Whats your pref on Oil Weights?

[Cross]

I have been looking around and I keep seeing some running heavy weight oils and others running light weight.

I have normally stuck to 5w30 in the winter and 10w40 in the summer. However I am looking to see what everyone else does and personal reasons as well as technical. (I am not trying to start a brand debate but by all means let me know your pref my has always been Val.)

I have both 5w30 and 10w40 sitting here and I am debating what I am going to run this time around.

Also your Summer and Winter Temps outside. (I am used to F not C)
Mine are Summer 104-110 is the normal high.
Winter no lower then 60 or so degrees night can drop to 40 or so.

[BLOWNDFIZ]

People sometimes think I'm crazy but I use 15w50 Mobil 1 in the blown car. My original Vortech instructions listed 20w50 as the recommended oil weight to use back when I bought it. I heard they may have since changed their instructions. IDK but it works for me and I stick with it. I'm probably leaving a few horses on the table...oh well.

The DD I run 10W30 Mobil 1 (it has 134K miles). I run 5W30 in the truck, agian Mobil 1.

Temps - 0-35 Winter
40-90 the rest of the year.
I really don't drive either car too much in the cold weather. They are in a heated garage and I start them up about 2X a month, occasionally I'll drive the 95 if the roads are absolutely dry.

[Tyler Wheat]

10W30 Mobil 1 for me

[Cross]

Good to see some peoples thoughts I forgot though I would like to know the Summer and Winter Temps you see as well, I have added mine.

[IronOutlaw]

I run 10w40 and a bottle of that lucas additive in my car. 136000 miles.

In the summer i see between 90-110 degrees and in the winter usually 30-40s but maybe the twenties once in a blue moon.

[BLK95TA]

I've been running 5w30 and my car is a summer only car and i'm thinking its time to step up to 10w40 since my car will occasionally trip the check gauges light at stop lights after the car is warmed up if the air temp is above 80 or so due to low oil pressure. the car runs fine so i dont think there is a real problem. i changed the oil sender and it actually made the gauge worse (every time i'd let off the gas after the car warmed up the gauge would drop to near 0 and to 0 once i stopped) i ended up putting the 1 year old oil sender back in, and am thinking of upping the thickness. today it was 73 out and i never saw the check gauges light. i was reading right about 10psi (halfway between the red line and the first white line) once the car warmed up

[Cross]

Hmm maybe my sender is nuts because with 5w30 I was getting almost 75psi on start up and 40 to 30 psi at idle... I was actually worried going to 10w40 today lol.

[BLK95TA]

Hmm maybe my sender is nuts because with 5w30 I was getting almost 75psi on start up and 40 to 30 psi at idle... I was actually worried going to 10w40 today lol.


i tried a differnt sender and my oil pressure got worse, lol. i'm pretty sure the AZ one i bought was junk so i returned it and just put my old one back in since it is probably more accurate

[JoeliusZ28]

0w-40

[SSSC]

Look here http://ltxtech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=590&highlight=0w30

[Grr]

I run 15-40 rotella T in all my stuff, its the best oil period for the $$, otherwise almost EVERY major trucking company wouldnt use it. It has the most additives of any bulk oil, and its easier to buy in 2.5 gal jugs too. Plus i get if free at work.

[IronOutlaw]

I've been running 5w30 and my car is a summer only car and i'm thinking its time to step up to 10w40 since my car will occasionally trip the check gauges light at stop lights after the car is warmed up if the air temp is above 80 or so due to low oil pressure. the car runs fine so i dont think there is a real problem. i changed the oil sender and it actually made the gauge worse (every time i'd let off the gas after the car warmed up the gauge would drop to near 0 and to 0 once i stopped) i ended up putting the 1 year old oil sender back in, and am thinking of upping the thickness. today it was 73 out and i never saw the check gauges light. i was reading right about 10psi (halfway between the red line and the first white line) once the car warmed up

Hey man you might want to check and see if your oil pickup is still in tact cause it shouldnt trip the check gauges light. Mine did the same thing for a loong time, but would only go to zero if i stopped fast, moving the oil away from the pickup. Just my .02.

[BLK95TA]

i just found this on ls1tech but this is exactly where my oil pressure gauge sits once the car is warmed up if the temp outside is under 80, if over 80 it will drop slightly to where the "check gauges" light comes on...

is this normal oil pressure for an LT1 at hot idle?

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee154/BlackGT2006/TA010.jpg

[IronOutlaw]

I think i would definitly try checking it with a mechanical gauge. Thats the only way to be sure it is that low. If it is, Im betting your pickup may have fell off. I know of a few cars this happens to including mine. They are just pressed into the pump and can fall out pretty easily. My oil pressure was about like yours before i found out my pickup had fallen off and i changed the pump and pickup and now i stay consistently at 20 psi when its over 80 degrees.

When you stop fast does your pressure drop to zero really fast?

What you can do it drain the oil and stick something in the pan like a wire or something and see if the pickup is sliding around in the bottom.

[1FASTSS]

i just found this on ls1tech but this is exactly where my oil pressure gauge sits once the car is warmed up if the temp outside is under 80, if over 80 it will drop slightly to where the "check gauges" light comes on...

is this normal oil pressure for an LT1 at hot idle?

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee154/BlackGT2006/TA010.jpg

No that is low. I think mine was around 30-35 ish when warm. That is something I would look into...no oil....no motor/bearings

[BLK95TA]

i highly doubt its the pickup because it was like that with the check gauge thing long before i had the oil pan gasket replaced in june and the oil pickup tube was in place when we took the pan off them

[BLK95TA]

ok so i just got my oil changed over to 10w30 (they didnt have 10w40) and was making a video and had the car idling in the driveway for a few mins and when i backed it into the garage the oil gauge dropped to where i'm guessing it used to throw the CG light when i had 5w30 but it actually did no throw any CG light so it must have barely been above the red, anyway here's a pic i took of the gauge with my warm engine in reverse.. oh and i tried doing a hard braking test today and it does not drop fast if i slam on the brakes

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff279/pdennis93/generic%20photos/100_0633.jpg

and here's the vid i took (it was still being processed when i added the url so it might take a few mins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myfc5xab5Kc

[IronOutlaw]

Id definitly get that checked out. That is way too low.

Hook a mechanical gauge up to it and see what it reads.

[BLK95TA]

when cold the gauge sits around 55-60. this was after a 15 mile drive back from the oil change place

[MAKI]

10W-40 Castrol Syntec for me. But I want to try Rotella next.