Originally Posted by talest
I remember reading somewhere that a Group 5 oil had the best properties of sticking to the parts..
Group I and Esters are typically the most polar. They also have the best solvency. This is why "dry" base oils like PAO are mixed with other bases to improve solvency, this could be AN's or Esters typically. The additives themselves also plate and adhere to surfaces, so even with a "dry" base oil like PAO, you aren't getting a "dry" start.
Originally Posted by talest
Group 4 had the worst cold-flow properties..
Hard no, that's entirely incorrect. PAO has the best cold flow characteristics.
Originally Posted by talest
And Group 3 has become very, very good, leading to questions on whether boutique Group 4 or 5 oils are worth it.
While Group III base oils, including the more recent crop of those with the unofficial "Group III+" designation like GTL and VISOM indeed approach PAO in many metrics, they still don't do quite as well in oxidation resistance and low temperature performance. But, they are often "good enough" for your typical lube and allow a modern synthetic to be formulated less expensively while providing excellent performance characteristics. Group III oils also have very poor solvency, not much better than PAO, nor are they much, if any, more polar.
There's nothing boutique about PAO or anything that falls into the Group V category like AN's or POE. They make up a major part of XOM's base oil portfolio and are found in a large portion of oils on the market, even if it is in a very small minority of the overall blend.
Originally Posted by talest
I would think that gravity would drain all the oil down eventually, there may be some things in the oil that make it sit on the oiled sections so it is not a dry start.
Yes, gravity leads to most, save a film, draining down to the pan. If you've ever torn apart an engine that's sat, you'll find an oil film all over the place, so they certainly aren't "dry" on a cold start. Not unless somebody opens it up and hoses it down with a can of brake clean.
Originally Posted by talest
And "tick tick tick" sometimes called typewriter sound on start up they call that Lifter Tick, it is so common.
The ticking can be rockers, an HLA, timing chain slack taking up...etc. It depends on the engine. On most modern engines that aren't an LSx or HEMI, when somebody refers to a "lifter" they are really referring to an HLA, whose purpose is to take up slack (lash) in the valvetrain. A "lifter" is a component in a pushrod engine.