"thin" oil debate and strawmen

[fdcg27]

Engines are part of the entire assembly that comprises a vehicle.
Every vehicle has a design life.
This is not so much a matter of planned obsolecence as it is one of being able to offer a vehicle at a price people can afford.
The engine is not normally the limiting factor in that design life, without regard to the grade or type of oil used.
Any grade of oil reasonable for the engine and the conditions under which it's operated, changed at a reaonable interval, will allow the engine to live for at least as long as the vehicle as a whole.
It is also not in the intersts of vehicle producers for their vehicles to die at an early age, since this would negatively impact brand reputation and thus sales, and would reduce residual value of used units, thereby further inhibiting sales of new ones, since many buyers use the trade-in value of their car as the down payment on a new one.
A preference for thicker or thinner grades is only that.
One is not superior to the other.
Thicker oils do result in a smoother running and quieter engine, while thinner one provide for easier starting and quicker revving.
I doubt that there is any reason to believe that one would offer superior engine life over the other.
Use what you like.
There is really nothing to argue about.

 

[UNC017]

Originally Posted By: Y_K
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
trip the pressure regulator at a lower oil FLOW rate so that parts of the engine are starving for flow while others have adequate pressure.

How, exactly, do you meter FLOW? I am interested in the metrology here.


The problem is that you CAN'T measure it directly without a modified and instrumented engine block.

But you can think in terms of extremes. Imagine a watery oil being forced into the engine galleries- in order to build adequiate pressure it flows through every passage freely.

Now imagine a massively thick, syrupy fluid being forced in. It can't actually flow through the passages as freely, so the pressure builds up without adequate flow. Since some passage are small (pushrod oil feeds, timing chain sprayers, etc) and some are much larger (crankshaft oil feeds), the flow becomes asymmetric with relatively normal flow thorugh the big passages, and inadequate flow through the tiny ones.

 

[cp3]

Originally Posted By: Brigadier
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
I admire you Australian people; you got good common sense and exhibit the ability to think for yourselves.

People over here in America are a bunch of mindless sheeple following the pack of thin oil sheep.


+1

It's a good thing the same can't be said for people who preffer thicker oils. Would they be Austrailian or European sheep? I know my Dad always says New Zeland lamb is the best, what viscosity do they use there?

As someone said, sometimes it's just old habits. I'm sure some of the same straw man arguments were used when NA started the move to 5w30.

oops...being I am using the Caterham blend maybe I should have used strawmen....

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: virginoil
Originally Posted By: mechanicx

I agree. 30W oil seems to be the sweet spot and is what many US manufacture settled on years ago. It comes down to they determined 2.9 HTHS was all that was required. Even high output Corvettes call for 5W30.


Eurozone says 3.5cP HTHS minimum is all that is require not 2.9cP HTHS.


Well that's just the difference that's at debate. US manufacturers have validate their engine often on 2.9 HTHS and even 2.7 oil. The Corvette is a sports car making up to 600 HP in top model and is validate on 5W30 2.9 HTHS so there you go.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: Shannow

"why hasn't my engine blown up at 231,462 miles ?"


My straw man argument of this nature was made in response to this post (not made by you)...
Quote:
Never mind the fact the car will be on the scrap heap after 10 years due to engine bearing failure...

When cars here go to the scrap heap after 10 years, it's not because of the weight of oil used and rarely due to engine bearing failure unless there was a lack of oil or it was severely diluted with coolant. I'm not even really a thin oil fanboy unless the application calls for it, but that comment was just too ridiculous when hundreds of us on this board are proving it wrong daily.

 

[Shannow]

agreed