Any real harm in running SAE 30 during summer?

[BuickGN]

Been running the ACD year round for quite a while now, about half of the TL's life. It's perfect for me since the car sees tons of steady state 1,400 rpms drives.

For what it's worth, I went out the other day to start my dad's GN and get the fluids circulating. The car gets started once a week. With the car sitting in the sun, the water temp guage was at nearly 140 degrees when I turned the key on. I'm not worried in the least running a synthetic 30wt in my climate.

 

[Steve S]

The compamy I worked for 17 years ran Delo 400 Straight 30 in all their vans "Ford " E350s some with the ohc engines they weighed around 9,000 lbs loades for work.The engines outlasted the rest of the van. They had around 30 vans and had shops in San jose Ca. Salinas Ca. and Burlingame Ca.. The 30 will be fine if that is your choice,

 

[JohnBrowning]

Most people on this board have about as much mechanical experince as one of my two six year olds! Until you have been inside a few thousand engines I doubt many can pseak with much experince. Seriously starting a car and changeng the oil and filter does not an expert make!

 

[Steve S]

Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
Most people on this board have about as much mechanical experince as one of my two six year olds! Until you have been inside a few thousand engines I doubt many can pseak with much experince. Seriously starting a car and changeng the oil and filter does not an expert make!
Could you explain this post a little better?

 

[chet2]

10-30 mobil one would excellent in summer heat empire...or any reputable syn

 

[chet2]

i am not that mechanical but you dont have to be in changing your oil or selecting right grade...to me checking oil level, ocis in a timely manner and changing antifreeze after proper flush goes a long ways towards a reliable engine...tuneups too..air and fuel filters

 

[MGregoir]

Most straight 30 weight oils are closer to a 20W-30 anyways, it is not a major issue above freezing. Much like 10W-30 is adequate to 0 F before 5W-30 becomes more necessary.

 

[exranger06]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
If my original sane and safe advice is not considered informed enough, consider this:

No automobile Mfr. recommends a straight weight oil.
That should clearly tell anyone with an IQ over 75 something.
[And they didn't get their oil recommendations from plastic surgeons.]


The owner's manual for my girlfriend's 1995 Buick Regal says SAE 30 is perfectly fine in 60+ degree temps, even though 10w-30 is the recommended oil for the engine.

 

[rockyrunner99]

My father-in-law runs strait 30 year round here in Michigan. He is paranoid of VII. He has put well over 200,000 miles on several vehicles with it. He was a diesel mechanic years ago, when the VII were a problem.

 

[Dieselbob]

Until I could no longer get it, I ran 20W20 winter, 30 wt summer in Northern Indiana for years and all of the engines were still running fine when the bodies rotted off the vehicles, some of them at 200,000+ miles. While I have since gone over to the modern way of thinking on oil weights, it seems to confirm that specific brands of oil and filters, weights and oil change intervals probably don't matter near as much as us oil geeks like to think it does. Keeping a vehicle full of SOME KIND of reasonably clean motor oil will probably suffice for the vast majority of the motoring public. The main reason for my conversion was for warranty issues and trying to get the last degree of performance and fuel economy out of my engines. I'm still convinced that my 3.5 Honda/Vue would probably run just fine on 30 wt.

 

[EMPIRE]

i've been doing some researching on synths, straight and multigrade oils. i've been in contact with Royal Purple, AMSoil, and Synlube. and thus far let me tell you that each tells a different story. the RP folks would not even give the percentages to how they blend their "synthetic" oils claiming that such info is proprietary. with the synth wars still going on i suspect most synth makers use as little PAO base stock as possible and blend in as much dino carrier as they can.

as far as i can tell from the info i got from each, only the folks at Synlube sell a 100% synthetic product. the others use group III base stocks or small % of PAO base blended in with petroleum base to get solubility of less expensive additives. since there is ongoing debate over what makes a synth and synth product the makers of these oils do what they want and use verbiage on the labels to make you believe you are buying the best synth product. however, from the info i could dig up, using pure synthetic oil introduces start-up problem because after shut down pure synths like to drain away from surfaces whereas blends and dino oils will cling, etc. but its still not clear to me if pure synths can use additives (that are 100% synth) to combat this drain off issue.

the real reason i was wanting to use a SAE30 synth (which seems to only exist in some blended form but yet still called synth) is to get the better cooling capabilities of a straight grade oil.

is there such a thing as a straight 30 weight synth oil? and which "synth" rated oil out there is the best of the synthetics?

 

[Audi Junkie]

Welcome to The Machine.

 

[EMPIRE]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
Welcome to The Machine.


yep. its really annoying.

and can anyone explain to me this. AMSoil sells a 5w40 "euro" oil, but the published viscosity is 79.7cSt @ 40C, and 13.7cSt @ 100C, ***, thats about the same as a SAE30.

 

[JohnBrowning]

EMPIRE you research is wrong SYnlube is junk and their are plenty of companies that sell a 100% synthetic product. Amsoil,Motul,Fuchs,Penrite,Reline,Mobil-1,Torco,NEO and the list goes on. Now all of the above companies have some products that buy old standards would not be called 100% synthetic in all countries but not all of them tell you this.I would not put synlube in my Craftsman Lawn and Garden Tractor. I do not trust them or the line of [censored] they string together!

ANy SM SAE 30 will work just fine. It might work great even better then a multi-viscosity or it might not. Only UOA is going to tell you. Personely I would not hesitat to run it if that was what I had decided to run. I consideed trying an SAE 30 from BP for a run with Auto-Rx. I needed some SAE 30 for some garden equipment though so that did away with that plan. I can not find any SAE 20 in my neck of the woods I was thinking about trying that as well. Life is only interesting if it is fun and full of adventures! So live a little and do not stress out over your oil! Anymore as long as you do not do something stupid like put M1 15W50 of Castrol GTX 20W50 in your engine right before a Michigan or Canadian winter and expect your engine and bearing s and starter and batery to deal with it you will be fine. It is more important to pick an oil that will work inyour abient temps's that meets the apropiate levels of additives and such then it is to use what is recomended or what everyone else is useing. Most oils today and engies are very tolerant and forgiveing. In fact I have an experiment comeing up that is going to push the limits the oposite direction. I am going to go drasticly thinner then recomended and see what I see. I am sure it will be ok but I will use UOA and let it tell me what is going on. In your case you are still with-in the OEM recomendation of a 30Wt. it is just not a multi-viscosity but who cares it is warm out!

Welcome to Bitog. Be carful about useing sites marketing information like it is factual their is a lot of junk out their!

 

[yannis]

Originally Posted By: EMPIRE
[13.7cSt @ 100C, ***, thats about the same as a SAE30.


12.5-16.3 cSt is SAE40

 

[EMPIRE]

Originally Posted By: yannis
12.5-16.3 cSt is SAE40

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/visc.html, the AMSoil # is at the hi side of sae30 and low side of sae40 (@ 100C)

its @ 40C # that surprised me and seems wrong for a 5w multigrade.

JohnBrowning - you are right, i take most i read with skepticism, hence why you see me posting now. i never said the Synlube stuff was any good but from what i can gather Synlube is 100% synthetic. as for the others you mentioned i believe chemistry analysis will show they are all really blends, not true 100% synthetics.

however, i'm not so worried about the oil being blended or not as they all seem to do a great job today, and will typically cost less than those made from 100% synthetic chemicals, but we are probably overpaying for the non-100% synthetics, etc.

again, more confusion. Redline lists on their website a "30 WT" but they actually write it "30 WT SAE (10W30)". *** is that? is it a 30wt or is it a 10w30 multigrade ???

i will use a synth SAE30. which brand i dunno yet. any suggestions? Royal Purple?

 

[jpr]

Originally Posted By: EMPIRE
Redline lists on their website a "30 WT" but they actually write it "30 WT SAE (10W30)". *** is that? is it a 30wt or is it a 10w30 multigrade ???
I believe that is just a consequence of it being a synthetic. My presumption is that the the SAE30 standards evolved from dino oil properties with their expected low temp thickening. With a synthetic equivalent oil, it does not thicken at quite the same rate. So even though it is a "straight" SAE30 synthetic, its temperature/viscosity behavior is similar to a dino 10W-30.

 

[EMPIRE]

Originally Posted By: jpr
Originally Posted By: EMPIRE
Redline lists on their website a "30 WT" but they actually write it "30 WT SAE (10W30)". *** is that? is it a 30wt or is it a 10w30 multigrade ???
I believe that is just a consequence of it being a synthetic. My presumption is that the the SAE30 standards evolved from dino oil properties with their expected low temp thickening. With a synthetic equivalent oil, it does not thicken at quite the same rate. So even though it is a "straight" SAE30 synthetic, its temperature/viscosity behavior is similar to a dino 10W-30.


thats really silly. if the oil behaves like a 10w30 (kinematic viscosity tests, etc) then why would they call it a "30 WT"? would their "30 WT" oil be free from the typical additives needed to obtain multigrade performance? because that is what i am after, a SAE30 that is free from the multigrade additives...

 

[jpr]

Originally Posted By: EMPIRE
Originally Posted By: jpr
Originally Posted By: EMPIRE
Redline lists on their website a "30 WT" but they actually write it "30 WT SAE (10W30)". *** is that? is it a 30wt or is it a 10w30 multigrade ???
I believe that is just a consequence of it being a synthetic. My presumption is that the the SAE30 standards evolved from dino oil properties with their expected low temp thickening. With a synthetic equivalent oil, it does not thicken at quite the same rate. So even though it is a "straight" SAE30 synthetic, its temperature/viscosity behavior is similar to a dino 10W-30.


thats really silly. if the oil behaves like a 10w30 (kinematic viscosity tests, etc) then why would they call it a "30 WT"? would their "30 WT" oil be free from the typical additives needed to obtain multigrade performance? because that is what i am after, a SAE30 that is free from the multigrade additives...
That plus some marketing. The "30WT" Redline offers is as one of their "race oils." So the typical customer they are targeting comes to them specifically looking for a straight weight oil and that's how they find it categorized on their website. The low temp properties are pitched as a perk "...allowing 2-4% more power than an oil of similar viscosity..."

It is also worth noting that Redline's SAE30 race oil does have somewhat different properties than their 10W-30 street oil.

 

[Al]

I'll say it: All this is silly. A 10W-30 and a straight 30 wt. both have a viscosity of about 20 cSt. at around 170 F. So anything below 170 F the 10W-30 flows better and conversily the straight 30 does not lubricate as well on startup. At 80F the 30 weight is about twice as thick..200 cST. vs 110 cST. for the 10W-30. Even when a 10W-30 thins out to less than 8 cST we can't even see any wear problems in a normal car.

What am I missing here????