Anyone willing to do a cold pour test?

[Liquid_Turbo]

Now that we have some folks with really cold temperatures, anyone willing to do a non-scientific cold pour test and possibly record it on video?

Such as this?
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=gKtxqf5OFTU

 

[Samuraidog]

Yeah. It was pretty lame to compare M1 to a "semi-synthetic". I imagine the 0W synthetics would pour even better.

 

[Turk]

If not, you can put yours in the freezer and do one for us... The -15F weather moved away from me (for now).

 

[tsmay51]

Not much of an issue here in Texas but I can surely understand why climate can be an issue with oil selection for some.

 

[Liquid_Turbo]

Haha, my freezer doesn't go down to -30C otherwise I'd be interested in doing this myself.

 

[Cup of Joe]

If you have a deep freeze or chest freezer they can get down to -30C. My fridge freezer goes down below -20C when I crank it up. Normally it sits at -12C to -15C. I have not felt it running long enough to find out how low it will go.

 

[mikered30]

He talked about wax precipitating from the other oil, it must have been Pennzoil.



Just kidding.

 

[webfors]

The really cold temps moved away from us.. we're hovering around freezing for the next few days. When it gets really cold in January/February I'll rev up the camcorder.

What oils would people want to see in this test?

 

[Steve S]

All you need to know that in below 0*f syn oil is the choice.

 

[mva]

I took all of my spare jugs and bottles of out and left them outside last weekend; it was -30C (-22F). I didn't video it. I just wanted to get back inside the house ASAP!

YB 5W30 - still pours but thick like honey - marginal
PP 5W30 - pours good
Maxlife blend 5W20 - pours good similar to PP 5W30
M1 5W50 - pours good similar to PP 5W30
Amsoil 0W40 - pours very good - better than PP 5W30

Bardahl Honda approved pwr steering fluid - doesn't pour
Honda Power steering fluid - pours good
Valvoline Dextron 3 - pours very good - better than PP 5W30
Dot 3 brake fluid - pours very good

I did this test because my power steering was getting very stiff on cold starts with the Bardahl fluid. I just changed it back to stock Honda fluid after the test.

 

[Zaedock]

I did a little testing a couple weeks ago. I experimented with putting various 5 & 10W30 oils in the freezer (0*F - according to the fridge's LCD).

5W30:
Havoline, Shell, GTX, Supertech(XOM), Valvoline AC; all poured close to the same, which was like a 80W90 weight gear oil.

10W30:
Supertech, GTX, Superflo, Havoline, Maxlife; The Maxlife poured the best, similar to a 5W30. The rest were pretty close, almost like honey.

15W40:
Chevron Delo 400. The BIG surprise! When I conducted each test, I put the oil in the freezer at night (10-11pm) and tested them after getting home from work the next day, about 6pm. When I poured the Delo, I was surprised that it actually flowed. I would say it poured similar to a 10W30. I attribute this to the Isosyn basestocks it's made from, which Chevron claims to rival synthetics. It has a pour point of -23*F. The Delo SAE30 I use in summer has a PP of -24*F. That will be my next test.

This was in no way a scientific test, just something to mess around with. All testing was observed with the naked eye.

 

[Audi Junkie]

I had Delo 30 at 0f and it is very thick. I actually found 5w-40 to be somewhat thick too, same brand synth 10w30 poured much better. I tell people to avoid 5w-40 in cold winter, especially turbos.

PP 5w-20 is the best I tried, better than M1 0w-30. According to my calculations, it takes a synth 5w-20 to beat 0w-30, a dino 5w-20 does not do it.

No other real surprises other than GC is not very thin. Semi-syn 5w30 was better than synth 10w30. I did not have any dino 5w30 to compare.

 

[GMGuy]

Quote:
I was surprised that it actually flowed.


In the spirit of completely unscientific, I had Rotella 15w40 I was pouring into an oiler, kept in an unheated garage, around +5°C and it poured very stiff, almost honey like. 10W30 poured without reluctance.

Alex.

 

[mva]

Pour points of some common oils:

YB 5W30 -35C
YB 10W30 -30C
PP 5W30 -45C
PP 0W20 -45C
Maxlife 5W20 -42C
Maxlife 10W30 -39C
Valvoline dino 5W30 -36C
Valvoline synth 5W30 -42C
M1 5W30 -48C
M1 0W30 pour point not given - probably very low
Delo 15W40 -31C
Pennzoil dino 15W40 -25C
Pennzoil YB 20W50 -24C
Pennzoil YB 30 -30C

Looking at the YB 5W30 at -30C I recommend that you don't try starting your car unless the oil is at least 5C warmer than the pour point and preferably 10C warmer.

It was a bit surprising to me that straight 30 weight YB has a pour point of -30C.

 

[XS650]

mva, how do the other 30 YB specs compare with 10w30 YB.

They could be selling 10w30 as straight 30. One less oil to blend for a small percentage of the market.

Edit: I looked them up. They don't have many numbers in common except the -30C pour point.

 

[Audi Junkie]

I still think we REALLY need someone to produce some decent visc graphs of typical viscs. -10f to operating temp. It probally should be scaled, a "log" graph? as far as I'm concerned, 0f is the most relavent temp to compare viscs.

 

[tuckman]

Too bad nobody thought of this a week and a half ago we got down to the -40's for a couple of nights and even colder where i work...its in a river valley and it is 5-7C cooler there than out of the valley.

If i get another really cold snap i will try what i have on hand
pp 0w-20
pp 5w-20
valv dino 5w30 and 10w30
penzoil HM and valv max life full syn 5w30 and 10w30
YB 5w30
GTX 5W-20
motomaster formula 1 (shell)syn 5w-20
quaker state 10W30
esso xd3 0W-30

any other suggestions to try?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: tuckman
Too bad nobody thought of this a week and a half ago we got down to the -40's for a couple of nights and even colder where i work...its in a river valley and it is 5-7C cooler there than out of the valley.

If i get another really cold snap i will try what i have on hand
pp 0w-20
pp 5w-20
valv dino 5w30 and 10w30
penzoil HM and valv max life full syn 5w30 and 10w30
YB 5w30
GTX 5W-20
motomaster formula 1 (shell)syn 5w-20
quaker state 10W30
esso xd3 0W-30

any other suggestions to try?


Any of the Mobil 1 5W-xx oils, or their 0W20. Seems they're in the spot light lately.

Frank D

 

[tuckman]

I am having no luck finding any mobil 1 0W-X's around here, i had to special order my PP 0W-20. I will look around for some mobil 1 5w30 cheap, it is very easy to find here just to find a good price is the fun part.

 

[tuckman]

I will have to get a hold of a BITOG'r that lives close by and see if he wants in on the fun and see what he has in his stash to try.
Looking at the extended weather forcast, it my be a couple of weeks or longer until we see extreme temps again.

note: I do know the Auto-Rx bottles that were left in the car at -39C were very stiff but warmed up fast at room temp.