I'm running a fully built h22 engine and I was curious whether or not 20w50(non-synthetic) is too thick to run in my engine. I found that 10w30 just burns away slowly. This car is just used for the track and pretty much nothing else. The engine is running 9 to 1 compression. My buddy told me it might destroy my bearings. That scares me a bit.

1. Will my bearings wear out running this oil?
2. Should I switch back to 10w30?

Thanks!

John

 

20w wont make a big difference with 10w @ 90degrees celcius

 

it depends on how your motor was built.. you should talk to your engine builder about it.

 

I'm basing this on a daily driver but I think 20W50 is good for the summer if you live where it gets hot (I do) but in the cooler months of the year it might be a little too thick.

I just did an oil change this weekend as thought to myself, its getting colder out, maybe I should have put thinner oil in there, but it is still getting into high 80's here in the daytime so next oil change will be to thinner oil for the winter.

Drag turbo install manual says to put 20W50 during turbo install.


Modified by mike1114 at 7:30 PM 10/16/2006

 

A thicker weight oil makes the oil pump work harder and does cost you a little power. If your bearing clearance is loose, you can get away with a thicker weight oil than if the clearance is tight. When it comes to oil, thicker does not always mean better.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by earl &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> thicker does not always mean better. </TD></TR></TABLE>

thats not what the ladies say

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by earl &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A thicker weight oil makes the oil pump work harder and does cost you a little power. If your bearing clearance is loose, you can get away with a thicker weight oil than if the clearance is tight. When it comes to oil, thicker does not always mean better. </TD></TR></TABLE>

So running thinner oil is better essentially? I'm just afraid of starving the engine of oil since it burns away driving the car hard. Guess I'll have a few quarts taking my car to the track. Thanks!

 

i think what earl is trying to say is that, you have to have the right oil matched to what bearing clearances you are running..

if you have really loose clearances.. ur goign to want to use a thicker oil..

if you have really tight clearances.. ur going to want to use a thinner oil..

me personally, built h22 block.. with in factory oem spec clearances... im going to run 10w-40.

 

Yea my clearances are tight. I'll run 10w40 on my car then. Thanks for the insight guys.

 

Oil is cheap. If you figure you burn 1qt every 2 weeks and a qt of oil is $3, you are talking about $78 in oil. So really in the end, I doubt you burn more than $200-250 of oil a year. Its really not that much money if you consider how much other stuff costs.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by earl &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A thicker weight oil makes the oil pump work harder and does cost you a little power. If your bearing clearance is loose, you can get away with a thicker weight oil than if the clearance is tight. When it comes to oil, thicker does not always mean better. </TD></TR></TABLE>
no you are right but thinner doesnt have to be better too.
the thing is the number before the w (10w-20w) is only important when the oil hasn't reached his normal working temperature jet. if you really need some thicker oil (high clearence) use some ..w50 instead of ..w40
if it burns the most oil during engine warm up then i'd sugest you'd try 20w instead of 10w this can sole your problem an it is a problem if you burn a lot of oil because you will get carbon built up.

 

I ran 0-w20 for a while. it didn't burn as much as 10-w30.
are you burning oil thru your rings or is your oil breaking its self down(smoke out of the valve cover oil cap)? are you running syntec.?
OOPS YOUR NOT. maybe you want to try syntec. mobile worked for me

 

i would stick with syntetic, much better than convetional.. people are likely to destroy their engine due to something else before oil. i switch from 5w40 during cold weather to mix of 5w40 and 15w50 during spring and 15w50 or 20w50 during summer..