Engine oil weight and fuel economy

[krousdb]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Can I buy it at autozone? I will do the same thing in a few miles time.

What filters do you use?

Mobil One 0W-20 has been very difficult to find. I found the motherlode at NAPA. In July, they had 700+ quarts in area warehouses. I ended up buying 200 quarts for myself fellow mileage geeks. I have 18 qts left.

I have been using toyota factory oil filters on the Prius. On the Honda, I just use Fram. I know, I have been told that they are crap but they have worked well on the Subaru Outback, which by the way uses the exact same Fram part number as the Honda.

The reason that I am not too concerned about using light weight oil and Fram filters is because of my driving style. My engines are driven very easily, never beaten. They rarely see 3000 rpm.

Dan

[SVOboy]

I'll have to search hard for it then, I guess.

[JanGeo]

Check your owners manual before you go lighter - I don't think it is a good idea unless you have a lot of cold temps and if you close in the oil pan to prevent cooling the oil you could be causing more problems. You will probably burn more oil also. Definately an oil pressure gauge is called for but first check for a tap in the oil gallery or else get a Y for the oil pressure switch.

[SVOboy]

If enough people are doing it with no problems I don't much care. If my engine burns up, I'll be happy. Haha.

But seriously. 5w30 is stock, it won't make that much of a difference in terms of wear, especially on these engines. And I'm not losing any oil so I don't have to worry too much about that. I will do the oil pressure gauge, however.

[JanGeo]

http://www.synlube.com/oil.htm

Hey anyone using this stuff??? Looks like it is a one shot deal and then add when you need more. Looks like it could save some $$$ in the long run and provide PTFE and Moly all the time. And you never have to get rid of the oil change oil ever!

[guest001]

I have a boost/vac and oil pressure gauge in my car. If I could find it I'd be will to give a 5w20 or 0w 20.

I figure if you don't have a block heater, that 0w would help, both I think you'd get more from the heater then switching oils. but yeah, going from a 30 to 20 when its hot and the majority of the driving would be very interesting.

[GasSavers_SD26]

I recently changed the oil weight in my Taurus to M1 5W20. I had been running Shell Rotella T synthetic 5W40. During Wisconsin winters I didn't have any cold starting issues with 10W30. I'm trying the 5W20 to see if I can improve my mileage. No hard data as of yet.

From a mechanical point of view in motorcycle racing, we usually keep the hot side of the oil viscosity at around SAE40 rather than SAE30 too keep the crank and cam bearing full with oil pressure. Heavy loads for on off throttle. Usually too much oil pressure though, so if one can reduce the blow off pressure, it's valuable for a power stand point.

As for 5w, 10w, vs 0w...it's just cold start and the warm up period.

The larger the difference in the cold weight vs the hot weight, the more additives are put in the oil.

[101mpg]

If you go to an Amsoil dealer for about $10 IIRC they will provide you with a kit, you put a little oil into a bottle, send it to their scientists, and they will analyze it for you. You can do all the A/B/C/A testing you want with this method, and it provides long-term results.

Personally I recommend Amsoil as I have seen fantastic gains and it makes engines run better, makes parts last longer. Put over 35,000 miles on oil that Amsoil said chemically didn't need to be changed yet, in fact. No, I don't sell it, either, but I can tell you that for FE it works.

Their various other fluids, lubes and greases work as well. When I get the CRX into its full state of awesomeness, I will be putting Amsoil axle grease, tranny fluid, etc., and report on the results.

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Think you'd just have to find out and live with it, there might be a method to diagnose oil, but I do not know it. I ended up staying because I couldn't find 0w30 locally and the car was long overdue for a change. Got another change coming up in 2k miles and I'm waiting on results from h-t where a guy is dyno testing like 20 kinds of oil. (I'll try to pick my brand by this, but I'll want 0w30.)

[froggy81500]

Ford started using 5W-20 around 2001 in the Focus and Honda has been using it widespread since around the same time. Even the CRV uses 5W-20. My dad told me their 2006 CRV says 5W-20 right on the oil cap and I couldn't believe an SUV would use that light of an oil. But much to my suprise when he popped the hood, there it was in yellow.

Some say the switch to 5W-20 from 5W-30 has more to do with a marginal increase in fuel economy to satisfy CAFE standards. I know Dodge and Chrysler started using 5W-20 over the last few years in the Stratus and Sebrings with the 2.7L V-6 engines, whereas previously that motor used 5W-30, like in the 2001 Intrepid I used to own.

From everything I've read up on, the MPG difference between 5W-20 over 30 is very marginal. One thing I did see though was at BITOG, and seemed to indicate 5W-20's look like they have a higher content of moly in their mixes over a 5W-30, so perhaps to make up for the thinner weight the additives were beefed up a little bit.

[trollbait]

Ford back certified a lot of their engines for the 5w-20. I had no noticable loss using 5w-20 Quakerstate synthetic over 7000 miles in the Ranger. I plan on using a 0w20 next winter. It seemed to help Prius in the cold.

Mobil 1 0w-20 is available in the Wal-marts around me. I haven't seen the 0w-30
anywhere.
Autozone carries the Castrol Syntec 0w-30. Unlike the rest of the line, it's a 100% group IV synthetic.

If you are worried about wear with the thinner oils, get a used oil analysis done.