15w40 in gas engine ?

Pennzoil motor oil
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ericthepig

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I've read tidbits here & there on CJ-4 rated oils messing w/ a cat. converted. Is this true? Because I've got a problem - there's too many variables in these oil decisions and I made a quick (wrong) decision recently.

I was in the local Schaeffers rep office, and while picking up some coveted Schaeffers 7000 for my Sienna (if it used oil analysis well on a 7k OCI, then next comes 9000 for a REAL OCI
smile.gif
) Anyway while there the rep starts talking to me about my Mazda, and I make the quick decision to run 7000 15w40 in it. BUT, I totally forgot in that moment that when I run non-High Mileage oils in it, it puts out embarrassing levels of start-up smoke. So here I am with five qts of 7000 15w40. Now my question - can I run it for my next Sienna OCI (it can be my summer oil next year) w/ out hurting my cat. converter? My Sienna has 142k on it, so perhaps the cat is near the end of it's life cycle anyway?

Thanks for any help!
 
Put that good stuff in and see how it works out. IMHO, your cats will be fine, and you will not know about your start-up smoke until you try it.

Hammer
 
Hammer, the start up smoke is in the Mazda (which I'm not worried about since it's at 210k miles). And I know it'll return to it's smoking ways because it's already doing so during a Neutra cleaning run I've got going on right now (using SuperTech conventional). Which is interesting - Bob (of BITOG) did a test that showed that Neutra swells seals more than some High Mileage oils he used in his test - yet with my Mazda, High Mileages do an excellent job of eliminating start-up smoke and this Neutra is not. So I'm definitely wanting to return to an High Mileage in the Mazda post this cleaning.
 
(sorry for the wordiness here - I need to edit the second post above) -

I'm not worried about burning the cat up in my Mazda since it's at 210k miles. But this is now a moot pt since I'm not going to use the CJ-4 in the Mazda.
 
Does you Sienna require a SL oil? If so, the SM-rated 15w40 will be just fine from a cat perspective. If you are fine with the viscosity difference effects, go for it.
 
Schaeffers show the oil as SL (and then all the various C ratings). It says nothing about SM. As with other "diesel" oils, the description says "made for ... high performance gas engines". So I guess if it's SL then they also had gas engines in mind, and so I guess I can assume all will be well with the cat.
 
Quote:

So I guess if it's SL then they also had gas engines in mind, and so I guess I can assume all will be well with the cat.

Click to expand...


Correct.

Just be aware of the difference a 15W vs 5W brings for fuel economy and cold starts and the slight fuel economy hit a 40 brings vs a 30 at operating temp.
 
Is your sienna burning oil?? Most toyotas are pretty good at not needing any top-ups during an oci, if yours does not, it is a mute point and wont hurt the cat. You should be fine even if you needed to add 1/2 qt per oci.
 
I'm not worried about the visc. issues just during the short time I'll be on it (late Spring thru Summer).

My 98 Sienna has ended up with serious consumption issues - thus I just completed a cleaning run with Neutra and then did an Amsoil flush - hopefully the (apparently) gummed oil rings are less gummed - to be seen.

Yes, it's the valve guide seals on the Mazda. I suspect it is carbon/sludge deposits that are not allowing the seals to ... seal. I doubt it's due to hardened seals, since it started doing this even as a younger car. High Mileage oils have been keeping this issue in chk for many years now.
 
No. I run HDEO both 5W40 and 15W40 in my Gasser's on a regular basis with no problem's one on this site will be able to show were running a HDEO was the direct cause of a catalytic converter failure. On top of that I also run boutique oils from time to time wich are higher in additives that any HDEO and I also add additives from time to time to my oil. No problem yet. Most of the vehicles my Parents own get Mobil 1 15W50 in the warm months and Mobil 1 10W30 in the winter. Mobil 1 15W50 has for a long time had a very robust oil additive package and to this day still no cat problems. One vehicle is a 1995 Toyota Tacoma and you can still see through the cat. We had it off to get a rock out from between the heat shield it was making a rattling noise.

Their was a paper co-authored by Lubrizol that did show poisoning to be real but the test was conducted in such a way as to be meaningless to 90% of people driving on the roads in America. As a former Technician or Mechanic I can tell you that all cat converter failures I have seen were from over heating, broken material inside or were on vehicles that were oil burners and sludge beast's. I have never seen one fail on a well maintained vehicle other then from over heating and mechanical failure of the elements inside.

Now the over heating is usually from one of two things. First idling with no airflow under the car. The next cause of over heating is running at high output levels for long periods of time like tracking a car. Corvette's that see a lot of track time often have weak under performing cat.'s!The broken material inside has really only started happening since they went to ceramic media coated with the rare earth elements.Now any cat is going to have a set life-cycle and I think that we need to define what we mean by cat poisoning? Are we talking about it losing efficiency or getting obstructed?
 
Thanks JohnBrowning, I now have peace of mind in using 15w40.

We don't have emission cert. issues here in Arkansas. For me, keeping the cat in good shape just has the benefit of hiding future (slight) oil burning (smoke) in case I ever develop that issue. I plan to keep the van out to at least 240k (possibly much further) - so having a cat to hide slight smoke issues that might develop from my overzealous meddling in oil issues would be a nice back up.
 
My apologies, but after hitting folks up for all this info, I'm suddently struck with indecision. Here's the thing - my Mazda (w/ 16oz of Neutra in the crankcase (1 bottle + 4oz)) is starting to have smoke at start up, but still much reduced from days gone by. In fact, livable if it stays at current levels. So, I'm second guessing myself and considering going ahead and dropping the 15w40 into the Mazda and then (if needed) dropping in Neutra to keep things controlled thru the 15w40 run. If I do this, then my apologies to those who took the time to answer my question - but it still could be utilized, and if nothing else you helped my education in the 15w40 realm where I was previously not so educated.
 
I picked up a few quarts of Quaker State 15W40 (CI-4/SL rated) to try in my Metro. It's been burning a fair bit of oil so I thought thickening it up might help. I mixed it about 50/50 with some high-mileage 10W30 to be on the safe side, so it's kind of a thin 10W40 at this point.

From a cat protection perspective I wouldn't worry about it. I've been burning a quart every 500 miles or so for the last few years and I'm still (barely) passing smog testing, so I can't imagine one OCI of diesel harming your cat, regardless of how much oil it burns.
 
I have a stash of 15 qts of mobil delvac 15w40 sl. I put it in my 96 Sunfire which used 1 qt every 3k miles. now, I believe the 1 qt is slowly leaked out of the rear main seal. When I changed the trans filter, the trans pan was covered in black grime. it's been 104 degrees here yesterday and 103 degrees today. I have 1k miles on this first run of HDEO and my oil dipstick still reads full. From gas mileage perspective, I haven't noticed any difference probably since I put the hdeo at the beginning of the summer.
 
I wonder how much HM I'd need to top off with if it gets back into it's smoking ways. It's really a toss up where this oil will end up (though I have to decide soon because my Mazda's neutra run is about to end). I wanted the 15w40 in the Mazda for a yr (I'm driving it more now, but it'll only see maybe 5-6k). If it starts smoking the neighbors yard at start up, I'll be bummed. Thus it may still end up in the van. (Talk to me tomorrow and I will have chged my mind four more times and will be back on the van.)
 
I'm not sure of the cold temp properties of Schaeffer's 15w40, that would be my only concern. I see you are in AR, so I doubt it will be any problem.

I am currently running Amsoil AME 15w40 (full syn) in my Volvo 850. I did definitely notice a difference going from a 10 cSt oil to 15 cSt oil, and the AME has fairly excellent cold temp properties - so again that would be my only concern, not the cat.
 
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