Oil weight and intervals

[DCIV]

I have always used rotella in all my vehicles. 15w40. In fact I even run it in my mower. Now with the new escape I don’t think I should run 15w40.

Manufacture recommends 5w30 but I was thinking of 5w30 in the winter and 5w40 in the summer. Anyone see any reason not too?

On to intervals. I usually do every 5k as 3k is really too quick in my opinion. Does anyone do 5k or longer?


Coop

[Chris GTO TT]

How hot are your summers? I'd be mostly okay with running 5W30 year round here and our summers frequently see temps over 100. I don't know much about the 2.0DIT Ford motor, so I'd probably start by looking at some Focus ST UOA's on Bob is the Oil Guy forums. Should give you a good idea on intervals, weight, and oil type.

[ChargerX3]

Really depends on what vehicle you are running it in. For example my Ram has MDS (cylinder shut down) and guys have mentioned performance of that system lagged with heavier oils. If you are running in a conventional engine, no turbos, no fancy tech then I would deviate as far as one weight heavier, but not likely in the winter. Thats when oil gets its thickest and hardest to move through your engine.

Get a 5w40 full synthetic and enjoy it during warm months. Some of them now can go up to 15k+ mile before a change. I just did 10k in my truck and it didn't look that bad. I probably wont go longer as i occasionally tow, and that can be hard on oil.

[mjannusch]

On a regular ol' car, just go with the manufacturer spec and a good synthetic. Don't over-think it.

Intervals are a lot longer now too, due to better manufacturing of the parts there's a lot less wear. Just change it on schedule and you'll be fine. No reason to use short intervals unless you are using a crap filter.

[Duck Vader]

Seriously. New cars are tested quite a bit and engineers know what they are doing. Just use the manufacturer recommended weight and intervals.

[DCIV]

[quote=""Duck Vader""]Seriously. New cars are tested quite a bit and engineers know what they are doing. Just use the manufacturer recommended weight and intervals.[/quote]

Yes. Tested to a certain length of life. Engineers do not want the car to go to 1 million miles. They want it to go to where their boss says and then crap out so we have to buy a new one.

Just saying, if they made the vehicles to go forever than they would go out of buisness. Not very hard to see why they wouldn’t.


Coop

[aaronatstate]

I used Ford oil from the dealer for the first 50,000 miles. I had the oil changed every 5,000 miles, even though the oil life monitor was suggesting 10,000 miles (it would go off basically every other oil change). I started changing the oil myself ever since the dealer fucked up one of my wheels (the fixed), and now I just use Mobil 1, 5W30, and change it every 5,000 miles. My oil pressure is always pretty much rock solid, even close to the change interval. Our summers get up to 100 frequently, and still the pressure is good. Also the oil temp never gets hot either (ST has an oil temp gauge), even in the summer. Yes it is cooler in the winter, but still doesn't get hot in the summer.

On newer cars, I would use what the oil cap says, or at least what the owner's manual says. Engines are machined and built to a lot tighter tolerances now, and there is a reason the oil weight is on the cap.

[aaronatstate]

[quote=""DCIV""]Yes. Tested to a certain length of life. Engineers do not want the car to go to 1 million miles. They want it to go to where their boss says and then crap out so we have to buy a new one.

Just saying, if they made the vehicles to go forever than they would go out of buisness. Not very hard to see why they wouldn’t.


Coop[/quote]

False, they have a life target, and are tested to last multiple lifetimes, typically 2-3 lifetimes.

Run the recommend oil, and the recommend oil change interval, and it will ber perfectly fine. Stop trying to overthink everything.

[DCIV]

[quote=""aaronatstate""]False, they have a life target, and are tested to last multiple lifetimes, typically 2-3 lifetimes.

Run the recommend oil, and the recommend oil change interval, and it will ber perfectly fine. Stop trying to overthink everything.[/quote]

I wish I could stop overthinking things. I can’t. It’s just what my mind does.

Didn’t you say 2-3 lifetimes to you is like 150-175k. That sucks.


Coop

[DCIV]

[quote=""mjannusch""]On a regular ol' car, just go with the manufacturer spec and a good synthetic. Don't over-think it.

Intervals are a lot longer now too, due to better manufacturing of the parts there's a lot less wear. Just change it on schedule and you'll be fine. No reason to use short intervals unless you are using a crap filter.[/quote]

I was thinking 5-7500


Coop

[Chris GTO TT]

Run a full synthetic 5W30 for 5000 miles and then send it to Blackstone.

[aaronatstate]

[quote=""DCIV""]I wish I could stop overthinking things. I can’t. It’s just what my mind does.

Didn’t you say 2-3 lifetimes to you is like 150-175k. That sucks.


Coop[/quote]

No, I said one lifetime is typically 125k, and we test to 2 or 3 lifetimes...

[aaronatstate]

Also, I would do 5,000 mile intervals, and try and get it on like 90, 95, 100k etc. Easy to remember

[vr4]

Use quality synthetic of the manufacturers recommended viscosity. Quality filter. Change every 5-7500. Maybe do a uoa at the second or 3rd oci and adjust time from there

[tabasco122]

Pennzoil platinum ultra in all my vehicles. The rotella formula was changed a while back and no longer has the super high zinc content that made it good for turbo engines. Based off on testing Penn ultra platinum seems to offer the best protection by a good margin, it's up there with motul/amsoil

[Chris GTO TT]

That's pretty much all I used for the last several years in my cars.

[DCIV]

Good to know.


Coop

[Duck Vader]

[DCIV]

0-16!!!! What the heck. That’s like pag oil.


Cool

[Duck Vader]

[quote=""DCIV""]0-16!!!! What the heck. That’s like pag oil.


Cool[/quote]

Apparently Japan has been using it for decades in some of their cars with no issues. I believe this is from a Toyota.