An Oil Thread

[KARNUT]

I ran 20-50 Amsoil in all my gas engines up to my trailblazer ss at 25K oil changes or one year. They ( the dealer) used mobile 1 at 12-15k oil changes in the trailblazer per oil minder. First experience of the dealership using full synthetic. Now with most dealerships using full synthetic I just let them do it. 0-20 seems wrong haven’t lost an engine so I just go with it. My Avalanche just gets Amsoil in everything. The rest at the dealership. I can get under the Avalanche without jacking it up, so I do it mostly.

[customboss]

On 4/29/2022 at 3:54 PM, Grumpy Bear said:

 

You did! Nothing wrong with your post.

Don't even think you were talking to me but the question was a good one so I responded.

 

 

Engineering at it's very best

 

We own a 2006 Civic which from the factory uses upper control members that are to short to provide an alignment that does not eat tires at a horrible rate. TSB attached.  Horrid negative camber. 

 

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2014/SB-10052495-1405.pdf

 

Note the date of this TSB 2/2014.

 

From 2008 to 2014 this was not a recall but a Factory Service Bulletin that was addressed with only customers that 'repeatedly' and loudly complained of rapid tire wear.

 

From 2006 until the FSB came out complains were first addressed by Honda providing NEW ALIGNMENT specs which did nothing but by stroke of a pen put the out of camber situation in mid spec. 

 

That was replaced in 2008 with an additional spec change to increase to the stupid rear toe in a effort to even the wear. And some tire relief IF when inspected it still had the OEM BRAND, TYPE AND SIZE it came with. None did naturally. 

 

About this time (2008) they also released a new upper control arm whose design length SPEC was longer but as the production tolerance for +/- was huge many replacement arms that were close to the minimum length were actually shorter than the original arms at their maximum length. That the set they installed on ours. We bought the car from my sister-in-law who bought it new with 60K on the clock and already had eaten 3 sets of tires. We went through 2 more sets before Honda replaced the arms and then another set only 8K miles after the repair. Yea wore out faster fixed than not. 6 sets of tires in under 100K. 

 

MOOG Problem Solver line had an adjustable length arm that I bought an installed and then had my local private shop dial in the alignment to specs to MY CHOICE.

 

Did the next 100 K on one set and now 30K into a second set and look new yet. Added almost 5 mpg to the normal average. Handling improvement was off the hook. As was braking and the run in twitch was gone. 

 

I have a few more accounts like this including Dizzy's breather system and the issues that FUBAR design caused. And a totally messed up 76 Ford Granada I bought new. 

 

There is no Elfin Magic factory or 'special' engineers except those that get to work on the Corvette projects. 

 

 

 

 

There is no Elfin Magic factory or 'special' engineers except those that get to work on the Corvette projects. 

 

 

AGREED!  Have you seen Corvette engine quality for the past 20 years.....LOL  

 

 

 

[customboss]

On 4/28/2022 at 1:22 PM, Spiney Norman said:

So I've read that 20psi at idle, normal operating temp, is fairly normal. My '03 with the V6 makes that at idle and over 50psi (almost 60) at highway speed.

I'm running 10w40, truck has almost 116k miles. Anyone ever at a quart or two of 20W50 to thicken things up for summer? Or should I just keep running 10W40?

 

In other news I took the truck on a little road trip recently. A/C off, used the cruise control, kept my foot out of it and averaged 23.7mpg. I'm pleased.

 

US spec passenger car/truck engine (PCMO)  oil specs : 

72-89% of a PCMO is base oil 

5-12%  is additive package

5-15% is viscosity modifier  ( most likely that 10w40 is 15% viscosity modifier making a VERY THIN base oil behave to 40 SAE grade @100C 

<1% is pour point depressant 

 

GM ran away from 10w40, 20w50 etc years ago because once the lower quality viscosity modifiers gave up the ghost they gummed the engine up AND when that cooked off and stuck to the internals the remaining engine oil usually measured less than SAE 20. 

 

European engine makes DEMAND better oils and drive engine oil production there. Here the American Petroleum Institute ( API ) drives oil making. 

 

So a Euro spec 10w40 might really do well in your GM engine but you are trusting the polymer quality to an engine that wanted less of those becoming deposit formers. 

 

The base oils are the key and marketing makes it really hard to see the real McCoy out here in the US market. 

 

 

 

 

[dna9656]

I'm old enough to barely remember straight weight oil. I remember Popular Science ran an article about "Non Newtonian" oils and how through the use of polymers chemists could make oil behave (flow) like a heavy oil when hot and a thinner oil when it was cold Most of you folks prolly know the "W" in "10W 30) means winter. So this particular oil acts like a 10 weight oil (gets thinner,. flows easier) in the cold (when most all fluids get thicker and harder to pump) and a 30 weight oil in the summer (gets thicker, so it's not too thin to do it's job) when most all fluids get thinner.