more oil questions

[9646gt]

First off I appologize if this has been discussed before but I have a question..I live in Tennessee and it has a habbit of getting very warhot here during spring and summer months...now I realize that oil thins out the hotter it gets...alot of my buddies are running 10w30 in thhe stangs and various other cars that they own...I have looked at som scales to determine wich oil is best for this climate and was curious of what other input you guys may have?

 

[COramprat]

I tend to get a "heavier" oil in the summer since it gets so hot here. The heat keeps it loosened up enough to lube up better in the summer. A thinner oil in the winter allows the engine to lube up quicker. The 5W-30 recomended for our cars, I feel, is just too thin for summer use in high heat climates. I go with 10W30 in the summer. Just my opinion tho...but after 135K on the Stang and 165K on my 4.6 Expy I haven't had problem 1 following this proceedure.

 

[rjstaaf]

I don't really see how running a 10W-30 vs a 5W-30 is going to help in hotter climates. The first number is just the cold weight of the oil. I would think it doesn't matter where you are, you are gonna want a lighter weight that will flow quickly at startup. If you are concerned about heat and want something thicker than a 5W-20 or 5W-30, you might consider a 5W-40. The second number is the weight of the oil at operating temperature.

Personally though I wouldn't go with anything heavier than a 5W-30. The tolerances on today's motors are pretty tight and I wouldn't stray too far away from the manufacturer's specs.

This could be the start of another huge oil debate as there are people on both sides of the thick vs thin oil argument.

 

[YardSpecial]

5w-30 is what you run, peroid.

You have a HUGE change of breaking the oil pump if you run anything heavier.

 

[COramprat]

I don't really see how running a 10W-30 vs a 5W-30 is going to help in hotter climates. The first number is just the cold weight of the oil. I would think it doesn't matter where you are, you are gonna want a lighter weight that will flow quickly at startup. If you are concerned about heat and want something thicker than a 5W-20 or 5W-30, you might consider a 5W-40. The second number is the weight of the oil at operating temperature.

Personally though I wouldn't go with anything heavier than a 5W-30. The tolerances on today's motors are pretty tight and I wouldn't stray too far away from the manufacturer's specs.

This could be the start of another huge oil debate as there are people on both sides of the thick vs thin oil argument.

Bah...should have said 10w-40. Anyway you don't have to follow me. It's just what I do for my own piece of mind. You can refute or agree...that's why we have these discussions.

 

[bdcardinal]

if you really want to run a thicker oil, maybe using Mobil 1's 0w40 European Car oil might be the answer. a lot of porsches, vw's, and mercedes use this oil. of course those motors tend to like thicker oil, especially the air cooled porsches.

 

[9646gt]

Humm some pretty good post so far but I am still interested to hear others opinions also...if you look in some haynes manuals and such they will have a oil chart showing wich weights are best in diff climates and it seems to me that the 10w30 would be jsut fine and as far as it hurting the oil pump the oil isn't much thicker comming out of the bottle...dont know if anyone of u have ever poured it out of the bottle but it isn't that much thicker...

 

[DBMSTNG]

get an oil cooler.

 

[9646gt]

get an oil cooler.

I actually find this kind of funny bc...my last car was a 92 toyota celica gt with jsut a small dohc 2.2l..and it actually had a stock oil cooler and wasnt even turning any more rpms at redline than my stang does...Ford should have made that standard equipment on a motor that they know is going to take a beating lol