is this oil too heavy?

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Well, like i stated before after seeing so many of our company cars and delivery vans with everything from fork lifts, 6cyl cars and , not one failure with many over 200k miles I think that a 15w40 would not hurt anything. I believe that the 5w20 and 5w30 oils are just for economy. How can an engine in the USA be speced with 5w30 and the same engine in another country be speced with 20w50? My sisters 2002 Hyundai says in the owners manual that it can be run on anything from 5w30 to 20w50. Must not really be that big of a deal.
 
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Guys, your truck, genset, road grader, locomotive, ship engine, earth mover, submarine, have little to nothing in common with a passenger gasoline or passenger diesel engine.

If you wanna use 15w40 dino in a small passenger engine at 0*F/-20*C, go ahead. Make sure you don't drive off right way, and watch those seals.
shocked2.gif


To quote a mechanic friend of mine:
"And I really wish people would stop bringing their diesel pickup/tractor/tugboat/roadgrader/genset/submarine/locomotive comparisons to these threads."
grin2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: cassidy
Well, like i stated before after seeing so many of our company cars and delivery vans with everything from fork lifts, 6cyl cars and , not one failure with many over 200k miles I think that a 15w40 would not hurt anything. I believe that the 5w20 and 5w30 oils are just for economy. How can an engine in the USA be speced with 5w30 and the same engine in another country be speced with 20w50? My sisters 2002 Hyundai says in the owners manual that it can be run on anything from 5w30 to 20w50. Must not really be that big of a deal.


The viscosity range listed in owner's manuals cover all possible climates. Pick the viscosity appropriate for your climate.
 
During the warm months of the year, probably not.
I'd probably revert to a 5W-XX or 0W-XX for an Ohio winter, though.
I used Tection 15w40 in both my Aerostar and my '97 Accord last summer, two 4K runs for the Aero, and one of the same length for the Accord.
I saw no problems.
I also used M1 EP 15W-50 in the '99 Accord with no noted problems.
I don't think you'd have any problems running 15w40 from April through October, and Delvac is very good stuff.
 
Originally Posted By: cassidy
I'm pretty sure it said 20w50 could be used at 20 degees and over.


Based on your location, 20w50 is not going to work. 15w40 is not ideal either. Would 15w40 work? Sure. Is it ideal? No
 
Originally Posted By: BobFout
Guys, your truck, genset, road grader, locomotive, ship engine, earth mover, submarine, have little to nothing in common with a passenger gasoline or passenger diesel engine.

If you wanna use 15w40 dino in a small passenger engine at 0*F/-20*C, go ahead. Make sure you don't drive off right way, and watch those seals.
shocked2.gif


To quote a mechanic friend of mine:
"And I really wish people would stop bringing their diesel pickup/tractor/tugboat/roadgrader/genset/submarine/locomotive comparisons to these threads."
grin2.gif




LOL - that was funny
cheers3.gif
 
Originally Posted By: PurplePride
Originally Posted By: BobFout
Guys, your truck, genset, road grader, locomotive, ship engine, earth mover, submarine, have little to nothing in common with a passenger gasoline or passenger diesel engine.

If you wanna use 15w40 dino in a small passenger engine at 0*F/-20*C, go ahead. Make sure you don't drive off right way, and watch those seals.
shocked2.gif


To quote a mechanic friend of mine:
"And I really wish people would stop bringing their diesel pickup/tractor/tugboat/roadgrader/genset/submarine/locomotive comparisons to these threads."
grin2.gif




LOL - that was funny
cheers3.gif



Yeah But Taxi and mixed fleet vehicle examples were also quoted. There are no Taxis running diesel in Australia, only Petrol or LP Gas.

At 0 to -20 would you drive off straight away with a 0w20 oil in it ? I dont think so. There are 25w60 oils that will still flow adequately during warm up at -20^c.
 
Originally Posted By: vxcalais
Originally Posted By: PurplePride
Originally Posted By: BobFout
Guys, your truck, genset, road grader, locomotive, ship engine, earth mover, submarine, have little to nothing in common with a passenger gasoline or passenger diesel engine.

If you wanna use 15w40 dino in a small passenger engine at 0*F/-20*C, go ahead. Make sure you don't drive off right way, and watch those seals.
shocked2.gif


To quote a mechanic friend of mine:
"And I really wish people would stop bringing their diesel pickup/tractor/tugboat/roadgrader/genset/submarine/locomotive comparisons to these threads."
grin2.gif




LOL - that was funny
cheers3.gif



Yeah But Taxi and mixed fleet vehicle examples were also quoted. There are no Taxis running diesel in Australia, only Petrol or LP Gas.

At 0 to -20 would you drive off straight away with a 0w20 oil in it ? I dont think so. There are 25w60 oils that will still flow adequately during warm up at -20^c.


Yes, normal procedure (per the manual and also what myself and many people do) is to start up, wait for the idle to smooth out (at most 10 seconds), then drive off. This is with 0w30, 5w30, 0w40, 5w40. This applies to diesel and petrol engines.

-20C to 0C is not really cold, just normal average winter temps, many places see colder.
 
The closer your typical service is to commercial/taxi/OTR ..the less viscosity is going to impact things. It moves the warm up part of the equation into a smaller and smaller corner. The shorter your event, the bigger the impact. This is the same across the board for all viscs over all temp ranges.

Shorter trips will produce worse fuel economy with heavier weights if the event is short enough for that to make a significant difference in mpg. Oils become more alike the longer the event is. Parasitic losses move more into that smaller corner.

Once the engine is fully enveloped, I don't think that there's too much to worry about.
 
Wow, reading some of these guys thoughts on oils make me sick. So a 5w30 is still too thin while a 10w30 is thick?

I can't stand the stupidity I read on here anymore. If you don't know, ASK, but don't be acting like you know something when you don't.
 
You're going to get your mixed bag of responses. Everything from "you'll shoot your eye out, kid" to "Gohaeed, just dEW eet!"

The best thing that most can do is inform the poster of the liabilities... or lack of them. Then let them decide.
 
Originally Posted By: Jaymus
Wow, reading some of these guys thoughts on oils make me sick. So a 5w30 is still too thin while a 10w30 is thick?

I can't stand the stupidity I read on here anymore. If you don't know, ASK, but don't be acting like you know something when you don't.


No, in my opinion a 10w30 is still too thin for my liking. The lowest i will use for my car is a 5w40 like Shell Helix Ultra. My reasoning for this is that for my own car, and plenty of others i have spoken to with my engine and similar versions, burn oil at this viscosity. The Car Parts stores and dealerships agree.

The stupidity is telling someone a #w40 will kill their engine, when there is endless evidence that this is not the case. There are people that push really thin oils, and the oil manufacturers everyone loves only makes approx 1 out or 7 of these oils. The other higher grades must be for us thick oil users who wanna kill our engines.

People will always draw personal lines as to how low or high they go with a oil, that is their choice.
 
These viscosity preferences are quite interesting. E.g in here most cars call for 5w30 as usual, but still the most common OTC grade is 5w-40. Oil MFGs say it's most suitable for our "demanding" climate, temps range from -40 in the north to +30 in the southern part (in the high of summer, occasionally). Wouldn't it be logical to have more thinner grades?
 
Originally Posted By: BobFout
Guys, your truck, genset, road grader, locomotive, ship engine, earth mover, submarine, have little to nothing in common with a passenger gasoline or passenger diesel engine.

If you wanna use 15w40 dino in a small passenger engine at 0*F/-20*C, go ahead. Make sure you don't drive off right way, and watch those seals.
shocked2.gif


To quote a mechanic friend of mine:
"And I really wish people would stop bringing their diesel pickup/tractor/tugboat/roadgrader/genset/submarine/locomotive comparisons to these threads."
grin2.gif




+ 1 A HD diesel engine is a different animal than a gas engine used in a passenger car, different tolerances and design. It was also spec'd to use a different oil. What a lot of people fail to realize is that once that ice-road trucker starts that engine, assisted by a block heater, an oil heater, some have transmission and differential warmers too, that truck stays running to keep the engine and oil warm. He is not driving half an hour to work shutting that engine off and starting it up 8 hours later. That engine can be running for days and weeks at a time. I had a buddy who owned a truck that drove cross country doing Gov't work. There were times were his engine ran for a week or more before he turned it off. Big difference, between the trucker and the soccer mom. The best thing in the world for an engine is to be running.

While a 15W40 might not harm a passenger car engine in sub zero temps in the short term, for long term use there are better choices. I'd follow the OM for oil selection. JMO
 
Originally Posted By: Jaymus
Wow, reading some of these guys thoughts on oils make me sick. So a 5w30 is still too thin while a 10w30 is thick?

I can't stand the stupidity I read on here anymore. If you don't know, ASK, but don't be acting like you know something when you don't.


It`ll be alright man......
45.gif
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there some kind of government rule now that the oil viscosity recommended in the owner's manual must be the one used when the gas mileage stated on the window sticker is achieved? In years passed, many owner's manuals listed many acceptable weights.

The manual for my 1980 Pontiac Bonneville lists every weight between straight 10 weight, for very low temperatures, to 20W50. Practically any weight was OK above 30 degrees.

Other countries do not have this rule, and, apparently, some vehicles can recommend alternate viscosities in addition to the primary one. For example, my current vehicle, a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder, recommends 5W30. It goes on to state that 10W30 and 10W40 are acceptable.
 
Originally Posted By: 1999nick
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there some kind of government rule now that the oil viscosity recommended in the owner's manual must be the one used when the gas mileage stated on the window sticker is achieved? In years passed, many owner's manuals listed many acceptable weights.

The manual for my 1980 Pontiac Bonneville lists every weight between straight 10 weight, for very low temperatures, to 20W50. Practically any weight was OK above 30 degrees.

Other countries do not have this rule, and, apparently, some vehicles can recommend alternate viscosities in addition to the primary one. For example, my current vehicle, a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder, recommends 5W30. It goes on to state that 10W30 and 10W40 are acceptable.


^^You got it right on!
 
Originally Posted By: 1999nick
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there some kind of government rule now that the oil viscosity recommended in the owner's manual must be the one used when the gas mileage stated on the window sticker is achieved?


Something else I was wanting to add to your post is that the owner`s manual will list the CAFE mandated oil specs to acheive the government required fuel economy,while the FSM (service manual) for the same car will list the "real" oil viscosities that can and should be used with the particular engine in various conditions........racing,towing,long term high speed driving,etc. FSM`s have specs for the car that mechanics only have access too.
 
The one size fits all recommendation is to assure that the manufacturer gets its CAFE credits/rating based on sensible projections of the same results in the rolling fleet.

Otherwise, they would grab a 5 gallon pail of Bruce's 0w-10 and spec anything they pleased after you sign on the dotted line.

It's to assure that a manufacturer produces enough fuel squeezers ..and does their part in buying enough steel and plastic and composite rubber.


The Euro's probably use synthetics or (as they term them) semi-synthetics. That's probably why they don't spec or have lighter viscosity oil in abundance. They don't do 3k/3m if they can avoid it and probably (my speculation) don't have WM selling your conventional of choice at a discount. They don't have filters for $2-$3 ..etc..etc.

Oz is truly anti-American in their lubrication philosophy, at least as it's integrated for/by the public. One has to reason that it's sorta a morphed argument about the cow and the horse. They have different tooth structures, but exist on the same grass field without difficulty. In our comparison, like engines exist under (at some point/location) like conditions on radically different visc's and both live long lives without apparent difficulty. I see nothing unique to Oz driving habits that would move them out of the same envelope that we're in ..at least a large segment of us where problems would surely make themselves apparent.

In terms of engine longevity there appears to be no advantage for the vast majority of units in regard to viscosity; high or low.
 
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