Has anyone had oil-related issues during the polar vortex?

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Has anyone had any oil-related issues during the polar vortex, like difficulty cranking? A 5W-30 probably can take -30 °F but don't you wish you were running 0W-xx?

Meanwhile, we were having a heat wave with the temperatures in the 80s here but we had a thunderstorm with heavy rain this morning.
 
With PP 5w30 in my 10 year old Camry I've been fine. Also, none to report with M1 5w20 in both F-250 plow trucks either
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Originally Posted by 53' Stude
With PP 5w30 in my 10 year old Camry I've been fine. Also, none to report with M1 5w20 in both F-250 plow trucks either
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No more Signature Adam?
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted by 53' Stude
With PP 5w30 in my 10 year old Camry I've been fine. Also, none to report with M1 5w20 in both F-250 plow trucks either
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No more Signature Adam?


I'm trying to decide on next oil to use
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I remember back when I had my 1st car (65 Ford Galaxy 500 with a 289 ci) I forgot to change oil before winter (back in Iowa) and we got a cold snap to around 5 below zero. I had 20W-50 in it I believe, and it would barely crank over, but eventually started. I'm sure it wasn't good for the motor, but when you're young and dumb you don't think much about that stuff.
 
This morning it was -21 degs F in Milwaukee. My Equinox 2.4L with 103,000 miles did not want to turn over whatsoever.

First key advance gave me the dreaded, "Click... then nothing." I quickly relented.
Second key advance produced 4 staggered cranks before the engine ignited / started.

Currently, the SUV has Castrol Magnatec 5W-30 in it, at about 45% on the OLM (recently the price was $18 to $19 on Amazon).
I truly believe the Castrol thickened considerably...!

I'll be switching back to Valvoline Advanced 5W-30 (Full-Syn) and a Fram XG9018 filter soon enough.

Steve
 
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You may want to check your battery. Our fleet equinox grumbled a little on startup at -25, and was slow, but it went. Since its fleet maintained, it gets what ever the low bid was on the correct oil in bulk.

Otherwise no drama in the F150 with 5w30 motorcraft or the the Explorer with 5w20 Mobil conventional in it...
 
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No just smooth starting at home where it's plugged in and because of the 0w30 when I'm on the road and do cold restarts after hours at the office or a customers it turns right over smooth.
 
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Originally Posted by MNgopher
You may want to check your battery. Our fleet equinox grumbled a little on startup at -25, and was slow, but it went. Since its fleet maintained, it gets what ever the low bid was on the correct oil in bulk.

Otherwise no drama in the F150 with 5w30 motorcraft or the the Explorer with 5w20 Mobil conventional in it...

Right on!
It's the original battery -- going 6-years old. That does concern me.
I'm thinking a Grp 47 AC-Delco, Delphi, or Deka Intimidator AGM replacement is in-order.
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Speaking of the Intimidator: https://youtu.be/-2xTFTgRfWs

I used to engineer several hundred A-H, 48 Vdc (floated @ 54 Vdc) battery plants (piles) for numerous telco central offices (CO). I always purchased Eastern Penn AGM battery plants. Eastern Penn makes the Deka series batteries as well. Good stuff made in the USA.
 
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No problems in my driveway with a 294k mile Ford Freestyle and a 210k mile Hyundai Santa Fe. Both have 5w-20 in them at the moment. Starting 137 diesel school buses this morning however was quite the challenge. We went through CASES of ether.
 
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In previous winters I was running M1 0w20 in my Civic but this winter I'm running PUP 5w20 and even at -22C this morning it still started up just fine. That's pretty much the coldest we'll ever see up here, so I don't need a 0w20 in this car at all (I still run 0w40 in the BMW but not for the 0w part, it's simply because Castrol 0w40 is a great oil and better than most other 5w40s including their own)
 
5w-30 synthetic (Castrol Edge EP) is surprisingly thicker to pour vs 5w-20 synthetic (Formula Shell) in this video at -26F. 5w-20 wasn't much different than 0w-20.
 
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Honestly, I've never run a 0w-30 oil in my Alaska-based Chevy Silverado -- only 5w-30 synthetics or semi-syn in the summer. Only occasionally, does it get -30 in the "Valley" area, 50 miles north of Anchorage. But, I bet the 0w oils would benefit my truck in those frigid conditions up north.

I believe Mobil makes a 0w-30 oil for that need. I wonder what other company does?
 
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