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Re: Black gold



>Listies:
>
>Been seeing posts advocating high viscosity oils recently.  Is using 5W-30
>and 10W-30 oils asking for trouble in a stock 1.7L motor during the summer?
>I thought the low viscosity was better for start up protection.  Secondly,
>is a heavier weight oil harder to pump and therefore
>going to take it's toll on the oil pump?  I don't know how the oil pressure
>sender works, so do different weight oils give different oil pressure
>readings?

 You do want a lower weight oil for start up protection, especially at
lower temps. But a 40 or 50 weight oil protects better at higher temps. So
a 5w40 or 5w50 would be good EXCEPT that with conventional oil, a big
disparity in the oil weight cold and at operating temp means that they've
used lots of thickeners. From what I've gathered, these things don't last.
As they deteriorate, the oil weight at operating temp drops. Not a good
thing. Better to go with a higher weight oil that isn't dual viscosity
IMHO. I used to run straight 30 in my 8v in the summer, and 10w40 in the
winter to make it easier to crank. This shouldn't matter in SoCal, you can
probably use 30w or higher year round.
  I'm not sure how the dual weight synthetics hold up, but it should work
better. Right now I'm running Mobil-1, I think its 15w50, in my 16V.
  I doubt a heavier oil will significantly shorten the life of an oil pump.


Brad


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