Have a quick queston on motor oil. Right now I am using 10w-40 and would like to know if I can use 15w-40 HD or 20w-50. By using higher rate of oil does reduce the heat to my engine? My engine has 216,000+ miles on it.

 

It's not recommended. The viscosity is too thick for the tolerances. Using a synthetic can help, but addressing the cooling system is a more effective way to go. Besides, why are you concerned about the heat?

 

I would say stick with what you have been using. Your engine has 216,000 miles.... you must be doing something right

Rob

 

5w30 or 10w30 is all I will run.

Some recommend 10w40 if you do a lot of higher RPM highway driving. But keep it simple.

 

Melting the engine. I'll try the synthetic next and maybe 15w-40 for the summer time and will go back to 10w-40 on the winter. A buddy told me that he uses 20w -50 on all his car's and said that when the engine run at it high temp. the oil will be as it is running on 10w -30 and may reduce the heat or is he bullsiting me?... Thanks alot. I'll just stick on what I am using for now.

 

He just doesn't know what he's talking about. 20w-50, 10w-40, etc. is always what it is. Thing is, when the oil is warm is not the only thing to be looking at. It's when it's cold (on start up) that you also have to consider. You might want to do some reading about motor oils and how they work before someone else tells you something like that. It can be an expensive screw up down the road.

There's just no need to use an oil that heavy for your vehicle. As said, 5w-30, 10w-30,10w-40 is really fine for your truck. Any heavier is too much. If you have a melt down, I guarantee you it will not be because of your oil....synthetic or not. Like I said, a synthetic (because of how it's made) CAN help....a bit, but if you really want to keep temps cooler look at toying with your cooling system. OR even an oil cooler. for that matter.

 

don't switch to synthetic of you have not run it before, you will get oil leaks.

I would just stick with 10w-30 personally. I run nothing but penzoil 10w-30 and my engine runs great. I use VERY little oil

 

Install an oil cooler. Years ago, I put one on my z car when it had 126,000 miles on it. The oil stayed new looking the whole time between oil changes.

 

where in cali?

the manufacturer recommendations are for 5w-30 below 30ish degrees, and 10w-30 above that (that's average temps for whatever season/climate you're in)

i typically run 10w-30 for the summer, and 5w-30 for the winter.

at that mileage I wouldn't switch to synthetic unless you're really anal about checking the oil. The biggest thing that can damage your trucks engine is running too little, or too much oil, and at that mileage synthetic may burn off at a fairly fast rate.

 

10w-30 period is all I run and will run. Your buddy is an idiot, dont run anything but what the manufacturer recommends (usually 1w-30 or 5w-30) and you will be fine. Also frequency of changes is better imho than using synthetics, I can get 5 changes for the price of 5 quarts of synthetics.

 

Of course you are totally discounting the advantages of synthetics, regardless of if you change every 3000 miles, or every 10,000 miles, or every 5 miles.








Fred

 

I ran 20w-50 for over 100,000 miles in my truck (synthetic) with NO ill effects. In fact, I rebuilt my engine earlier this year with 218,000 miles on the odometer & had practically NO wear on the cylinder walls (original crosshatching still intact!), cams, or mains.

The advantage of a heavier oil is that it protects the bottom end better (main bearings), at the possible expense of delaying oil protection to the top end (cams). Thinner oil gets to the upper end faster & subsequently protects there better. If you are in a warm climate & routinely run high rpms (highway @ 70 mph+), I don't think you'll hurt anything by using 20w-50. For the record, I run 15w-50 now.

That said, if you've had good service out of 10w-40, I'd stay with what works for you.

 

The "NO wear on the cylinder walls", etc., was/is due to the synthetic oil not the weight of the oil.
You should always run the thinest oil that you can (within the manf. specs) for the best lubrication, least friction, best cooling, etc.





Fred

 

I think you need to redirect your question to bobistheoilguy.com

They will tell you ALOT about oils and you're less likely to get some pseudo-science whipped out on you than if you ask that sort of question here.

 

Well in my eyes cost is a major factor. I am not spending 50 bucks for an oil change even if I could get 3-4 out of them. It costs me 8 dollars to do a change.

 

i started runnig royal purple 10w-30 in mine about 2,000 miles ago (im now at 189,000) and it idles a little smoother, revvs more freely and my friend says he can feel a power gain but i can't so much. it cost me like 28 bucks i think... well somethin in that area but it's supposed to last a ton longer. ayways its been working great.

 

One could "POSSIBLY" get oil leaks. You cannot say that definitely. I've run sythentics in every older vehicle I've ever owned and never had any leaks....as has thousands of other folks. And right now, I've 216k miles on my 22re. Add a pint maybe every couple months at a rate of atleast 800mi/month. I'm sure more miles than that, but I've never really done the math.
But, since this thread is not about synthetics-vs-dino....

Yeah, BITOG is a good place to start reading about oil and lubricants. Just watch for magical claims. Synthetics are good stuff, but not made of fairy dust. And it is generally more costly. In which case, maybe save your money a buy an oil cooler...

 

Friends dont let friends run penzoil... OR fram for that matter. Put something like castrol or mobil one in there. Sludge kills.

Basically, run what you have been, and keep your oil changed. Based upon reading that you havnt used synthetic oil in this engine before, i would continue to run 10w40 or 10w30. All i run is 10w30 castrol and a toyota or wix oil filter. Changed every 3000 miles.

Dad ran penzoil 10w30 in his z71, (normally i change the oil for him, but i was unable to), anyways, he had it changed and had penzoil put in it. That oil came out after 700 miles looking like it had been ran over 3000 miles. IMHO i wouldnt run anything but what you've been running. Be sure your cooling system is in tip top shape and you should be fine. Might also look at a tranny cooler... tim.

An oil cooler would solve some problems, and tranny cooler would also

 

Um...how would a tranny cooler help with engine heat?

 

where i live, Pepboys, Autozone, Kregen, Advanced AP, Napa AP all clusted within 2 mile redius. competetion is good. one or other always have some specials on all the time, i buy 5qts of M1 full sythn + M1 filter package deal for $30. i change every 5k miles, i can always find some deal like that before my scheduled oil change. i use the bigger Ford 3.0V6 filter, thou.