside the US with a similar range of viscosities. The owners manual often has a chart for identifying which oils are compatible with your climate. In the US, of course, this is too much for people to handle, so it's often changed to a single specified weight. Doesn't matter whether the car is sold in Florida or Alaska.
http://my-gti.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/engoil_gas.pdf
Why...that's insanity! Multiple grades accepted?! Heresy!
I could probably find similar recommendations from any other European manufacturer. Engines aren't magic and physics are a constant. Just FYI.
You run no risk of hurting a car by using 5w20 instead of 0w20 unless you are already on the ragged edge of the lower temp limits of the latter oil. 5w20 vs 5w30 is an even sillier debate, made more humorous by the fact that many small shops or quickie lube places only buy bulk oil in one weight. If you owned a car with 5w20 on the cap five years ago and brought it somewhere for $20 oil changes, there is an extremely high likelihood you got 5w30. Every time. Hot DAMN would there be a lot of toasted engines out there if this stuff mattered as much as some profess it to.
Am I saying that you should intentionally go against the manufacturer recs? Nope. Just stating that the opinion of 'oh noes 5w30 in a 5w20 will blow your engine up and void your warranty!' is utterly asinine.
I been hearing many debates about whether or not synthetic oil is much better than conventional oil and so on. I was at the gas station today and the amount of choices and brands for different types of oil was mind boggling.
As for me, I have a Mazda Tribute 2003 with a Ford Duratec 3.0L V6 engine. It has over 140,000 miles on it. Vehicle is in a hot humid climate with no winters.
My manual says to use synthetic 5W-20 oil but I am using Castrol GTX Trishield 10W-30 conventional oil. Today was a REALLY hot day as well so maybe the thicker oil might be better?
Anyway, what do you guys and why?