Oil warm up time: GC (Castrol Syntec 0W-30) vs. BC (Castrol Syntec 5W-40)

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zoomzoom

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This is follow up to my previous post:

see it here

Logged the data on my way back from work yesterday.

Here is GC run:

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Here is BC run:

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Here is GC vs. GC (only oil temperature):

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I used only 24 min of data for the last plot since the logging conditions were different after that.

GC started colder(due to colder weather outside) but crossed 80C at the same time as BC which started 10C warmer then GC..

Pretty interesting given the very similar average speed..

Does this plot tells us that thinner oils will comes up to operating temperature faster?

GC was just one day in the engine while BC was in there for 6350 miles..does that make any difference?

Your input is most welcome!
 
The interesting thing I am watching is the time for the Oil temp to intersect the coolant temp. Hard to control the waether but the colder run with GC and the intersection of the coolant and oil temps is faster with the GC and the drive looks similar.
 
GC temp intersected coolant temp 2 min earlier then BC despite its 10C colder starting temperature!

Both drives are on my way back home from work...so same conditions except the outside temperature was colder during the GC drive.
 
Looks like the speed was higher during the GC run.
You hit 100 Km/h on the GC on the first spike versus only 80 for the BC. The GC was run at 110-120 Km/h but the BC only got to 100 Km/h.

Interesting that your coolant temp starts at 30 C and reaches operating temp in just 6 minutes, isn't it cold in DC this time of year?
 
coolant temp sensor does not read bellow 30C for some reason, hence coolant temp stays constant until it passes 30C.
 
don't forget that in last plot we are looking at first 20 min of operation where BC is not even getting to oprational temp (which should be 100C} due to the cold weather outside..but if you look their individual plots you can see that they both reach same final operating temperature..but GC is doing it faster..a benefit in this cold weather...

we will see how will GC preforms in summer time when outside temps rise over 90F...

look here what happens in the morning when oil starts below 32F:

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Very interesting data! Thanks for posting!

I would love to see the the data for the thinnest oils we use 'round here, namely M1 0w-20 or PZ 5w-20 Synth, and how it compares to the *C family.
 
OMG... DATA OVERLOAD!!!

WOW, thank you for taking the time to post all of this!
I found this very interesting...

thanks!
 
My Question, Zoomer, is what you are using to log and graph this info? Oviously a laptop, but with what software and interfaced how? Very interesting stats and I hope you will keep us posted.
 
Hmm...

And I've been reading here that thicker oil runs hotter. Of course, I realize more work needs to be done on this.
 
This morning my commute to work was longer and more of it was on iterstate at steady speeds..

intrestingly it took 24 min for oil to reach operating temperature of 100C

as soon as I got of interstate you can see oil temp decrease..this is caused by coolant-oil heat exchanger that my car has.

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krholm,

It looks like data tells us that thinner oil gets up to the operating temperature faster then thicker oil...but which one will run cooler(given the same conditions) once operating temperature has been reached I don't know..my guess is thineer oil might be the one...
 
Dr. T do you think that friction is responsible for higher oil temps you saw with GC? Could it be that thinner oil carries more heat away since it flow faster? Any data to support your conclusions?

What was the difference in your oil temperatures between the two?

I was thinking to run RL 5W-20 in my S4 but was hesitant to do it until I logged this data..

Another reason was that GC was at half price of RL oil...GC just went in last weekend...if there is enough interest on this board I would be willing to take out GC and put in RL 5W-20 and repeat the test...

But I would need you guys to cover the cost to buy redline oil and new filter(7X$9 + $5 = $68).

RL is only 20wt I would be willing to run in this car..
 
Don't think you can generalize that way as you are only comparing two oils from the same company that are very close in grade to begin with. You would need to compare Syntec 5-20 to the 20-50 and everything in between to get a valid conclusion.

Otherwise, I have used both of these oils and my conclusions are different. IMO, I experienced greater friction with the thinner GC compared to the BC and this may account for the higher oil temps. seen. This was witnessed by the fact that it is supposedly a thinner lube overall, but the engine ran more sluggishly overall than with the BC.
 
It's hard to isolate the chicken from the egg here.
The heavier oil will create more of its own internal heat due to the resistance to shearing ..but I would think that this would be a self correcting characteristic. I still don't buy the ability of a thinner fluid to transfer heat any better then a heavier fluid. It's contact convection. Your contact for "incidental" cooling (aka: the pan) may vary due to the thinner fluid managing to somehow make more contact with the pan in the turbulance of the pan (and only due to the turbulance in the pan and to the limits that the turbulance is elevated from the heavier fluid to the lighter). Otherwise your heat exchanger should pretty much limit too much swinging in any direction. They should both stablize around 100C.
 
Whaterver the reason is the fact remains that thinner GC gets up to operating temperature faster then thicker BC...now why I am not sure..

maybe some of the experts from this board can sheed some light on this?
 
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