Oil Viscosity

For you guys who live in a cold weather region, or like me, hot summer/cool fall/cold cold winter...what do you do for oil? I used to live in TX. so I just used Rotella 5w40 year round. Now that I live up north I'm wondering if I should get like some Amsoil 5w30 or 0w30 for the start of the winter season here??? I've also heard that no matter what some of you use like Delvac 1 15w40 year round...I'm wondering what is THE BEST for the 1.9TDI NB.......THX
notes01@yahoo.com

That is a fire topic.

People swear by Delvac, but it is thicker at start up, so I understand why you are asking.

2 Amsoils to choose from are 10W-40 and 3000, which is 5W-30 (both slightly lighter).

Also some will run Redline and some run Chevron Delo Synthetic (I think the redlien is lighter and the Delo is comparable).

No matter what, they all are better than non synthetic oil.

Which is best is your personal preference. I think it comes down to what you value the most. Lots of people go for lighter oils in the cold months. Run a search on oil specifications in the fuels and lubricants sections, and you will be reading for months.

But, I am a warm weather driver, so maybe some cold guys should chime in.

By the way, if you are worried you can get an oil heater for your pan and put it on a timer.

A 5w-40 synthetic like Delvac-1 or the Shell Rotella available at Wal-Mart will be fine for the CT climate. The Delvac 1 is the preferred oil but can be hard to obtain. Perhaps some of the CT Tdi'ers can help you find some.

BlueNote,

To put this in perspective,VW/Audi still allow the use of SAE 20w-50 oils in temps >14F for their gas and diesel engines. Delvac 1 will be just fine, unless CT sees another ICE AGE. In that case, I'd be more concerned with the potential of fuel gelling.

TS

The new CI-4 rated Delvac 1 is substantially thicker when cold, and substantially thinner when hot, compared to the old stuff. I do NOT recommend it for cold weather anymore. (The change in viscosity is bizarre...and I still maintain that it cannot possibly be the same base stock. That stuff has Group III in it, or I'm a liberal.)

I use Amsoil Series 3000. I'd highly recommend it in ANY climate, with the possible exception of winter at the South Pole research station. I'm talking about Death Valley, or Fairbanks. Or any climate in-between. Winter or summer.

-mickey

Allow me to clarify: Connecticutt is not "cold." You may THINK it's cold, but by "cold" I'm talking about Yellowknife cold. If it gets substantially below zero, the new Devac 1 is probably not a good choice. But CT? It'll be fine.

-mickey

BlueNote, DELVAC1 is 5W-40.

I get mine at L.F. Powers in Waterbury, just off Rte. 8. They are a Mobil distributor. About $85/case, if I remember, it's been a while though since I got my last case.

I'm in CT and it's been working year 'round just fine for me, for the last 50,000+ miles.

Delvac 5w40 is hard to find. i found the truckers 15w40 though but I just don't know for a lil ol 1.9 if that is thin enough for the winter months. i have been using Rotella 5w40 but after reading all these posts you people got me convinced I need to switch to either amsoil or Delvac. I just question running the 15w40 year round???

15w-40 Delvac is Delvac 1300, aka dino oil. It's in the black bottle. You want Delvac-1 in the silver bottle.

I'm an Amsoil convert- I went from Hi-Performance 10W40 to series 3000 5W30 in the summer, in Texas, so far, so good.

Bluenote,

My Amsoil recommendation for your climate would be their Series 3000, 5w-30. The Series 3000: http://www.amsoil.com/products/hdd.html would be a better choice than the Amsoil 15w-40 for a very cold climate.

TooSlick

[ September 01, 2002, 05:47: Message edited by: TooSlick ]

BlueNote,

You're makin' this way to hard on yourself buddy. It's only oil and all the oils mentioned so far would work. You just gotta look at total cost, shipping , etc. and whatever else turns you on.

As far as 15W-40, I used Pennzoil 15W-40 mineral oil for the first 50,000 miles. No apparent problem with the 15W part. Started fine in the cold, no cranking issues. The Pzoil was mineral, so it had a high evaporation rate and put lots of oil vapors in to the CCV path and intake.

I switched to DELVAC1 for the low evaporation rate and presto!! ..... intake problems gone!!! Amsoil is just as good if not better in terms of evaporation rate. This is an important oil quality in a EGR'd diesel.

Also, the Caterpillar 5W-40 oil is repackaged DELVAC1 and is usually a couple bucks less than the DELVAC1. There's a Freightliner truck place in E. Hartford that carries the DELVAC1 and/or Caterpillar oil and they have a TDIClub discount deal, about $18/gal.

Listen to TooSlick. I haven't kept track, but the oils mentioned so far will work and it will be near impossible to notice any bit of difference in how your car runs from one oil to the other, and I highly doubt one oil will cause/allow the engine to fail before the rest of the car falls apart, but you have to weigh what you want to pay as far as effort to getting it or pay in shipping, etc.

Maybe you should project oil change/use costs out 150,000 miles and see if that helps you.

It's only oil. Lighten up. The oil wars that go on here are ridiculous. There are no major Earth shattering differences between the top synthetics that you are considering. Get on the Mobil, Caterpillar, and Amsoil websites and find yourself a dealer and move on.

There have been earlier threads on the reformulation of Delvac 1. I'd really like to know if they have downgraded the basestock while still charging the same. If true, I'm off to another brand....Chevron Delo Syn, PC Duron, or Amsoil 10W-40.

georgesq ?

Boundless, you hamster eating, Macintosh using, paper air filtered SOB. I am sorry to report that the Freightliner dealer in East Hartford no longer sells the Delvac-1. A guy at work recently picked up a new TDi and I sent him there for oil. No luck. To my knowledge Powers in Waterbury is the only source for Delvac in Connecticut other than a Mobil station somewhere in the Danbury area that member JEFFT mentioned about a year ago-but they were real expensive.
I was glad to meet you at Bawlsey's GTG
yesterday, my friend. Remember when I said I'd have to trash you in public? Notice any change in your car after the timing reset?

Well if any of you CT members ever find any dealer that has Delvac 1 let me know the name of the joint otherwise I think Walmart is my best shot for fully syn. Rottella T 5w40 or else I'm just going to use Delvac 1300 series and change it every 3000 miles...But I agree, oil is oil so on that note I'm off to the garage to start draining...Amsoil is great but with the shipping, lead time, etc. It's too much for freakin oil for cryin out loud. A person should be able to purchase, in person, any kind of oil they want anywhere in the 50 states-That would be America!!!
P.S. (No, I'm not bitter)

WOOCHOW, you squirrel-like equipment pack-rat, making fun of my computer is low, real low. Only a male prostitute would be so bold!!!

But surprisingly there was a difference with the timing reset. We reset the timing to right in the middle, from just below the top. I could barely get any smoke. Prior, I could get some smoke on a hard accleration, but on the way home testerday, hardly a wisp on a hard launch.

BTW, when new my car was right in the middle. I put it up to the top to see if all the hype about more power/less smoke was true. It wasn't. Actually, with the timing moved up to the top, it felt like I lost 60-80 5th gear acceleration. It was like a gasser.

So go sell 5 gallons of your DELVAC and then go buy 10 more gallons.

As far as 15W-40, I used Pennzoil 15W-40 mineral oil for the first 50,000 miles. No apparent problem with the 15W part. Started fine in the cold, no cranking issues. The Pzoil was mineral, so it had a high evaporation rate and put lots of oil vapors in to the CCV path and intake.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Could you do the Club a favor and post your VIN number, so we'll know what to watch out for in used car lots?

Thanks.

-mickey

BlueNote, call the distributor in Waterbury, 203-753-5555, and tell them where you live. They'll give you the nearest place to buy Delvac. Johnnies Mobil in Vernon is where I bought it last. Two CT winters so far, parked outside, Delvac and no starting problems.

BlueNote,

If your head is spinning with all the weight numbers and recommendations, you can pull out your handy owners manual and see what grade oil (15W-40, 10W-30, 5W-40, etc., ......) they recommend for your climate.

For example, my VW manual says that 15W-40 is fine from about 5F and up. It also states that

"...... brief variations in outside temperatures are no cause for alarm."

I consider the couple rare nights we get in CT that go below 5F as 'brief.'

Originally posted by mickey:
The new CI-4 rated Delvac 1 is substantially thicker when cold, and substantially thinner when hot, compared to the old stuff. I do NOT recommend it for cold weather anymore. (The change in viscosity is bizarre...and I still maintain that it cannot possibly be the same base stock. That stuff has Group III in it, or I'm a liberal.)

I use Amsoil Series 3000. I'd highly recommend it in ANY climate, with the possible exception of winter at the South Pole research station. I'm talking about Death Valley, or Fairbanks. Or any climate in-between. Winter or summer.

-mickey

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">has this viscosity change in Delvac1 documented or is it a Amsoil ad.......

personaly I find it hard to believe Mobil would alter the viscosity as stated..

With respect to reformulation by Mobil of it's Delvac 1, I asked TooSlick about it:

Originally posted by TooSlick:
Spoilsport,

ExxonMobil is one of the largest producers of PAO basestocks in the world (35% market share). In fact they have been Amsoils' main supplier of PAO's for the past 25 years. (This is why this whole Amsoil vs Delvac 1 stuff is so stupid, by the way). No company has more to lose if Group III basestocks are accepted as being equal to PAO's. One reason they sued Castrol is that the lost quite a bit of business when Castrol started buying Group III basestocks from Royal Dutch Shell.

Delvac 1 has been reformulated to work better in EGR equipped, HD diesel engines. Every oil formulation is a compromise to some degree and I suspect Mobil was trying to improve the high temp stability of Delvac 1 to work better in these next generation, EGR equipped engines. So they may be using a heavier (higher molecular weight) PAO basestock blend and are willing to give up a bit in terms of cold temp flow. When Mobil 1 was re-formulated using the "supersyn" PAO, the low temp properties changed a bit as well. However, I believe the overall performance of the Supersyn is at least as good as the old "tri-synthetic" formulation.

I spend a fair amount of time in Houston (at Johnson Space Center) ...given the climate there, I don't think that a change in the pour point from -65F to -49F is going to affect you at all.

If you want to check, just look at the Material Data Safety Sheet (MSDS). If the main ingredient is "1-Decene", it's a PAO. If the main ingredient is "Slack Wax", then it is a Group III basestock.

TooSlick

www.lubedealer.com/Dixie_Synthetics

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

has this viscosity change in Delvac1 documented or is it a Amsoil ad.......

personaly I find it hard to believe Mobil would alter the viscosity as stated.. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hate to pop your bubble, but it's Mobil's own data. The new Devac 1 has a substantially higher pour point, and is substantially thinner when hot. (Narrowing the gap between D1 and Series 3000 to a point that the argument is truly absurd.)

It's been posted, several times. I'm not going to continue to re-post it. It's getting old.

-mickey

Gentlemen,
CT winters have been rather mild lately, but I've not had any difficulty even on the coldest days. Have been using 15-40 Rotella T or Delvac 1300 (preferred), changing every 6000 miles. It was only when I put some Amsoil synthetic that I was burning about a cup of oil every 1000 miles. With the Delvac I can go 4000 miles before I need to add any oil. Could this be because my car is an older generation of TDI?? 97 Passat 76,000 miles.
Hey, whose oil filters are you using?? OEM vs Bosch vs ? Now here's an issue. Fram's seem to be of inferior construction.

Originally posted by TooSlick:
Spoilsport,

I spend a fair amount of time in Houston (at Johnson Space Center) ...given the climate there, I don't think that a change in the pour point from -65F to -49F is going to affect you at all.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">
my take on this is that the pour point has changed from -65°F to -49°F

-10°F should not be that big a change I guess.

[ September 02, 2002, 16:31: Message edited by: Frank M ]

All I can get locally, besides going to the VW Dealer, as far as oil filters are concerned are STP brand at Autozone. I have no complaints...

Originally posted by WOOCHOW:
Boundless, you hamster eating, Macintosh using, paper air filtered SOB. I am sorry to report that the Freightliner dealer in East Hartford no longer sells the Delvac-1. A guy at work recently picked up a new TDi and I sent him there for oil. No luck. To my knowledge Powers in Waterbury is the only source for Delvac in Connecticut other than a Mobil station somewhere in the Danbury area that member JEFFT mentioned about a year ago-but they were real expensive.
I was glad to meet you at Bawlsey's GTG
yesterday, my friend. Remember when I said I'd have to trash you in public? Notice any change in your car after the timing reset?

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">NOT TRUE! (at least the part about Delvac 1 and Freightliner )

I spoke with Freightliner today. See my post about the confusion and the deal!

MCA

You calling me a liar? If so, I'm sending Boundless over to your place with his crow bar to help you install that new suspension! That's great news, it will be easy to replenish my supply locally, let's see, I'm down to 22 gallons, that's good for about 220,000 miles, I drive about 600 miles a week........hmm.

JS from CT,

I'm curious if you flushed out the engine before installing Amsoil for the first time and which of their oils you used? The first time you use Amsoil in a high mileage engine that has been run on a petroleum oil, the esters in the base oil will clean out any pre-existing sludge/varnish/carbon deposits. When this happens the oil can get very contaminated within several thousand miles and oil consumption goes way up. The solution to this is to do 1-2 extra oil filter changes until these deposits are removed. Once the engine is clean your oil consumption will go down.

TooSlick

www.lubedealer.com/Dixie_Synthetics