Cold flow properties...?

[BennyL]

Hey guys.

I know I'm going to be accused of being lazy, but the truth is that I am not very good at understanding the whole cSt thing, and all the other technical lingo that goes along with cold flow and pumpability properties. So could someone help me out, and let me know what the cold flow properties are for the following oils:

MaxLife Blend 5W-30
Quaker State Winter Blend 5W-30
Mobil Clean 5000 5W-30
Castrol Syntec 0W-30 (often referred to as GC)
Mobil1 5W-30
Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30

I want to understand which oil is best suited for which kind of winter, and how they stack up against each other.

Thanks guys!

 

[SAM1]

me too...anyone?

 

[Panzerman]

Pennzoil 5w30 would have your coldest flow rate by guessing, ussaully synthetics do, The 0w30 along with the 0w20 are a bit decieving and are actually thicker than a 5w30 or 5w20, think of it as a straight weight with modifiers to let it flow better, I dont know much about the QS winter blend, if its that stuff in the pretty blue bottle, it is suppose to be specially suited for cold conditions and may be your lightest oil in 5w30. Really though unless you are planning a trip to Antarticia, I wouldnt worry about any of the oil flow rates, only time that the weights become a issue is when you reaaly want fuel economy, I have never seen oil freeze and have poured oil in 0 degree weather from a outside drum, 15w40, yes it was thick but not a solid. I have seen the thick oil on Youtube, but granted you are not likely to see those conditions and if you do, no oil is going to save you wear and tear in those conditions, but these are my opinions and Iam sure a "EXPERT" will chime in to correct me.

 

[bruce381]

""technical lingo that goes along with cold flow and pumpability properties.""

API has made it "easy" if you understand that the lower W number the faster/easier a given oil will flow in cold temps then a OW will flow better than a 5W will flow better than a 10W etc.

Then figure out what hot end vis do you need say a 30wt so for the "best" flow at cold temps use a 0W/30.

That said to confuse you more you could also
see HOW does the W number corolate to what temp.

Look up the API Vis carts to see at what temps the "CCS" or cold cranking simulator is run at to verify an oil for the "winter Vis" or W end.

Example a 5W must pass at (forgot) I think is -30C.
So you can figure that a 5W would be good down to -30C.

maybe I did not exsplain clearly but you asked for it.
bruce

 

[mitchcoyote]

The Mobil 1 5w-30 would be the choice for cold flow specs.....

 

[byez]

I haven't been here long but I would say that the GC has the best cold flow specs as it is a 0 weight, on the other hand the GC would also be the thickest when warmed up but is still considered a 30 weight.

I read somewhere that GC had a pour point of -60 C, is this true?

 

[mxhdroom]

Have a good look at Petro-Canada 5W-30 Synthetic too. It's a really thin 5W and looks to be a true 30W; what I think is about perfect for our climate here in Ontario. I'm using it now in my Miata and so far it's doing the trick. I think it's a great Grp. III, readily available, well refined/synthesized and a Canadian product at a decent price. Give it a look.

G.

 

[hemitom]

I to use petro-canada dino oil, they have two blends, MAXIUM & SUPREME conventional oil, the 5w30 rivals most syn oils in the ccs specs

 

[Dr_No]

Maximum is their best conventional.
mxhdroom, where do you buy your oil from?

 

[mxhdroom]

Hi Doc,

I just had it changed at my local drive thru (OilChangers) place. They have most of the "good stuff" in stock (Castrol, Valvoline, QS, etc.) but their house oil is P/C. If you ask for a normal change, they'll use P/C Maximum dino out of the drum; but their P/C syn oil is all bottled. A good price too (I think it was $59.95 before taxes) and they do good work. Purolator filters, as well. I know I should be doing my own changes but it's too close and too convenient when it's either cold outside or the weather sucks. You can pick the oil up at any P/C service station - even my local Mazda dealer stocks it as one of their "house" oils. Says something, I guess.

G.

 

[Merkava_4]

It gets even more complicated than that. You can have two oils of the exact same viscosity, yet one will out flow the other; I never could understand that.

 

[mechtech2]

That's because viscosities are not exact, but a range of permissible thickness.
When you compare 5-30s at a cold temp, one will surely be best on paper.
But in real life, they are very close.

 

[shanneba]

Here are three of the oils you asked about plus some others with the viscosity calculated at 10 F to - 40 F. This is viscocity, not a Cold Cranking value.

The calculator is available here: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3655/VI.html

Code:






Temp Castrol Motul Motul Mobil 1 Mobil 1 Mobil 1 Mobil 1 Mobil 1 Penn

F Syntec 300V 300V Plat

0w-30 5w-30 5w-40 0w-40 0w-30 5w-30 10w-30 5w-20 5w-30

Vi 167 162 176 187 169 169 147 163 169

100C 12.2 11 13.8 14.3 11 11.3 10 8.8 10.3

40C 72 65 80.8 80 63.1 64.8 62 48.3 57.5

TBN 11.3

cSt

-40 28357.7 27770 26299 19743.0 22092.0 23154.0 39117.0 17893.0 19703

-30 14234.7 13716 13610 10603.0 11202.0 11734.0 18230.0 8925.0 10004

-20 7591.9 7216 7447 5998.0 6032.0 6314.0 9119.0 4745.0 5396

-10 4278.2 4020 4920 3558.0 3430.0 3588.0 4863.0 2672.0 3074

0 2527.6 2353.0 2581.0 2199.0 2044.0 2136.0 2739.0 1581.0 1836

10 1560.7 1441.4 1621.1 1412.0 1273.0 1329.0 1623.0 979.0 1145

 

[02zx9r]

Word!

 

[byez]

So does cold cranking value have more value than viscosity when it comes to choosing a winter oil?

 

[Drew99GT]

I think cold pumping does. Many times you see 5w oils with a similar cold cranking spec, but the MRV is twice as high. Rotela 5w-40 is a great example, having a MRV spec of 39,000 cP, where as something like Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30 is 15,000.

 

[BennyL]

see, i still have no clue what those numbers mean. what is cP? and what is cSt? and TBN?

 

[ThirdeYe]

cSt - Centistrokes, a measure of viscosity. TBN = Total Base Number, commonly used to determine how much "additive life" an oil has left. cP - Centipoise. I'm not even sure what Centipoise means though