One thing we didn't discuss in the latest "oil" topic was oil weight. Do you keep the same wt, given the new formulations or change? Let's see how much "noise" this can generate!!! Thanks guys!
Flame Suit On ! So I'll just say this : using any oils with " 50 " in thier descrition is inviting disaster .
I agree with Nate 200%. Our two shop trucks, with 400k+ and 230k+, have always had the lightest weight oil that we could get. 5-20 or 10-30 Castrol. The low mileage (232k) one just got it's first tune up. Neither uses any oil between 5k oil and filter changes. They both get a new timing belt every 70k and that's it. Neither engine has ever been opened up but the lousy Mazda 5 speeds get bearings and sometimes a shaft or two every 200k. On an older car with less tolerance control I use the lightest oil I can that doesn't leak like a sieve or let any bad sounds happen. On my 37 Buick this is a 20 to thirty weight and I don't sweat the oil gauge reading. 40 or 50wt raises the needle but I'd bet is killing the innards.
I have said this before, and some of you may not agree, but I swear by mobil one synthetic. 10-30 is what I use. Good stuff, no bad noises, no leaks, and I have put a lot of miles on my truck. And please for the love of pete, use a high quality filter! no cheap wallyworld garbage!
Synthetic Oils ...Are definately the way to go if you can afford them . I'm currently using 5W-20 and 5W-30 synthetic as it's cheap , in most of my rigs , not the truck though , it gets a steady diet of Valvoline 10W-30 . Some of my rigs (Ural Moto) leak (weep) the synthetic oil pretty good *but* , they're also running just fine and you all know how hard I like to run my engines.... The little Honda CM91 90C.C. moto has 20,000 + miles on it and still runs pretty well ~ the cam chain is all stretched so the cam timing is off a couple degrees but I hate to take it apart since it has good compression and still fires right up & runs smooth like a watch , just goes slowly up hills ya know ~ riding it to Death valley and back (beyond actually) TWICE may not have helped it a whole lot but I do so love Tiddling . I've been running it on fully synthetic oils for years now ~ that's gotta be the only reason it still runs .
Friend of mine took the head off his 4.0 litre Jeep Cherokee (square one-old school) after buying it new and running synthetic (Amsoil) for 350,000 miles. No ridge at all and he could still see the factory hone marks on the cylinder walls. I was sold on synthetics after that story. BTW, he also ran synthetic in the auto tranny in that Jeep and it also lasted the full 350K. Junked it after it got hit bad on the street in front of his house. Too bad. Couldn't figure out why he took the head off. Told me he just wanted to see. Now THERE'S a guy with too much time on his hands. Andy
