Rotella 5W40 for oil burner?

[skate1968]

In the summertime i use a thick conventional oil to reduce blow by on my 91 civic. And works well enough. But of course thick oil is trouble for cold start ups in the winter.

I noticed Walmart is selling Rotella 5W40 for 16 dollars (like Ziggy mentioned earlier). Normally synthetic oil is a waste of money for a smoker like mine. But suddenly, thanks to Walmart, it's cost efficient!

Do you agree? Any comments?

(By the way, I believe that if RedLine made a Synthetic 5W-50 with lots of moly for 15 dollars a gallon it would be perfect for my oil burner.)


(And yes, I also know that this is just a band aid for me to use until I get new piston rings or an engine swap.)

thanks for reading

 

[ARB1977]

Why not try a double dose of auto rx to see if that helps?

 

[skate1968]

Good suggestion ARB, but I've already tried that and many other things. ARX was great-- car felt MUCH MUCH smoother. The pinging stopped. And then the pinging continued to stop after going to a lower grade of gas.

But I still have worn rings/scratched pistons/cylinders just like i had before ARX.

 

[Gary Allan]

You can use it. I use it in one of my jeeps year round. It is a bargain. You've got an issue that trumps most of the reasons not to use it. You're already into keeping it alive with the least amount of nuisance.

If you don't see it relieving your situation ..then just use lighter make up oil

 

[Sparkman]

I use it in our Subaru to control consumption:

In the winter GC 0w-30, about 0.5 quarts/1k miles.
In the summer Rotella T Synthetic 5w40, about 0.25 quarts/2k miles.

That almost sounds too good to be true, but that's what I've observed. I saw even better consumption control with a 15w40, and it really drank the old 10cSt Mobil 1 30 weights.

I also run RTS in the turbo diesel VW in the winter and the Jeep in the summer, needless to say I like this oil.

 

[skate1968]

Thanks to Gary and Spark,
You've both confirmed my inital thoughts. I'm certainly going to try Rotella 5W40.

 

[Ugly3]

How about Castrol 5w50?

 

[skate1968]

I'll look at the price and consider Castrol.

I'm also noticing that SuperTech doesn't seem to make a synthetic 5w40 or 5w50.

 

[skate1968]

The first price i get for Castrol 5w-50 is 7$ per quart. As I wouldn't expect it to eliminate my problem it's too expensive to use on an oil burner.

 

[427Z06]

What about cheapo 10w40 like SuperTech? Less than $2/qt last time I check. Should be good to -13°F.

 

[Auto-Union]

10w-40 Hi-Miles. Castrol GTX-HM or MaxLife. Fwiw, if you are in Phila, I can hook you up with some free Delo 30 to try in the Spring. You can have 2-3 gallons, no problem.

 

[skate1968]

Quote:

---

What about cheapo 10w40 like SuperTech? Less than $2/qt last time I check. Should be good to -13°F.

---

Thanks for responding. I've used supertech and it's not a bad option for my smoker.

But is it possible that Supertech 10W40 (synthetic and conventional) could be significantly better for cold starts than another 10W40? I can't imagine it being better than Rotella 5w40 for cold starts.

 

[skate1968]

Quote:

---

10w-40 Hi-Miles. Castrol GTX-HM or MaxLife. Fwiw, if you are in Phila, I can hook you up with some free Delo 30 to try in the Spring. You can have 2-3 gallons, no problem.

---

Well thank you very much for offering-- generous!
(kind of reminds me of another forum where a member took me out for beers with his brothers while i was in Belfast, Ireland

)

Anyway, I've tried many things for my worn pistons/rings but still have yet to try the High Mileage oils. Another 4rth generation civic owner recommended HM also.

Thanks again to everyone for listening. Because i know sooner or later i'm going to have to stop putting band aids on this blowby problem and just get it fixed.

 

[427Z06]

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

What about cheapo 10w40 like SuperTech? Less than $2/qt last time I check. Should be good to -13°F.

---

Thanks for responding. I've used supertech and it's not a bad option for my smoker.

But is it possible that Supertech 10W40 (synthetic and conventional) could be significantly better for cold starts than another 10W40? I can't imagine it being better than Rotella 5w40 for cold starts.

---

Your correct, the Rotella T Synthetic 5w40 is one of the best 5w40 HDEOs for cold flow and would be better than the cheapo 10w40 at the colder range of temps. I just mentioned it as an option instead of burning through $4/qt oil.

 

[skate1968]

The Final Verdict
1 qt Castrol Conventional 20w50
3 qt Rotella Syn 5W-40

I'm figuring that this ought to be a decent mix for my burner aver the winter.

(The other night i purposely parked over some dry cardboard. The drips of oil i saw the next day confirmed my suspicion about a leaky gasket-- common when using NAPA gaskets in my jab car. Hopefully replacing the valve cover gasket will fix it.)

 

[Triple_Se7en]

I would of tried two OCIs of Castrol High Mileage 5w30 or 10w30 first.

 

[skate1968]

Thanks for responding, triple.
The high mileage oil seemed to work for 92DXBeater and others. Maybe i'll try it next time.
But so far it seems like this recent Synth/Dino mix is working very well. No enormous smoke clouds. Cold starts are OK.