Thick oils,used to be:Re: Oil, Prolong,plugs and wires

From: W. Jack Hilton III (hemi@mindspring.com)
Date: Thu Jun 25 1998 - 16:23:34 EDT


Man , 50 wieght oil is too thick for a 4 cylinder , in my opinion , even in
the hottest GA sun !

The only time I used anything that thick was in my '79 Diplomat that had a
rod knocking . I had to drive the thing about 200 miles a day to and from
work and I drove about 90 miles an hour .

I kept putting progressively thicker oil in it to try and take up the slack
in the bearings . Finally , it would even knock with the 70 , that's right
70 wieght oil I used in it !

The motor never did let go and never even smoked or missed , but I ran it
hard for about an additional 30K with that knocking in the bottom end .

I finally traded the car in on a new one and got $1500 on the trade and I
was glad that they didn't even start it up cuz my trade value would've went
all to hell if they had heard that knocking .

Do you guys realize how long it takes to pour a quart of 70 weight oil in a
car ? Lemme tell ya , it's WAY too long .

At 01:02 PM 6/25/1998 -0700, you wrote:
>Changed from Castrol Syntec 5w50 to 10w30 a few days ago - (I figured the
>5w50 might be a little thick, so after two oil changes, I went to the more
>conventional 10w30 - I often suffer from "more is better" syndrome and
>figured Texas+summer=50weight).
>
>On the recommendation of a friend who said he went from 17 to 24 mpg in his
>Suburban after using it, I added Prolong oil treatment when I did the
>change. Replacing the 5w50 with 10w30 has something to do with it, I'm
>sure, but my motor seemed to wrap quicker than ever before. I had 12,000
>miles on it before I went to the 5w50, so I KNOW how it ran with Chrysler
>10w30 oil in it - therefore I don't think it's just the weight of the oil I
>used. The motor seemed to run with less effort than ever before.
>
>I was looking through some race engine builder's websites the other day,
>and a builder who offered specific advice on parts / maintenance items. He
>had tested various engine oil treatments (no, I don't know exactly what
>kinds of tests, but motors were dyno'ed for HP and checked for wear). His
>findings were that Prolong was the ONLY treatment that was even promising -
>more testing would be done. As for oil, he said he found Torco to be the
>best, followed by Amsoil and other "dealer" oils. Most of the "run of the
>mill" synthetics he tested were "good" - all were vastly superior to non
>synthetic oils.
>
>He also said he preferred Magnecor wires - solid silicone jackets - 200
>winds per inch of a finer guage wire than other brands used (I ordered a
>8.5 mm set for my truck two days ago from Straight Line Performance in
>Michigan - my buddy got a set for his Intrepid too).
>
>Changed my plugs (stock type Champion RC12LC4 - Champion number "436") -
>gapped them wide at .045 and the truck seemed to run even better yet. With
>28,000 hard, leadfoot miles on them, the old plugs looked beautiful -
>gray/white electrodes with light tan insulators. One question - I've seen
>it before, but never had it explained - what's the little "silvery" shiney
>patch on each of the insulators? Does it relate to which way the plug is
>facing? Each plug has the same size patch, but on different areas of the
>insulator - just curious - thanks.
>
>Hope the info was interesting for someone out there - it was to me.
>
>Tate
>97 reg cab V8 5spd 3.21
>
>



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