For the home "oil" changers - Mobil 1 0W20 - Better running motor?

[Don]

Originally posted by Beercan31
One thing I have learned no matter what oil you use Do Not Change Brands like AMSOIL, Castrol, GTX,Chevron Supreme just to name a few. Each manufacture uses additives differently and the residual of the old oil "could" counter react with the additives in the new oil diminishing the life of the new oil "sometimes" with devastating results. If you do change Brands Do not run them for an extended period of time.

This happened to me personally on a car I wish I still owned I got what ever oil and filter was on sale,"I am the KING of cheep" the last oil to go in to it was "slick-50" and I smoked the motor. (Blaming slick-50) After having the motor tore down the slick 50 representative showed me the analysis report results and sludge inside the motor from the additives combating each over a long period of time, looked like someone pored tar in side the motor and it built up on the inside of the block and valve covers. cost me the mechanics time to tare down the motor shipping to and from for the oil analysis plus the parts to have the motor rebuild.

Rich

Rich, it WASN'T from mixing brands, ALL of them say that they are compatible with other oils (You ARE correct in blaming the SLICK 50 though, many have found that the ****** particles suspended in the oil clogged their filters and oil passages which resulted in oil-starved engines and BOOM!). HOWEVER, I think you will find THIS ARTICLE to be very enlightening about the dangers of additives. I know this is an AMSOIL site, but they claim there's is the best, and that if these additives can kill the best oil.....

BTW, until I lost my local retailer, I ran AMSOIL 0W30 for 140,000 miles in my Neon with no leaks or oil usage. Even when I changed the oil (30,000 mi w/filter changes @ 10,000 mi) the oil was still (relatively) clean. Currently, I use Mobil 1 0W20 in my Cavalier (2.2 DOHC ECOtech) that sees a lot of redline shifting, and general hard (but not abusive) driving. it now has 58,000 miles, (48,000 w/AMSOIL and 8,000 with Mobil, the first 2K miles were with dino oil for break in). I'm changing the Mobil every 10K, and I haven't had a single problem. 95% of my driving is highway, so I notice changes in how my engine runs fairly quickly (MPG is a GREAT indicator of how the engine is doing under these circumstances).

As stated before, the "0" is the indicator of the viscosity/flow rate at winter temps (cold starts etc) and the "20" or "30" indicates the oil's viscosity/flow rate at full operating temperature (no matter what the weather) AKA the oil will be thin enough to flow to where it's needed when cold to help reduce "dry start damage" yet at the same time, will perform/protect just like a standard 20 or 30 weight oil when hot.

PS: Can you tell I spent A LOT of time looking all this stuff up when I decided to switch to full synthetic from dino 7 years ago??

[rjstaaf]

Originally posted by Don

BTW, until I lost my local retailer, I ran AMSOIL 0W30 for 140,000 miles in my Neon with no leaks or oil usage. Even when I changed the oil (30,000 mi w/filter changes @ 10,000 mi) the oil was still (relatively) clean. Currently, I use Mobil 1 0W20 in my Cavalier (2.2 DOHC ECOtech) that sees a lot of redline shifting, and general hard (but not abusive) driving. it now has 58,000 miles, (48,000 w/AMSOIL and 8,000 with Mobil, the first 2K miles were with dino oil for break in). I'm changing the Mobil every 10K, and I haven't had a single problem. 95% of my driving is highway, so I notice changes in how my engine runs fairly quickly (MPG is a GREAT indicator of how the engine is doing under these circumstances).

Ford currently specs a 5W-20 for most of their cars these days to help lower their overall CAFE fuel efficiency rating as well as to help with emissions to meet upcoming tighter regulations. Is it good for the longevity of the motor? Personally I don't think so. Any time you can reduce friction (oil does cause friction) by running a thinner oil you will get more efficiency and better mileage. My worry though would be how much of that engine's life has been cut by running a thinner oil. I ran Amsoil 5W-20 for a time and I just wasn't happy with how my motor ran with it. I now am back to my old standby Mobil1 5W-30. This is the weight oil that Ford called for when they built the first 4.6 V8 back in 1994 and it wasn't until 2001 when they changed it to 5W-20.

As stated before, the "0" is the indicator of the viscosity/flow rate at winter temps (cold starts etc) and the "20" or "30" indicates the oil's viscosity/flow rate at full operating temperature (no matter what the weather) AKA the oil will be thin enough to flow to where it's needed when cold to help reduce "dry start damage" yet at the same time, will perform/protect just like a standard 20 or 30 weight oil when hot.

PS: Can you tell I spent A LOT of time looking all this stuff up when I decided to switch to full synthetic from dino 7 years ago??

It is not as cut and dry as that. To be more specific the 0W is the viscosity at 0 degrees F and the 20 or 30 is the viscosity at 212 degrees F. Most cars do not operate at either of those extremes.

[Setec Astronomy]

Originally posted by rjstaaf
Is it good for the longevity of the motor? Personally I don't think so. Any time you can reduce friction (oil does cause friction) by running a thinner oil you will get more efficiency and better mileage. My worry though would be how much of that engine's life has been cut by running a thinner oil.

Just playing devil's advocate here...with the increased friction of the thicker oil, you are working the engine harder to overcome that friction, which might have a detrimental effect on the engine's life.

Originally posted by rjstaaf

It is not as cut and dry as that. To be more specific the 0W is the viscosity at 0 degrees F and the 20 or 30 is the viscosity at 212 degrees F. Most cars do not operate at either of those extremes.

Since we are talking about oil temperature here, not ambient, it is easy to see how the oil would get to 0°F in your engine overnight if that is the ambient temperature. I also wouldn't be surprised to see the oil at close to 212°F at operating conditions...most cars today have a thermostat that opens at 195°, so that oil is traversing through a block with a coolant temperature of over 200°, on a normal day, under normal load. Add local hotspots, temperature of the backs of the pistons, frictional heating, high ambient, acceleration load, and it's not hard to imagine the oil being at or over 212° when it's working in the engine, although the sump temperature is likely lower.

[rjstaaf]

The problem I have is how thin it too thin. I guess time will tell, 20 weight oils have only been widely in use for a few years. It would be a mistake to think that manufacturers are thinking about the longevity of our motors. On the contrary they only care that the motor survives until their warranty liability is minimized.