A few comments;
1. Cold weather is much tougher on the oil than warm weather so I am not
suprised that the 15w50 looks better after 6k miles of summer driving than the
10w30 does after 4.5k of winter miles.
2. Dodge recomends 5w30 for ambient temps from below freezing up to 100 degrees
and I forget the lower limit for 10w30 but I believe it's around freezing to
over 100. For most people 5w30 would be the prefered oil year round.
3. The synthetic blends are just that a blend and from what I have read the
sythetic portion is 1/3 or less. Seems to me if you want to use a blend just
dump one or two qts of synthetic in with your dino oil at oil change time and
save some money.
FWIW, I run 10w30 in the summer and 5w30 in the winter. My turbo vehicles get
synthetic the non turbos get dino. Dino oil is changed on 5k intervals and
synthetic is changed on 7.5k intervals. I have been doing this for 30+ years,
regularly put 200,000+ miles on a vehicle and have never wore out an engine.
Dave Clement
99 SLT+ CC 4x4
In article <s02a1b79.051@mail.dhs.state.il.us>, DHSPA58@dhs.state.il.us ("BARRY
OLIVER") writes:
>
>
> Hey guys, I recently changed my oil in the Dak. Who cares - right? Well it
turns out that I ended up with 5w30 instead of 10w30 [mobil1]. Given that it's
been gawdauful K-K-Kooooold here lately (subjective) the lighter oil seemed
like a good idea anyway, so I went with it. Which brings me to my question:
> I have been switching weights with the seasons, 10w30 in the cold, 15w50
in the heat up to this point, and Blackstone has confirmed some facts for me.
The most interesting is that, fresh out of the bottle, the 15w50 is better oil,
in almost every respect. After 6000 miles [hot], the 15w50 was only showing a
little over 1/2 used, and according to Blackstone, could have been pushed to
close to 10k safely. The 10w30 was almost completely used up after 4500 miles
[cold], and should probably have been changed after 4000 or so. I am assuming
that the 5w30 will also suffer this "shorter" lifespan, but I haven't sent
samples in to confirm or deny this.
> As an experement, I also tried delo400 15w40 dino oil for almost 3000
miles. I probably could have gone longer, but it was getting cold, and 15w40
seemed too heavy. I'll post the results of that , and of the 10w30 castrol
synthetic blend that I am trying in the bimmer currently, when I get them. Oh
yeah, I had a question.. Do any of you guys that run 10w30 year round, ALSO
send your oil to blackstone for testing? I'd like to see how it holds up
during the summer.
> BTW this is all in a stock, 99, 318 with a K&N and a Mopar catback, with
factory plugs and thermostat.
>
> -Barry
> MCP, A+, Network+, Server+
> ===============================
> Efficiency is doing things right.
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