Question for the oil hoarders - storage temp

[Matt89]

Good Morning all;
Another thread about keeping a stock of oil on hand brought up this question:

If you are storing your oil (let's say QS dino) in an unheated shed or garage for a year or two, will cold weather have an impact on additives etc. while its sitting in the unopened bottle?

Do pour point depressants etc. get affected if the temp is greater than say 0F?

I now live way too far from WALMART (just a crappy Kmart) so I bought two changes worth of QS. Wanted PZ but did not have in the big jugs.


I'd rather not bring this stuff inside if I don't need to (my wife has been patient thus far).

 

[eljefino]

You can keep it in an old cooler/fridge in the garage to average daily high temps with overnight lows if you're that worried, or keep it in the basement. I like to move my spray paint cans, etc to the basement from my outside locale for the winter. Use the outside space for windshield fluid. My basement, though unheated, can be +30'F when it's -20'F outside.

I had been under the impression that pour point depressers were used up by a physical or chemical reaction once inside the engine but I'm sure someone will chime in with the specifics.

I wonder if opening the cap of a plastic bottle (or dropping the whole thing) at super cold temps might have a problem with brittleness, etc.

 

[Pablo]

Matt-not a problem.

 

[TSoA]

I would think it's pretty freaking stable. The stuff sits in oil sumps and is chemicaly...inert until it is fiercely heated and mixed with combudtion by-products.

 

[widman]

It is designed for lots of temperature variation. We scare people from the noise in our warehouse, where night-time temps in winter are 0C and daytime temps 35C. The noise of the expanding drums in the mornings and contracting at night bother the neighbors.

 

[Patman]

I still think it's best to keep it in the house, where the temperature is more stable. My shrine is in the basement, in the laundry room. I use an old entertainment center:

 

[Shannow]

I think it depends on whether the oil is being kept in oak, bottled, or in casks.

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by doyall:
Patman, what are those green and white bottles doing there?

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The green bottle (GTX HM) is the oil that's in my mom's car right now, so I still had a half liter of it at the time (although I've since topped up her crankcase so that bottle no longer resides in the shrine) The white bottle (GTX 10w30) was going to be part of my Auto-rx treatment last year but then I ended up just using Schaeffer Oil for the treatment cycle instead. Every good oil shrine must contain some oils (and some oil filters!) that you'll probably never use.

 

[crashz]

Thats a great shrine Patman!

 

[doyall]

Patman, what are those green and white bottles doing there?