Mixologists,I have a question..

[Big John]

We seem top have quite a few here and I have been wondering,do you get a true blend???? If you mixed a 0w30 and a 0w40 do you really get a 0w35?? I mean do the components of the 2 oils really blend together and form a different weight oil or are they just 2 seperate oils rolling together and holding their original properties,thus if you picked one point to measure oil would it alternate between a 30,then 40,back to 30,30 then 40???? I know what I mean and hope you can decifer this mumbo jumbo...

 

[Blue99]

In your example, the 2 separate multi-viscosity oils would fully mix/blend and you would have a home brew somewhere between a 30 weight & a 40 weight.

Both 0W-30 & 0W-40 can be formulated from combinations of light to medium to heavy base oils and the home brew in your example will have a blend of the various lengths of hydrocarbon chains found in these base oils.

The viscosity of this "brew" is repeatable and at 100C where the SAE grades are measured, it will be somewhere between the 10.3 cSt of M1 0W-30 and the 14.3 cSt of M1 0W-40

 

[MAJA]

Very good question. I have seen this alot and wondered the same. If you mix a 90 with a 50 with a 10 with another 50 with a 20, do you get a "44"?

 

[TallPaul]

If you mix an 0w30 with an 0w40 you will get either a thicker 0w30 or a thinner 0w40 (there is no 35 grade as defined in second link below). That is because the top of the 0w30 grade is the bottom of the 0w40 grade. Take the 100C cSt viscosities of both oils and plug them into this Viscosity Blending Calculator. Note the calculator only works if 40C viscosities are also inserted, but you can put any dummy numbers since the 40C is only needed to calc viscosity index and or if you want the 40C blended result.

Once you get the blended 100C viscosity, look on the API Engine Oil Classifications chart to see what the resulting grade is.

AFAIK, the oils do actually blend together. In fact many oils have a blend of two or three different viscosity base oils in them right out of the bottle.

 

[Big John]

Okay blue99 and TPaul,very informative and I am glad you were able to understand what I was asking.Now mixing an 0w30 and 0w40 makes no sense as you can buy a high end 30,GC, and a low end 40,M1?,..So what would be suitable for mixing and why??? Isn't there enough different oil out there to suit whatever need you may have???? Or is the blending usually done with a dino and synthetic??? I must say I have no intention to blend a Big John,but was curious as to what the ultimate goal was??

 

[TallPaul]

Some feel the M1 10w30 is a bit on the thin side at 10 cSt, so they add a quart of M1 15w50 to thicken it up.

Take Maxlife. 10w30 is 10.5 cSt. 10w40 is 13.5 cSt. Maybe your car seems to run better on something in between (does it? That is a whole different topic for a different thread). Mix them 50/50 and you will get someting a bit below 12 cSt, so you just made a thick 10w30. You could use a different oil like Citgo Ultralife 10w30 which already is about 12 cSt, but maybe you like Valvoline, or maybe you have a bunch of Valvoline on hand.

You could even thicken up the base oil by adding a quart of straight 30 to the rest 10w30. That one would probably not be wise in winter up north though.

I think you are fairly safe if you mix of the same brand and probably better the closer the viscosities, i.e., 10w30 with 10w40 instead of 5w20 with 20w50. Just a guess.

And sometimes we mix because we just can't help playing with oil!

Some like to mix synthetic in with dino or true synthetic in with fake synthetic, etc. Make your own blend instead of guessing what percent synthetic is in the pre-bottled blend.

[ February 22, 2005, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]

 

[farang]

, If I mix 2qt of GC "green" with 2qt M1 "golden honey", what do I get?

 

[1sttruck]

A local lube place use to offer Exxon XD-3 Elite, a synthetic blend which I liked, but when they quit offering it I had to blend my own for the truck so I use 1 gal of Mobil 1 Truck & SUV 5W-40 synthetic with 2 gal of Delvac 1300 15W-40. I'm still in warranty and will adhere to OEM change intervals so it'd be too expensive to dump 3 gal of synthetic on a regular basis. In fact I'm not too sold on long change intervals so far so instead of using a full synthetic I'll probably continue to use my own blend. An exception would be extended cold weather operation.

In the two sedans I also use a synthetic blend, currently Mobil dino 10W-30 with Mobil 1 T&S, as they don't seem to offer a HDEO blend in lower viscosity around here. The Canadians seem to get lots of good Exxon XD-3 oils in different weights, but the only HDEO 30 weight that I've found is Motorcraft 10W-30 for $2.60 a qt at Ford. A synthetic blend helped to get the older car running better so I'll continue to use it as again, a full synthetic would be expensive for me. I do watch the price of Rotella 5W-40 though as it's attractive.

 

[TallPaul]

Big John: Here is a THREAD on mixing that may shed some light
(or add to the confusion

).

 

[pscholte]

quote:

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Originally posted by farang:

, If I mix 2qt of GC "green" with 2qt M1 "golden honey", what do I get?

---

No offense to the M1, but as the GC Meister I MUST insist that what you get is an adulterated Elixer. The ONLY oils I would mix with the Elixer are (drum roll and shocked expressions please) Redline or Motul.

 

[peterr]

quote:

---

Originally posted by farang:

, If I mix 2qt of GC "green" with 2qt M1 "golden honey", what do I get?

---

Ummmmm... Angry Elves?

 

[JohnBrowning]

Oils are made by blending different viscosity base stocks in varrying amount to get the weight they want. SO you can just as easily do as the manufacture. The only problem you have is that you really do not know what you are getting. It is not as simple as adding the two parts together and then divideing to get the average! You are blending finished products that were blended to begin with. So you really have no idea what you end up with!

 

[Audi Junkie]

Just to summmarize my own thoughts on this. If you mix the same exact kind of oil but within grades, ie: 10w-30 with 10w-40 it should be perfectly compatible and even desirable. Remember some viscosities are upgraded componets while some remain older formulas, ie: Drive Clean 5w-30 GF-4 was a new formula, while other grades stayed the same. So, what to do? I have been mixing 30 with 40 for a long time, still seems like a good idea. As stated before, close viscs will be better, ie: not 20 weight with 50 weight when you could reach the same viscosity with a 30/40 blend.
As for 0w-rating, you should jsut consider the highest number to be what you will get. ie: 2q 5w-30 mixed with 4q of 10w-30 basicly gets you just a 10w-30. I had a soup of oil harden up in the cold last year, so I am carefull about mixing different brands for cold-cranking. I am taking a chance mixing 0w-30 M1 with 0w-40 M1, but it's probally fine, still a 0w. Generally, keeping the basestocks similar will keep the additives similar. I gave up trying to boost a G-III oil with PAO or anything like that. My latest blend is 2q of Delo 15w-40 mixed with 4q of Havoline Synthetic 10w-30.

I bet regular Havoline would work great mixed with Delo too, a super-dino.

Tempting, after the synth/Delo mix is doing so well.

 

[Big John]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TallPaul:
Big John: Here is a THREAD on mixing that may shed some light
(or add to the confusion

).

---

Thank you..

 

[427Z06]

FWIW

Managing the Risk of Mixing Lubricating Oils

 

[Ugly3]

quote:

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Originally posted by 427Z06:
FWIW

Managing the Risk of Mixing Lubricating Oils

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It's worth a lot!

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

---

Originally posted by 427Z06:
FWIW

Managing the Risk of Mixing Lubricating Oils

---

An excellent article, but I do believe it applies mostly to other types of lubricants than motor oil.

 

[427Z06]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TallPaul:

quote:

---

Originally posted by 427Z06:
FWIW

Managing the Risk of Mixing Lubricating Oils

---

An excellent article, but I do believe it applies mostly to other types of lubricants than motor oil.

---

I humbly recommend you carefully read it again, the issue you mentioned is briefly addressed.

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

---

Originally posted by 427Z06:
I humbly recommend you carefully read it again, the issue you mentioned is briefly addressed.

---

Will do. Admittedly I was commenting from having read the article some time ago. A fresh read would certainly be edifying. Will report back on my findings.

 

[Gary Allan]

Well, I practice "safe(r) mixing"

. I stay not only with one refiner/blender, but one product line from that blender (in my case PZ LL). I wouldn't have too much trouble with spanning the entire M1 line up as long as it was EP and EP ..or non-EP with non-EP. It's true that although probably all engine oils are functionally compatable for "use" ...there may be differences in how they go about achieving maximum protection and you may be detuning a good package.

I don't see too much harm being done by it. I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. For that matter, in the absense of any reason ..I wouldn't recommend it at all other than finding out "what if?" type stuff. Just like I wouldn't blindly recommend using a 20 or 40 weight where a 30 weight was spec'd. You wouldn't want some mixture (or weight) that ulitmately ended up producing sludge or other longer term issues in an engine that the owner was ignorant of. Most mixologists are experimenting on "middle age" engines and monitor them rather closely for side effects and/or performance enhancments/remedies. The same thing for the weight swappers.