Ouch 1 week with gc and lost half a quart.

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Ok patman I know your going to say but I thought you used it last winter. Well the answer is yes, but that was another motor. This motor has been in my car for 2 months now. It was sitting for more then over a year before it ended up under my hood. Now last week I installed the gc and today I checked the dip stick and I ended up adding 500ml to bring it up back to full. It looks like oil is leaking out from gaskets and maby the rear main. So what do you all think I should do since winter get's down to -35C here and I can't affored to add half a quart every week.
I never went low with using penz 5W-30 so what gives, can I keep using that.
 
OK, I'll take a stab at this... If you expect temps down to -35C, that would necessitate a 5W or a 0W. The outside temp may reach -35, but the oil might be at a warmer temp inside the engine (a block heater may be especially useful for you?). So a 5W will work fine. Now about the leaking seals... How about a 40? Keep an eye on your gas mileage. If the gas mileage drops off considerably, then the oil is too thick. Could your seals have shrunk? Will they swell?

Too thin an oil and you have friction and higher temps; too thick and you loose MPG (or KM per Litre).

Of course, I don't know what weight oil you are using now, or the type of vehicle so this advice may be all junk!

Cheers, Doug
 
Sounds like it more related to an engine thats been sitting combined with very cold temps.

Stick with the GC, half a quart per week = $8 per month surely thats not unaffordable?

Fred...
smile.gif
 
Well it's a bit to late because I got nervous and I only have a quart of penz semi-synth laying around and I ended up adding half a quart of that.
 
Rick,
It appears from your statement that the Pennzoil was doing a good job for you. I would run the Castrol until the next oil change and then go back to your normal Pennzoil. I recommend that you stick with what has worked for you.

dunno.gif
 
Why has the engine only been in the car for 2 months?? Why was it out and how long was it sitting? What is the condition of the motor? Total miles or hours? I would fix the leak ASAP!!
The alternative would be to try something like auto-rx to rejuvinate the seal.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Rick:
What does anyone else think?

I think you should just continue running it and see what happens. Often you'll see a rise in consumption when you switch to an oil with a lot of esters in it (such as Redline for instance) but then it levels off very quickly to the point where it consumes little or nothing after that.

Don't panic yet, in other words.
 
Patman is right, when switching to oils, especially with high ester content it seems, consumption goes up. WIth RL, I used alot more then I did with other oils. GC is probably the same. You can't always blame the oil which what most people do around here.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Ray H:
I thought esters tended to swell elastomeric seals...

They do, but at first they are also doing a "super cleaning" so this can tend to cause the increased consumption initially.
 
Ok but I already dumped half a quart of penz semi-synth into the engine.
 
Use whatever you can afford for topoff.
Eventually, the leak will stop(either you'll replace the offending seal or it'll go away).
If it doesn't go away, it ain't the oils fault.
Try Mobil1 which seems to cause leaks in everyone elses cars but mine which stopped leaking.
 
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