Chrysler: Winter oil for '94 2.5 in South Dakota

"Robert S. Fourney" <umd.edu> wrote
 

I don't know who says you can't use 5W30 above 32F but they're nuts. The
"30" relates to the hot-temperature viscosity and is the same for both oils.
Just switch over to the winter oil on your next oil change and you'll be
fine.

Here in Eastern Ontario where the coldest mornings are easily -30F I use
semi-synthetic for the really cold months, because it doesn't gel up as
much. Makes cold-weather staring a lot easier.

These rules are the same for your 2.5 as most other engines.

In article <ca>,
Dave Gower <ca> wrote: 

Chrysler?
 

I understand the theory, and that (in theory) both the 5W30 and the
10W30 are "30" when hot. I remember "back in the day" we wouldn't run
a multigrade in air-cooled engines because they broke down a lot quicker.
(e.g., the 10W30 was 30 when hot, but only for 700 miles (made up numbers),
then it was <30, etc). Also, back then, the larger the spread the worse
this problem was (e.g., 10W30 would stay 30 longer than 10W40 would stay
SAE 40). I know that this has gotten lots better since the 70s when we only
ran SAE 30 (or 40 or 50 depending on age and temp) in our aircooled 356s,
VW bugs, and motorcycles)

BUT it seems that, as of 1994, somebody at Chrysler was still of the
opinion that the 5W30 would break down too quickly in the 2.5 liter engine
to be of use about 32 F. That was almost 10 years ago, and the letters on
the oil cans keep getting further along the alphabet, so my question was
whether or not this was still valid (for the 94 era 2.5 liter engines)
 

Do you plug it in? Park outside? I'm expecting -20, not sure if
I'll see -30. Folks here have told me I shouldn't even need a block heater.
I had the head off in July, so don't need to change the coolant yet, and was
thinking I might try w/out a block heater (at least to start with) this
season. Thoughts?



Bob Fourney

Robert S. Fourney wrote: 


Well maintained, modern, fuel-injected engines do not "need" the block
heater plugged in down to about -30. The shot of fuel directly into the
combustion chamber or intake manifold will generally make it start if it
can turn over at all.

That said, they will all "benefit" from the use of a block heater. That
little bit of warmth in the block will allow the engine to turn over
more easily, it will allow the oil to flow more freely and it will pump
heat out the defroster a little earlier. If you set a timer so that it
turns on about 1.5 hours before you need it, it wont use too much
electricity.


Dan