texas tea, black gold,bubblin'crude?

[scatcat]

hey , i know this question been posted before but , here it comes again. i'm taking my 72 westy 1.8 on a 7 hour drive down and 7 back . this engine has 3600 miles on it . so far i've run my tried and true castr*l 30 wt and i hear of people running 20/50 wt oil. this is summer time driving , some mountians and i'm not going on any superhyways. i'll stay in the 60 to 65 max. i'm going to the high country bus festval in N.C . my trip last month was 4 hours one way and my oil temps. stayed at 220 or less . has anybody had any noticable improvments with 20/50 wt ? this is the story about a man named jed. hey i couldn't help it, i have that song stuck in my head. ......later , jeff

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one sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.

[SuperBeetle71]

Just took my 1970 bus with a new everything engine and 500 miles on it to Yosemite. Its about a 500 mile round trip and getting there is a long slow chug from sea level to 8000 feet. I first had to drive across the central valley from San Francisco during a heat wave. Top heat reached was 103 way out in the middle of nowhere but at no point was the temp under 90 until I reached about 5000 feet elevation.
I have 20/50 oil in it and it was fine, never got too hot. I use 20/50 in my bug all the time and it is my favorite grade oil. Your best choices here I would think are the Castrol 35w heavy duty or the 20/50.

[scatcat]

thanks for the info,i'll try some 20/50 and see how it goes . when the weather turns a little colder would you stll run 20/50 ? it's hot here too and i try to stop and let my bus cool down if it needs to. i try not to lug the engine.........later jeff

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one sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.

[SuperBeetle71]

How cold are we talking about? You could always drop down to 10/40 during the colder months.

[scatcat]

i think maybe 40 to 35 degrees, i don't plan on driving my bus in freezing weather. what do you think the coolest 20/50wt oil would be good for? ..............jeff

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one sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.

[rich2481]

I should have never ever looked at this Damn Post #&*^@$*^@#**@# I cant get that song out of my head

[germansupplyscott]

scatcat,

the main thing controlling the oil temperature is the heat generated by the motor, and the cooling systems' ability to shed it, not the weight of the oil. the weight will affect oil pressure. under hotter conditions you increase the weight to hold pressure. with a new engine this is less of an issue, since your clearances should make pressure with almost any weight of oil. you should use the thinnest oil you can that will still hold your pressure.

that said, in my van i use 20w50 valvoline synthetic, and have done since my motor was broken in. i would not use straight weight oil under any conditions.

scott lyons

[scatcat]

got back from the high country bus festival last night .there were 139 buses at the campground, lots of fun ! looking at the last post i get the idea . i'm still using 30wt oil for a while .my oil temp guage got up to 250 a couple of times and i pulled over checked the dipstick , it wasn't so hot that i couldn't hold it . i let things cool anyway . i have all my tin and seals so mabye i'll look at other ways to keep things cool. any ideas ? ............jeff

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one sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.

[Pillow]

I like 20-50 or straight 30.

Actually from some stove top (gas burner) studies the 30 weight did the best out of everything up to 10-40, but I have not had a chance to test the 20-50 class of oil yet or the diesel oils.

FWIW I burned the crap out of everything except the straight 30... Even the Mobil1 sythetics! And this test only went up to 260F which is not an absurd number for the oil in the cylinder heads.

* do not try this when the wife is home because it stinks up the house... Next time I will use the burner on the grill outside

I just hear so much blah blah blah about oils I thought it would be interesting to do some at home research... Yah I am a little sick



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Adrian Pillow
'66 VW Westfalia - "Biscuit"
'67 VW Deluxe Westfakia - "Dino" - FS
'79 Porsche 911 SC - "Cochese" - FS