0w oil or oil pan heater?

[PantherFan88]

Hey all,

I have an 05 Crown Vic (2v 4.6) with 49k. I live in New England, and we'll see winters with a week or three of straight under 15 F temps, usually in Jan or Feb. I'm currently, and have been running jugs of 5w-20 M1/PUP and whatever misc quart of full syn appeals to me.

Toying with the idea of either switching to a 0w-20 or purchasing one of those 5"x5" plug in 150w oil pan heater pads from Amazon. Would you say either of them would be worth it? It's OHC and I do hear that knock for a second if its under 25-ish.

Just looking for opinions!

 

[burla]

pao/ester based oil, performs better in the cold temps.

 

[PPWarrior]

def a 0w as you can use it year round

 

[CT8]

5W is good to use well below 0*f

 

[burla]

Nice thing about the pao/esters they don't shear away, so they will perform this way from day one to whenever you change it. The vii's shear with use, so those products wont do as good as you can see with the virgin samples shown in this video. Those 0 winter rated oils will be great at first, but as they shear with use the wont flow as good.

Cold Flow Test

 

[burla]

If you are getting a knock, another good aspect with the pao/ester based fluids are the usually have high moly. Search hemi tick in the forum and give it a read. High additive, high viscosity, hearty oils will protect it better imo. Plus they are polar by nature meaning they have a tendency to go towards metal. gl whatever you choose.

Sorry I thought that other video showed how they pour in the cold, this one does. Amsoil, Redline, Motul pouring cold

 

[PimTac]

You should be fine sticking with a 5w20. It would have to get really cold like -20 to -30 before having any kind of problems. If you have good access underneath one of those magnetic oil pan heaters would do the trick if the weather got real cold.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by burla
Nice thing about the pao/esters they don't shear away, so they will perform this way from day one to whenever you change it. The vii's shear with use, so those products wont do as good as you can see with the virgin samples shown in this video. Those 0 winter rated oils will be great at first, but as they shear with use the wont flow as good.

Cold Flow Test


No base oil shears. It's simply that you end up with more VII for a given grade using lower group bases and more PPD. PPD performance degrades and VII's shear, which is why oils are allowed to slip a W-rating in service. A PAO-based 0w-xx is not likely to slip, M1 EP 0w-20 and AP 0w-20 are both excellent examples, given they are majority PAO. They'll stay in grade and likely have extremely low levels of VII.

 

[skyactiv]

I'd use an 0W20 before an oil pan heater.
Side note:
Also consider placing a small electric heater in your car with a high amp electric timer if [censored] freezes over.
I had a garage door spring snap in the cold and had to leave my VW parked outside. I safely placed a small electric heater in it
and my car was nice and warm and I had zero frost to scrap. If I had to park outside with an expected ice storm, I highly recommend it.

 

[SatinSilver]

Where did you run the cord through?

 

[Number_35]

A 60 or 100 W incandescent bulb under the hood can help a lot. Not as good as block heater or oil pan heater, but does help. There are dipstick heaters (that is, they replace the dipstick) as well.

 

[shanneba]

A 5w-20 should be good to -20 F, a 0w-20 would get you to about -30 F.

 

[StevieC]

My brother lives in Boston and uses Dino in his Rav 4. No issues, old one made it 200,000 miles before rust ate it.

 

[rsalan]

5W-20 is fine here.

 

[JAG]

0W-20 will help save some fuel compared to same brand 5W-20, when it's very cold. I used to use an oil pan heater. They surely get the oil temperature up. It can be a slight hassle with plugging it in unless the power cord is on a timer and your schedule is consistent. You don't want it on too long before starting it up or you waste electricity because the oil temperature will reach equilibrium. 30 minutes is what I used to shoot for.

 

[buck91]

Never had a problem with similar weather here in Michigan running 5w and 10w synthetic OR dino... Have even started my bike with 15w HDEO in those temps before. When I had a bike.

 

[Garak]

An 05 CV needs a boutique oil like a hole in the head. If it were me, and it has been me, a 5w-XX and use of the block heater when needed is more than enough for any conditions you'll ever face. Oil pan heaters are nice, but there are drawbacks. You do have to mount it somehow or climb under each time, and there is power usage to consider. With respect to a 0w-XX, if you're using a synthetic already, which you are, there's no reason not to use the 0w-XX option, since the cost will be the same.

 

[BigShug681]

You should be fine like many have stated, personally unless it's -40 out a block heater is over kill on a gasser. I don't even plug my diesel in until it's down into the single digits and I run 10w30.

 

[147_Grain]

For shorter trips, use a 0W-20 like Mobil 1.

For long extended trips, then a 0W-30.

 

[oghl]

15F is almost California weather We get down to around 10 degrees F occasionally in the mountain/ski areas. Any 0w-20/30/40 or 5w-20/30/40 will do just fine without external heating. Even 10w-30 would be fine at 15F. No need to worry about it at all.