Short story long, I have a friend who have an Alfa 147 1,6TS, it is burning a lot of oil (he says something like 5L/10000Km, which is still under what Alfa considers "normal") when he uses 10W40 (I assume the cheapest oil the garage can put), so he decided to try 10W60, and we did the OC together this weekend.
Pros :
- car is running smooth, more silent
- doesn't smoke so blue/grey as it was with 10W40, in fact doesn't smoke anymore
- can now redlines without horrible metallic noise (did I said the car is usually a bit neglected?)
Cons :
- car is sluggish to rev (that was expectable)
- car is running HOT!
The last point is worrying me, normally it is constantly running at 90° (no oil temp gauge so only water temp), and fans goes on very rarely (traffic jam, long idling, etc). Now temp is constantly around 95/100°+, fan are almost always on, even on the highway at medium speed (110Kmh). When it idles, even for a short time, temp gauge goes almost in the "resd" zone (105/110°C)
I'm a bit surprised, can 2 grades make that much a difference? I know thicker oil = higher temp, but I mean this is an Alfa, supposedly ok with 10W60 in warm Italian climate, not the 18-20°Cish we have there!
Do you think it is a normal behavior? I've used 10W60 oil in the past, and my car (Mercedes 190E 1,8) didn't seem to see the difference.
Cheers
Pros :
- car is running smooth, more silent
- doesn't smoke so blue/grey as it was with 10W40, in fact doesn't smoke anymore
- can now redlines without horrible metallic noise (did I said the car is usually a bit neglected?)
Cons :
- car is sluggish to rev (that was expectable)
- car is running HOT!
The last point is worrying me, normally it is constantly running at 90° (no oil temp gauge so only water temp), and fans goes on very rarely (traffic jam, long idling, etc). Now temp is constantly around 95/100°+, fan are almost always on, even on the highway at medium speed (110Kmh). When it idles, even for a short time, temp gauge goes almost in the "resd" zone (105/110°C)
I'm a bit surprised, can 2 grades make that much a difference? I know thicker oil = higher temp, but I mean this is an Alfa, supposedly ok with 10W60 in warm Italian climate, not the 18-20°Cish we have there!
Do you think it is a normal behavior? I've used 10W60 oil in the past, and my car (Mercedes 190E 1,8) didn't seem to see the difference.
Cheers