Synthetic Oil Questions

[Penner]

I just purchased some Rotella 5w-40 Synthetic Oil for my next oil change. I thought this would be better for winter driving starting etc. Where I live it, it's only below -15 for less than 2 weeks of the winter at most.

My mechanic warned me to use only 15w-40, whether it's synthetic or not.

I have heard some people use this type of oil all year, I was only going to use it for winter. And then go back to real 15w-40 oil

Any advise is appriciated!

Thanks

[delicat]

Don't worry about it, it will work fine and make it easier to start in cold. BUT, make sure you regularly check your oil level with synthetic as it's more susceptible to slowly leak out of your engine depending on your engine condition.

I've been using it in the winter with very good results.

[jessef]

See post

http://www.delica.ca/forum/10-driving-w ... -4364.html

[BCDelica]

Should talk to techs inside the large oil companies talk about trying to design one oil for everybody, and can’t people understand that to make one to work from 40c to -40 that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg is nah impossible. Jesse is right about a synthetic 5w40 being a good compromise for Canada temperatures.

Since you have to change oil anyways there is no harm is putting in different oil whose thermal properties suit the weather changes.

[robinimpey]

I'm running Voll-Synthese Total 5-40 year round. My van starts and runs great all year round.

[Green1]

I know some people run 0w40 in the winter, there are however 2 concerns to a zero weight oil, first is that it doesn't tend to "stick" in the top of the engine, so until the engine pumps some oil up there it's not really lubricated in the morning, and second the very thin oil can get passed some seals causing loss of oil, and/or burning of oil until the engine warms up.

[Firesong]

Putting in 0/40 in this morning. I really appreciated it last winter
and just got home from my 1200 km trip last night.

I found that it's a little light to use in the summer - agreed since
I do have a slight leak from my front crank seal. In the fall/winter
the leak disappears. (waiting till spring to get it fixed).
Even with the 0/40 there was no leak (in my case).

Even if there is little oil at the top it will be pushed up faster
than any of the other weights. But there will be some there.
And it won't burn off in the meantime.

I don't think that using 0/40 or 5/40 will cause much of a difference
with our weather. If we were further north maybe. In my case
I grabbed the o/40 because it was there and the 5/40
wasn't.

I had one shop owner who refuses to use totally synthetic.
Says it won't mix with moisture or something silly. I told him
once the motor warms up it will burn off any moisture that
might accumulate from short trips around the city without
warming up totally. I remember that with the old VW.
There would always be some moisture in the oil until you
had a nice warmer-upper trip. (It was aircooled)

I don't think there is a totally wrong answer with this
thread. Just don't 'not use any oil' ;)

J

[Penner]

Thanks everyone. I am going to go for it. It was only 3 degrees this morning and it sounded pretty painfull chugging away as it warmed up.

[konadog]

Thanks everyone. I am going to go for it. It was only 3 degrees this morning and it sounded pretty painfull chugging away as it warmed up.

Go for the synth. during the winter for sure, but I would also suggest you consider a block heater... My bus was slow to wake up at any thing below 5 or 6 degrees. Always started, but, erm, ya, kinda rough. Had a block heater installed and plug it in for an hour of so before starting her up in the chill and she starts smoooooooooooth - quick and easy and smooooth... Absolutely worth it! :D

[Green1]

I don't think there is a totally wrong answer with this
thread. Just don't 'not use any oil' ;)

Oil? I'm sure that you don't actually need any oil in there... it's probably just a scam from the oil companies to get more money from you...

(unfortunately, I've met people who didn't realize that engines needed oil... or as a result, oil changes... I'd hate to end up buying one of their used cars!)

[nishby]

Running 5-40 year round in Ontario. So far so good. No leakage. No start trouble (hope I can still say that in January).

[Yokohama]

I did much research on oils, and found that PAO based oil, such as Mobil 1, are superior to ester based oils such as Redline and Royal Purple.
Mobil 1 is a true synthetic molecule compared to something like Castrol Syntec that is not a true synthetic.

Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck 5w40, aka Mobil Delvac 1, now comes in a 1 quart consumer container. It seems that Mobil got smart and found out that people were going and getting the gallon jug of Delvac 1 for pickups and such.

I am using Turbo Diesel Truck in a G54B(Turbo).