Why I'm going to use 0w-40 next oil change

[LSW]

My last oil analysis with VRP 5W-30 came back at Fuel dilution over 5% and viscosity 8.3 cSt. I dumped it at 900 miles in my wildtrak as a preliminary flush run so the next 5k mile analysis will have less residual. We are having a fairly brutal winter with below 0 cold starts being the norm and real struggles to break 180F oil temps even on 20 minute drives. The Broncos have been having a rough time of it with a guy in Fairbanks reporting he was losing 3-4 quarts of oil and going into limp mode while trying to do his 100 mile commute at -30F (with preheating before startup). He was on the Motorcraft 5W-30. The dealer in Fairbanks claimed that’s all they had and if he wanted 0W oil he’d have to get it himself, which is kind of wild for a place that sees -60F.

So with this much winter dilution I am definitely considering a 0W-40 in the future, if not at least a Porsche C30 like the M1 ESP 0W-30. I do want to finish 20,000 miles/4 changes on VRP first though. That’ll take a year+.

I thought this is also a good demo of how fuel dilution is not necessarily a cumulative problem, you can get a lot of dilution right after you change the oil in cold weather. I read this is due to fuel vapor condensing on cold cylinder walls during extended warmups and washing past the rings into the crankcase.

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[crenca]

Wow @LSW! To bad VRP is not offered in a 0w-30 or 0w-40. Maybe that will change. I sure would be tempted (despite the pain in $ and effort) to go to an 3k change interval under your conditions

 

[LSW]

Wow @LSW! To bad VRP is not offered in a 0w-30 or 0w-40. Maybe that will change. I sure would be tempted (despite the pain in $ and effort) to go to an 3k change interval under your conditions

yeah, where I live (near the ocean) we almost never get below -20F and 5W should always be good for that. Anything more than about 100 miles inland and you need block heaters even with 0W since -30F is a regular thing. With positive displacement oil pumps supposedly there is no downside to a 5W or 10W until the oil starts to gel, becoming unpumpable at temps below the winter rating, below -22F. Oil is allowed to slip a winter grade in service, so a 5W could be a 10W after 5,000 miles. The one silver lining is that with engine operating temps being ~5-10% cooler the oil does get a corresponding viscosity boost to offset dilution.

 

[Muffin Top]

That's a great vid.

It looks like for turbos, AMSOil.

If you're not seeking an extended drain interval in a naturally aspirated engine, then Driven.

 

[DALOLA]

Any thoughts on the new Mobile 1 Advanced Clean? Assuming it's a counter to the Valvoline Restore & Protect....which has gotten some good press.

 

[23OBX2.7]

yeah, where I live (near the ocean) we almost never get below -20F and 5W should always be good for that. Anything more than about 100 miles inland and you need block heaters even with 0W since -30F is a regular thing. With positive displacement oil pumps supposedly there is no downside to a 5W or 10W until the oil starts to gel, becoming unpumpable at temps below the winter rating, below -22F. Oil is allowed to slip a winter grade in service, so a 5W could be a 10W after 5,000 miles. The one silver lining is that with engine operating temps being ~5-10% cooler the oil does get a corresponding viscosity boost to offset dilution.

The only qualifies being dino derived synthetic oil with is parrafins -36C point (unpumpable) and -30C viscoscity >6000 VS natural gas derived synthetic oil -30C viscosity 4000 and pour point -46C.

I would plug in either way but if no power avail natural gas derived synthetic all the way.

 

[LSW]

This was the First 5,000 mile interval with the Valvoline Restore & Protect on this Bronco (the Wildtrak). The fuel dilution is high but I don’t think it’s a fuel leak as the analyst indicates. Pretty cold here this winter with near daily sub zero cold starts, some at -20F. This supposedly can cause fuel vapors to condense on supercooled cylinder walls during warm up, resulting in a lot of fuel dilution especially when combined with the engine's catalyst warm up scheme which allegedly has it run rich at ~1200 rpm for the first few minutes.

I try to start driving within 30-90 seconds of startup, avoid extended idling, and get the engine up to operating temps every time on its 15 mile/20 minute each way commute, plus a longer 75+ mile road trip most weekends, but none of that seemed to matter too much. The trend seems to be 2-3% dilution in summer and 4-5% in winter.

With that said, the oil does run at 180 in winter instead of ~200 in summer according to the inferred oil temp on the instrument cluster, which offsets the viscosity loss somewhat. This amount of dilution a good reason to run an SAE 40 or MB 229.5X/Porsche C30/40 oil though.

I do wonder if the slightly elevated aluminum is a consequence of these deposits/corrosion on the front of this engine's cylinder head. It first started to become elevated at 15,000 miles. Unfortunately I didn't borescope until 30,000. The HPL oil people said the aluminum was due to Aluminum Oxide, an intentional part of the additive package associated with the moly they use. The VRP has not made a change to the deposits so far, but they say it needs 4x 5,000 mile intervals to break deposits down. If it's actually corrosion I doubt it will be much help. My wife's Bronco also on the VRP 5W-30 hasn't been over 2 ppm Aluminum on its 2 full runs of that oil. Probably splitting hairs/in the noise though.

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