200K+ club what oil you run in the heat ??

[bayareadude84]

Welp summer days are creeping up here in Oklahoma (Already had some 80 degree days)and wondering what motor oil you guys with 200K+ run in hot summer days ?? 90's/100's can stretch for MONTHS !!!



My 01 burb has 210K miles on the LM7 5.3 and Just did a Magnatec 10W30 oil change but starting to hear some lifter/piston slap with cold start ??? I have a CRAP LOAD of Clearance oil from Walmart 5W40 15W40, 10W40, 5W30 lol. I'm saving the Castrol Magnatec, Mobil 1 10W30, Valvoline full syn 10W30 and pennzoil 5W30 full syn in my private stash


Had enough of the heat and "other southern things" and moving back up north this year but still curious what you guys run with high miles ??


Dave

 

[j91z28d1]

I personally only worry about cold start Temps for oil weight. besides track days where I deal with trying to keep oil under 275deg and high loads or maybe if you have a tow rig. but most daily drivers run in the 220deg range of coolent and 200ish oil no matter the outside Temps once up to operating temperature. so I oil for what the engine sees more so than what outside temp is. that said if it rattles at start up and thicker oil makes it go away, I'd choose what made it quiet and go thinner when you move back to the 0deg cold starts. I'm much further south, so 110deg plus days for months where 90s are considered a cold front.

that being said, my cars are mostly over 100k but under 200k. over 200k guys might deal with different issues than I see.
only my obs tahoe is over 300k thou and it's lived its life on bulk 15w 50 diesel oil and whatever cheap filter I can easily pick up. it shows no signs of any wear or build up. but a sbc is kinda like a tractor in that respect lol. man I miss the sbc. everyone ls swapping and I'm over here wishing I still had a sbc in everything but with today's coil packs, ecm's and head flow rates.




funny I argue with co workers all the time that tell me they run thicker 10w40 in their little Toyota 4cyl daily's because it's so hot here. I'm like man, the engine doesn't really care what the outside temp is, only what temp it's running and it's running the same temp at 80deg as 120deg. just run the 5w20 or whatever the manaual calls for. but that being said, 10w40 doesn't seem to cause any issues for them, besides the theoretical fuel mileage lose. but they don't notice anyways. so yeah, my rambling post when no where haha.

run what makes the engine the quietest?

 

[bayareadude84]

I personally only worry about cold start Temps for oil weight. besides track days where I deal with trying to keep oil under 275deg and high loads or maybe if you have a tow rig. but most daily drivers run in the 220deg range of coolent and 200ish oil no matter the outside Temps once up to operating temperature. so I oil for what the engine sees more so than what outside temp is. that said if it rattles at start up and thicker oil makes it go away, I'd choose what made it quiet and go thinner when you move back to the 0deg cold starts. I'm much further south, so 110deg plus days for months where 90s are considered a cold front.

that being said, my cars are mostly over 100k but under 200k. over 200k guys might deal with different issues than I see.
only my obs tahoe is over 300k thou and it's lived its life on bulk 15w 50 diesel oil and whatever cheap filter I can easily pick up. it shows no signs of any wear or build up. but a sbc is kinda like a tractor in that respect lol. man I miss the sbc. everyone ls swapping and I'm over here wishing I still had a sbc in everything but with today's coil packs, ecm's and head flow rates.




funny I argue with co workers all the time that tell me they run thicker 10w40 in their little Toyota 4cyl daily's because it's so hot here. I'm like man, the engine doesn't really care what the outside temp is, only what temp it's running and it's running the same temp at 80deg as 120deg. just run the 5w20 or whatever the manaual calls for. but that being said, 10w40 doesn't seem to cause any issues for them, besides the theoretical fuel mileage lose. but they don't notice anyways. so yeah, my rambling post when no where haha.

run what makes the engine the quietest?

Thanks for your imput but tell me why in Australia they mainly use W40 weight to deal with their heat ?? 5W40 10W40 15W40

 

[chilerancher]

We've been running 5W-30 consistently in ours for all 375k miles so far here in Texas with no concerns.

For years we bought Chevron 5W-30 conventional at Costco when it was on sale, but now they only carry synthetic (Mobil 1 and Kirkland house brands). Two-ish years ago we switched to Havoline 5W-30 blend.

Over the past three years the truck has done great on several 8-hour Texas summer road trips (even while pulling a trailer with a house full of furniture) and during the 2021 "Icepocolypse" down here when it didn't get out of the single-digit temperatures for three days. I started it every morning at around 7 degress F and ran it until it warmed up (which took a long time at idle). No tapping or clicking noises. Idle performance was the same on cold start as when it was warmed up. Goosing the accelerator would cause a brief stumble after cold start but went away once warmed up.

I might switch to using Kirkland 5W-30 full synthetic...

 

[89Suburban]

Sub'd.

 

[j91z28d1]

Thanks for your imput but tell me why in Australia they mainly use W40 weight to deal with their heat ?? 5W40 10W40 15W40

I have not heard of Australians doing that? but until just now I've never looked either haha. but quick Google showed Toyota and Mazda both recommended 5w30 for new cars? Fords and chevy didn't show up in my quick search.

can you point me to some info? be interesting.

I don't have it handy, but I've seen a chart about oil viscosity based on oil temperatures, something like a 50w racing oil is about like a 5w30 at 320deg oil Temps. that plus how much load your engine is seeing at those Temps corresponds to the oil wedge needed to keep the bearing from touching the crank. but it was a deep dive into racing engines and kinda general.

in the newer c7 z06 corvettes. the ones with the supercharger and meant for track days, they still need dexos for daily, so there's a new "supercar" branded mobile 1. I believe it's a 0w40 so you get thicker than a 5w30 but won't kill the cats, which is the dexos rating is for. but for track days the owners manual says to change to a straight sae 50 mobile 1 racing oil and then change back as soon as the track day is over. the cars are notorious for very high oil Temps in track settings,(as well as over 600hp) and that's the work around. even thou the 50 racing oil is full of zinc, which is great for lube but causes ash that is said to be bad for cats. I personally have run all kinds of stuff with the oem cat still fine on my obs. so I'm not sure how much that matters but gm says oil needs the dexos meaning low zinc rating for long cat life.

also there's one chart that recommends oil weight based on bearing clearances you built the engine too, iron block and aluminum block. aluminum growing more for the same Temps, so clearance ends up different for different Temps kinda thing.

I was listening to that milling oil pump webcast and someone did ask a question about if they could gain hp by running thinner oil in older cars like that new 0w16 stuff in a 60s car by adjusting bearing clearance to tighter spec. the guy on there said it's probably not good to try and reinvent the wheel with 60s technology engines. just run what it calls for and build hp a eaiser way.

now this is all racing stuff. nothing I've seen geared towards our stock daily drivers but I I'm curious. like I've wondered if i could run that 0w20 in my truck. since it's got a variable displacement oil pump. but then I talk myself out of it cause what's the point really haha. it already gets good mpg for a big suv. 0.5 more won't really matter.

 

[j91z28d1]

We've been running 5W-30 consistently in ours for all 375k miles so far here in Texas with no concerns.

For years we bought Chevron 5W-30 conventional at Costco when it was on sale, but now they only carry synthetic (Mobil 1 and Kirkland house brands). Two-ish years ago we switched to Havoline 5W-30 blend.

Over the past three years the truck has done great on several 8-hour Texas summer road trips (even while pulling a trailer with a house full of furniture) and during the 2021 "Icepocolypse" down here when it didn't get out of the single-digit temperatures for three days. I started it every morning at around 7 degress F and ran it until it warmed up (which took a long time at idle). No tapping or clicking noises. Idle performance was the same on cold start as when it was warmed up. Goosing the accelerator would cause a brief stumble after cold start but went away once warmed up.

I might switch to using Kirkland 5W-30 full synthetic...

Icepocolypse haha. I caught part of that even down here and man, I am not up for that level of cold. Originally from Florida and these Texas winters are brutal. coldest I've ever been in my life. I'm definitely not cutout for that frozen north lol



I've heard good stuff about the Kirkland oil from a friend that switched to it. he says he car feels smoother and quieter on it. I've not tried it, or know anything about thou.

 

[Marky Dissod]

In all 4 Caprices I owned, and the Fleetwood (all IronBlock LT1s with iron heads):
0W30 group 4 synthetic for the winter oil change, for cold start oil flow advantage
5W40 group 4 synthetic for the summer oil change, 'cause they all ran a wee bit hotter in the summer

For my Tahoe's L59 - and any 6.0L or 6.2L I may someday swap in - 0W30 group 4 synthetic only, the longest filter I can screw in under there, and a PCV catch can before I notice any fuel consumption.
It's got 150,000 miles, and I see no reason why it shouldn't make it to 250,000 miles before the 6.0L / 6.2L upgrade.

 

[Mudsport96]

5w30 in my 5.3 Silverado till about 250k then moved to 10w30 till approximately 390k. Now winther is 10w30 and summer is 15w40 so it carries decent pressure. Father in law had it from basically new till i got it at 395k. Probably wouldn't need the heavier oil now if when he started having pressure problems he would have called me... instead he gave me the truck with a noise and no pressure. So i put a pick-up oring in it to fix that. But other than maybe slightly lower than id like pressure it is fine. 35ish at highway speed hot in july. But it will go to 60 if i wind it up to 5000.

 

[chilerancher]

5w30 in my 5.3 Silverado till about 250k then moved to 10w30 till approximately 390k. Now winther is 10w30 and summer is 15w40 so it carries decent pressure. Father in law had it from basically new till i got it at 395k. Probably wouldn't need the heavier oil now if when he started having pressure problems he would have called me... instead he gave me the truck with a noise and no pressure. So i put a pick-up oring in it to fix that. But other than maybe slightly lower than id like pressure it is fine. 35ish at highway speed hot in july. But it will go to 60 if i wind it up to 5000.

Dangit, I've been curious about our oil pick-up o-ring for a couple of years because of posts on this forum. Current readings are 25-30 psi at idle and almost 40 at hightway speeds. Two mechanics have advised me that the o-ring is not the problem and said that the low-ish oil pressure was because of the car's mileage..."don't waste money an an o-ring replacement". Ugh. Replaced the oil pressure sender, no change in the reading.

(Apologies, off-topic for this post, I know...)