Page 1 of 1

Cold Weather Oil Suggestion.....

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 7:48 am
by nailbomb3
Thinking ahead for Winter. Its not usual for it to get down to -25 here overnight. So, does anyone have a good oil suggestion for me?
What are you guys running in your old rides?

Thanks!

Re: Cold Weather Oil Suggestion.....

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:53 am
by 00Beast
5W-30, in whatever flavor you like/is on sale at the parts store/oil change place should be plenty for those temps. It's all I ever ran in my 03 SSEi and that sat out in the elements in a parking lot at a private college in Central MN, lol. We had some nasty cold spells.

Where do you live?

Re: Cold Weather Oil Suggestion.....

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 12:39 pm
by 96 SSEi
HI, IF SHE HAS MANY MILES, I suggest 10w 40 in summer/warmer and 10 30 in winter

Re: Cold Weather Oil Suggestion.....

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 6:38 pm
by nailbomb3
00Beast wrote:5W-30, in whatever flavor you like/is on sale at the parts store/oil change place should be plenty for those temps. It's all I ever ran in my 03 SSEi and that sat out in the elements in a parking lot at a private college in Central MN, lol. We had some nasty cold spells.

Where do you live?
Mt

Any particular oil you are fond of ?

Re: Cold Weather Oil Suggestion.....

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 7:03 pm
by 00Beast
Honestly, in a 1989 LE, whatever is on sale will be fine. It all comes out of the same holes in the ground, and most of it is just branded bottles with almost identical detergent packages in it. The rest of it is all marketing BS. The only places it all really matters is a high-end, close tolerance engine. What's more important is the filter. Spend the extra money on the filter, and run 5k mile changes on conventional oil. For filters I recommend Wix (Available at O'Reilly's) and NAPA Gold (NAPA, duh). They're a good quality without being super expensive.

Re: Cold Weather Oil Suggestion.....

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 1:01 am
by nailbomb3
Yeah been using Wix filters for years now. Good stuff! Thanks!

Re: Cold Weather Oil Suggestion.....

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 12:40 pm
by CMNTMXR57
People spend waaaayyy too much time worrying about the insignificant nuances of particular oils' or oil brands. As long as it meets GM6094M or GM4718M requirements it doesn't freaking matter what brand is on the container. It all will work. This isn't a 10,000 hp top fuel racing motor. It is a pretty basic, K.I.S.S. V6 that dates back to being a farm tractor engine. You could pour wesson oil in and it'd run as happy as a clam.

But for cold weather, I would go at a max a 10W oil. Preferably 5W. All the W is is the Winter, low temp portion. Most people confuse it to mean "weight".

The higher that "W" number is, the more cranking pressure and pumping pressure will be present at a given low temp test temp based on SAE J300 test parameters.

Going from mammory, For example, a 10W oil, at -13*F can not have a cranking pressure >7,000 and a max pumping pressure > 60,000 @ -22*F.

By way of comparison, a 5W oil at -22*F can not exceed 6,600 for cranking and 60,000 for max pumping pressure at -31*F

The whole takeaway from this, is that the lower the "W" rating, the better it will flow, the colder it gets.