Bought my first jug of 0w-20 and wow is it thin!

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My 2015 Accord Sport is going to need its first oil change real soon, so I picked up some Mobil 1 EP and a Fram XG filter from the local soul-sucking Walmart. My previous Impreza and my wife's Corolla both use 5w-30 which already seems a bit thin to a guy who grew up putting 10w-40 in a succession disco-era Chevys, but 0w-20 feels like it's about as viscous as water! I know it's able to do the job and modern motors are designed to use it, but jeez, I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around how that's possible.

Just observing, move along...
 
Have you ever drained hot oil from an "up to temp" engine and noticed how thin that was?
grin.gif
 
I plan to get some QSUD 0W-20 for my sonata this next fill. so long as it's rated for opperating temp I aint to worried about it.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
I started using M1 5-20 in the 70's in an engine calling for 10-40. Your fine.


Now this would scare me. What made you decide to do this anyways?
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: tig1
I started using M1 5-20 in the 70's in an engine calling for 10-40. Your fine.


Now this would scare me. What made you decide to do this anyways?


I lived in Maine at the time and cold winter starts were difficult and very painful to hear as the lifters would clatter for several seconds. Others I knew were using this oil so I finally changed from Valvoline 10-40 to M1 5-20 and WOW what a differance. My engine started much easier and no lifter clatter at all, plus the 10K OCI was an added bonus. Well worth the $5 a qt cost compared to 45cents for the Valvo.
 
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
My 2015 Accord Sport is going to need its first oil change real soon, so I picked up some Mobil 1 EP and a Fram XG filter from the local soul-sucking Walmart. My previous Impreza and my wife's Corolla both use 5w-30 which already seems a bit thin to a guy who grew up putting 10w-40 in a succession disco-era Chevys, but 0w-20 feels like it's about as viscous as water! I know it's able to do the job and modern motors are designed to use it, but jeez, I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around how that's possible.

Just observing, move along...


yea, as mentioned above, you need to realize that you're not observing it at operating temperatures.

The whole point of multiviscosities is that the magic additives make the oil resist thinning like a straight oil as the temp increases.

Perhaps to wrap your head around it, go watch those youtube low temp pour tests at freezing, and then you can have a warm fyzzy feeling that the "thinness" is helping the oil get to the engine faster during startups and you are ready for the cold.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: tig1
I started using M1 5-20 in the 70's in an engine calling for 10-40. Your fine.


Now this would scare me. What made you decide to do this anyways?


I lived in Maine at the time and cold winter starts were difficult and very painful to hear as the lifters would clatter for several seconds. Others I knew were using this oil so I finally changed from Valvoline 10-40 to M1 5-20 and WOW what a differance. My engine started much easier and no lifter clatter at all, plus the 10K OCI was an added bonus. Well worth the $5 a qt cost compared to 45cents for the Valvo.


Nice!
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: tig1
I started using M1 5-20 in the 70's in an engine calling for 10-40. Your fine.


Now this would scare me. What made you decide to do this anyways?


I lived in Maine at the time and cold winter starts were difficult and very painful to hear as the lifters would clatter for several seconds. Others I knew were using this oil so I finally changed from Valvoline 10-40 to M1 5-20 and WOW what a differance. My engine started much easier and no lifter clatter at all, plus the 10K OCI was an added bonus. Well worth the $5 a qt cost compared to 45cents for the Valvo.


I have ran various 0w20 and 5w20 in my Focus. It is much quieter on those fall /winter with 0w20 than 5w20. The 10w30 I have in it now would be super noisy I bet. However I have Pennzoil 0w20 ready to go in once it cools down!
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
... cold winter starts were difficult and very painful to hear ... so I finally changed ... to M1 5-20

Using 5W-20 dino oil in the winter was common on the Canadian prairies in the 1960's. Vehicles certainly started better; oil pressure (as indicated on the guages of the era) when fully warmed was a bit lower. Didn't seem to do any harm.
 
When you see UOA's running even thinner oils (0w10 for example) you start to think that 0w20 is nice and thick
grin.gif
 
I feel your pain Bottom_Feeder I grew up running 20w50 in the summer and 10w40 in the winter in all my cars and trucks. It's just weird putting in 5w20 I run it myself in my Mustang but it does give me that "Just too thin for the summer feeling"
 
Originally Posted By: raytseng
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
My 2015 Accord Sport is going to need its first oil change real soon, so I picked up some Mobil 1 EP and a Fram XG filter from the local soul-sucking Walmart. My previous Impreza and my wife's Corolla both use 5w-30 which already seems a bit thin to a guy who grew up putting 10w-40 in a succession disco-era Chevys, but 0w-20 feels like it's about as viscous as water! I know it's able to do the job and modern motors are designed to use it, but jeez, I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around how that's possible.

Just observing, move along...


yea, as mentioned above, you need to realize that you're not observing it at operating temperatures.

The whole point of multiviscosities is that the magic additives make the oil resist thinning like a straight oil as the temp increases.

Perhaps to wrap your head around it, go watch those youtube low temp pour tests at freezing, and then you can have a warm fyzzy feeling that the "thinness" is helping the oil get to the engine faster during startups and you are ready for the cold.



Wouldn't it be "resists thickening as it cools"?

Since it was designed as a 20 grade, it would fall into a certain cst range at 100c- and don't they add the VIIs to reduce thickening from it's designed viscosity grade?
 
I also grew up putting 20W/50 in hot rods and motorcycles. 10w/40 for grocery getters seemed thin.....But I used it because it (Empirically) worked just fine.

In the early '80s, I moved on to 10W/30 synthetic, then 5W/30 synthetic. It seemed thin, but it worked fine, and gas mileage was important. I actually did logs of mileage for the length of OCIs to establish which 5W/30 synth got the best mileage out of my Civic. (Best was Chevron, but it eventually disapeared from the stores I got it from....Mobil 1 was second, and winner for availability).

Anyway, I have yet to buy anything modern enough to spec 0W/20......But I will have no problem putting it in.
 
@ The_Eric:

I think that you are conflating pour point depressants with viscosity index improvers. PPDs reduce crystallization upon cooling. VII unfold with heat to reduce thinning as the oil is heated. However, VII also fold with cooling to accelerate thinning upon cooling.
 
Really? Well, Think of Vicosity Index Improver as pig tail polymers (heavier weight part of the oil) that swells at higher temperatures keeping the oil viscosity on soft debries.
 
CAFE standards. You think that car specs 0W20 anywhere else in the world that doesn't have CAFE standards?

Since you other cars all call for 5W30, I'd buy and stock one oil, 5W30, for all your cars.
 
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