Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: dan3952
I'm changing the topic, but I've never understood why so many people including mechanics say to use a thicker oil to help with oil burning. I don't agree with people playing the garage mechanical engineer and thinking there must be a better weight of oil out there for their engine. If it's a newer vehicle under warranty, particurly one that doesn't use an enormous amount of oil, why would anybody want to use anything other than what it says in the owner's manual? I used a quart of 10W40 in with 3 qt 10W30 and another quart of 20W50 to top off between oil changes and my engine didn't like it.. the valve train made a lot more noise than with 10W30 and there was a knock that came at idle that I hadn't heard before. From that point on, I stuck with 5W30 only. For people with bad rings, thicker oil won't help reduce burning it has the opposite effect.
Interesting post.
20W-50 was the only oil available down under for decades, and through the 70s and 80s nearly every car made 200-250,000km or was considered a dog.
1 litre of oil consumption per 5000km (1 qt per 3,000 miles) was traditionally considered time to re-ring the thing,, and usually happened out past the 250k km mark.
"Thick" oils aren't the problem that some here think them to be.
The only problem I see with that argument is that unless you can compare that general range of experience with a similar range of experiences where thinner oils were used, it means little. For all we know, if 5W20 or 5W30 had been available, they could have delivered the same performance. You live in a generally warm/hot climate where a thicker oil is most suitable and back in the "day," before modern formulations, a thicker oil was necessary for that climate. It's become cultural tradition there. Modern oil formulation would likely allow you ("you" theAustralian in general) to go to a thinner range of oils, but you don't because, traditionally, heavier oils have always been used there. Each country seems to have these traditions that were at one time based on an absolute need.
I say again: There's thick oil. There's thin oil. And there's the CORRECT oil viscosity for the climate, engine and operational situation.
Originally Posted By: dan3952
I'm changing the topic, but I've never understood why so many people including mechanics say to use a thicker oil to help with oil burning. I don't agree with people playing the garage mechanical engineer and thinking there must be a better weight of oil out there for their engine. If it's a newer vehicle under warranty, particurly one that doesn't use an enormous amount of oil, why would anybody want to use anything other than what it says in the owner's manual? I used a quart of 10W40 in with 3 qt 10W30 and another quart of 20W50 to top off between oil changes and my engine didn't like it.. the valve train made a lot more noise than with 10W30 and there was a knock that came at idle that I hadn't heard before. From that point on, I stuck with 5W30 only. For people with bad rings, thicker oil won't help reduce burning it has the opposite effect.
Interesting post.
20W-50 was the only oil available down under for decades, and through the 70s and 80s nearly every car made 200-250,000km or was considered a dog.
1 litre of oil consumption per 5000km (1 qt per 3,000 miles) was traditionally considered time to re-ring the thing,, and usually happened out past the 250k km mark.
"Thick" oils aren't the problem that some here think them to be.
The only problem I see with that argument is that unless you can compare that general range of experience with a similar range of experiences where thinner oils were used, it means little. For all we know, if 5W20 or 5W30 had been available, they could have delivered the same performance. You live in a generally warm/hot climate where a thicker oil is most suitable and back in the "day," before modern formulations, a thicker oil was necessary for that climate. It's become cultural tradition there. Modern oil formulation would likely allow you ("you" theAustralian in general) to go to a thinner range of oils, but you don't because, traditionally, heavier oils have always been used there. Each country seems to have these traditions that were at one time based on an absolute need.
I say again: There's thick oil. There's thin oil. And there's the CORRECT oil viscosity for the climate, engine and operational situation.
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