The interesting situation would be for one of them to go several hundred thousand miles on cheap 5W20.
Delvac in a Ford Explorer
- Thread starter Bagger_Matt
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I see no reason to expect subnormal mpg with any oil in your application. Your wind resistance variable will account for more swing in mpg.
Now try that with under 10 miles trips and I assure you that you'll see a hit when that 15w40 is off of the visc scale ..while a 5w30 would (probably) be a 50 or 60 weight. You've got 4X the DIFFERENCE in added visc than the lighter oil does at full operating temp (I hope I said that right). That is, the DIFFERENCE in 100F visc between the two is about 4X the 100C spec of the lighter oil at operating temp. That is, @ 100F you're pumping the hp equivalent of 4 engines (at op oil temp) in equivalent parasitic loses ..and that's @ 100F.
As far as operational difficulties ..there probably are none unless you were in some more severe climate.
Gary, I have to disagree. A 5w30 should act as a 5w at low temps not a 50w or 60w as you stated. And as for your short trip theory, I live in the country, my wife has to drives 10 mile to get to town. A 2003 Explorer will heat up to operating temp in just a few miles. And once your at 200 degrees, outside temp doesn't affect oil visc.
Also my cars stay in the garage. Last winter with outside temps at 8-9 degrees, my garage was at or around 40 degrees.
I don't see what the problem is with running a 15w40. And the only "cheap" 15w40 that comes to mind is the Wal-Mart brand. I've been running 15w40 in my rig for like 3 years now, since I trail ride the thing at low rpm's in the summertime. I then just change over to the 5w-40 in winter. Almost all of our fleet vehicles at work, everything from Ford Ranger's to 350 super duty's and Mack garbage trucks run rotella 15w40 year round. And let me tell you, it gets bloody cold in Chicago at winter time. There's an old Ranger (not sure on the year, but I know its the 100 horse 4 cyl) that has 70K on the clock. Now keep in mind that these things only drive 2-3 miles at a time. So it took a lot of startups and time to get there!
I always see a lot of folks on the trails who run either Rotella or Delo. These are anything from 4cyl Wranglers to 8cyl Grand Cherokee's. In fact just this June I saw a Wrangler with 240K on the clock sieze it's motor. Why? Not because it ran almost all of those 240,000 miles on diesel but because the guy landed the oil pan on a rock
Anyways, it sells for a good price.
I always see a lot of folks on the trails who run either Rotella or Delo. These are anything from 4cyl Wranglers to 8cyl Grand Cherokee's. In fact just this June I saw a Wrangler with 240K on the clock sieze it's motor. Why? Not because it ran almost all of those 240,000 miles on diesel but because the guy landed the oil pan on a rock
Anyways, it sells for a good price.
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