Originally Posted by SWS
That is an honest question, Gene K.
My own thinking - mainly after following the issues in the Honda 1.5T engine in the CRV (I was interested in buying one):
-> I buy new vehicles for the long term, 20 years.
Tennessee climate & low road salt supports this -
2 of my vehicles made it 20 years / 200K miles in TN.
-> My driving has a lot of short-trip, in-town driving.
As I understand it, this is the worst-case for fuel dilution.
-> There are some engines in which actual damage has
occurred to rather new engines & blamed on fuel dilution.
However, I do not know of anyone that has an
authoritative summary of which are tolerant and which
are harmed by fuel dilution. Indeed, the damage, if any,
could take 10 years to appear.
-> I remember the old days of huge cast iron V-8 engines
with carbs warming-up in the winter in Ohio.
A lot of fuel dilution reported and I saw oil drains
as thin as water, completely black, and smelled like fuel
after 3 months. This is a personal negative impression
only - I have no data on engine longevity vs a similar
engine in a warm climate from those days.
-> My personal opinion is that gasoline in oil is always of
concern and is harmful to "some" degree for a short-trip
driver like me.
This influences which new vehicle I buy for the long term.
Rejected the CRV specifically and all Turbos in general
for this reason - not worth the worry-factor to me.
Hyundai 1.6T are as bad as the Honda 1.5T. When I bought my car I had a 10 pack of oil testing bottles pre bought before I even received my car. I knew what I was getting into.
I have ran many different oils. My long term choice has been Mobil 1 ESP 5w-30. The lowest limit I will go on ANY oil is a 11.0@100C and a HTHS 3.5. NO WAY I would every run a 5w-20 oil in my turbo car. Even in the summer I gained 3/8 of a qt by 500 miles. I just switched out to a first run of Redline Euro 5w-30, and my jaw has dropped since the first time in many oil changes my oil is dead solid on the the dot where it was when I filled it. 600 miles later. I should have 3/8 of a qt more oil as I have with many top oils. The Ester must be sealing better even though the GDI injectors must be washing the other oils off the cylinder walls. That's the only thing that it could be. I can't wait to see my 1,000 mile and 2,000 mile mark to see if am still dead on the dot. No oil has not gained fuel in this car.