Breaking news - I'm going for a 50 weight!

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Well I'm on my last bottle of 10w30 durablend and i just purchased a bottle of 15w50 durablend to put in after.
I can hear the screams of many on here but I have my reasons!
I had some oil usage but not too much and although that cleared up after i added MoS2, the fact is increased usage indicates ring/valve guide wear
My engine is on the rattly side, mainly the hydraulic lifters but they tend to like thicker oil anyway and it should hush them. My car is silent when its cold ie. when the oil is at its thickest
Winter is coming to an end down under now and I'd be very surprised if we had any more frosty or even cold nights ahead around here
Today i pulled out into traffic and put my foot down and i saw an alarming ploom of white smoke! Never seen it before so I dont know what happened there! I tried it again when the engine was fully hot and i didnt see much.
I do 80% highway driving so i shouldnt notice much difference in fuel consumption
And finally, this is Australia. We love thick oil right?!

If i dont like anything or my car has any adverse reactions i'll go straight back to 10w30/40 :p
 
Welcome to the world of thick!

I use 15W40 in both the "Bluesmobile" and "Thunder the Wonder Pig" and a straight 40 weight in "'D' the Mighty." If I used the thin stuff most Bitogers use, I would be adding oil constantly.

Now in my wife's Sebring, that's a horse of a different color.
 
I run 15w50 synthetic oil from NAPA in my Toyota and it does a good job between fuel consumption, starting in the cold and staying clean. The engine is trashed beyond any reasonable repair (dirt was poured in the oil and sandpapered the short block). Run it until it dies LOL.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
In Australia, isn't a 50 grade oil considered 'water weight' oil?

No
 
As the oil control rings were failing in my 1984 Honda Civic I moved up thru the viscosity grades to control oil consumption. I finally arrived at 20w-60 just before I gave up and rebuilt the engine. It was a shame to have to do the rebuild because other than the worn oil control rings the rest of the engine was in great shape.
 
My experience with going to a thicker oil to control consumption is worth reporting on here. Back circa 2003 or so, the original 383 in my '66 Polara had reached the quart-per-800 miles level of consumption. >250,000 original miles on the short block, heads had been upgraded with hardened seats at 150k miles, and a lot of the miles had been accumulated with 1960s and 1970s oils. That engine didn't owe anyone anything, but other than the high consumption it still ran well.

I went up from M1 10w30 to M1 15w50, and consumption went UP. A lot. I was doing good to get 500 miles/quart on the thicker oil and on top of that I started fouling spark plugs and it pinged and rattled like crazy.

Went back to 10w30 (in a cheaper oil) and ran it that way another 2 years until I built up the 440 that's in it now.

My theory is that when the majority of oil consumption is past worn rings, thicker oil can increase consumption because the oil control ring can't scrape it off the cylinder walls as well as a thinner oil. The compression rings will skate right over any oil left by the oil control ring, and so consumption can go up.

If the majority of consumption is past the valve guides, its a different matter. But expect to be AT BEST under-whelmed buy any decrease in consumption, and maybe surprised that it gets a lot worse.
 
Today i pulled out into traffic and put my foot down and i saw an alarming ploom of white smoke! Never seen it before so I dont know what happened there!

Ha ha! Mix a little insecticide in the oil and help keep mosquitos down!
 
White smoke is usually a sign of a head gasket leak, never a good thing. If the car were still fairly cold, though, you may have just seen a plume of condensation from the exhaust.
Oil consumption can be helped with heavier grades and in a moderate climate, a thicker oil will do no harm.
You have three schools of thought here.
One holds that a thicker grade will kill your engine. I've even got an argument going with a guy in another thread who is trying to claim that using a 5W-20 over the recommended 0W-20 will void the powertrain warranty.
The second school of thought holds that thinner grades are no more than a US CAFE thing and that thicker grades will better protect the main bearings.
The third school, of which I'm an adherent, holds that oil grade doesn't matter all that much and that neither thinner nor thicker oils will cause any harm.
I've run a few forty and even fifty grades in engines for which thirty grades were recommended.
No harm at all, although the thicker grades made for smoother and quieter running with maybe some minor loss in fuel economy.
You want to try a fifty?
Won't hurt, might help.
Good on ya!
 
Just went to Masters home improvement earlier and they have a new auto section! They have a lot of oil flavours ive not seen anywhere else, the one i got excited about was 10w40 durablend! Might give that a shot before going to the full 50 but i wouldnt expect much difference from the 30
 
The Syntec 5W-50 plus a bottle of VSOT (a synthetic oil thickener), I'm currently running in my Europa is still on the thin side (lowish OP) when the engine gets very hot.
The bottom end is original and definitely could do with freshing up including a rebore but it runs well enough for the few times that I drive her dispite the 200 miles/L oil consumption.
 
My first car was a 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury with a 383
It burned a little oil on 30wt so I went up to 40 wt and it still burned some .
It did not matter what brand or wt it just liked to use a qt every 900-1000 miles
I just got alot of experiance adding oil and doing oil changes
I wish I still had that car cause it really ran great
I sold it a few years later to a guy and his gf got mad at him about something so she locked herself in the car,started the engine,and held the gas pedal all the way down until it blew
I was sick when I found out
Your first car is always special
 
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