Engine oil hot climate

[SilasStingy]

Does any one have any idea of which type of engine oil I should use when driving down to The Gambia? It will get really hot!

Shall I go for a Part Synthetic or a pure mineral oil?

Ex. "Castrol Magnatec 15w-40" (part synthetic) or "Mobil Super 1000 X1 15w-40" (Mineral)?

 

[macabethiel]

Oil Cooler ??

Does any one have any idea of which type of engine oil I should use when driving down to The Gambia? It will get really hot!

Shall I go for a Part Synthetic or a pure mineral oil?

Ex. "Castrol Magnatec 15w-40" (part synthetic) or "Mobil Super 1000 X1 15w-40" (Mineral)?

Looking at the chart a 20W/50 looks best.

The normal running engine oil temperature is much higher than any outside air temperature only issue really is with oil in cold climates for starting.
I personally would use a fully synthetic.

Worthwhile options might include fitting an engine oil cooler if you are doing really long unbroken journeys.

Might be worth researching if Nissan fit oil coolers for Middle Eastern Exports it will need to be a big one if the normal ambient air temperature is over 30 deg C.

 

[briggie]

heat affects the viscosity ( sorry for big words :augie:lol ) , as far as im aware it effectively makes the oil thinner

 

[Jim Watson]

Hi
I work on combines and they run on 10/40 fully synthetic, the engines run full bore between 10 and 14 hours per day, through an oil cooler and no probs.
Hope this helps
Jim

 

[solarman216]

at the end of the day the viscosity index improver is the first to break down over only a few hundred miles, a more reliable oil for our engines is pure mineral oil rather than synthetics or semi synthetics, but they are becoming harder to source, Rick

 

[SilasStingy]

Unfortunately there is simply no time for me to fit an oil cooler so will have to live without it!
What I've heard about Mineral VS Synthetic is that the synthetic should be more stable for longer runs and the mineral is less prone to leak? I have very little experience here. All I know is that the engine is running great on the synthetic oil I have right now. 5w-40 it is. But we wont have -40ºC in Africa...
20w-50 synthetic seems like the way to go as Macabethiel suggested?

 

[SilasStingy]

Just talked with an "expert" who recommended 5w-50 fully synthetic. Apparently 20w-50 is hard to get in any other form than mineral oil. He said that the synthetic oil don't self evaporate as much as the mineral. Therefore better for longer runs if I understood him correctly..
The 5w-50 has the same viscosity as 20w-50 but also better winter properties.

I'm puzzled and just realized that I've wandered out into the deep oil jungle where there are no straight answers!

 

[Sweety]

Personally i'd go for 15w40 as it'll still be ok here in the UK

 

[macabethiel]

Synthetic oils and general evaporation issues !

When fully synthetic oil was being developed one of it's aims was to increase oil life between servicing so manufacturers could extend service intervals as a selling feature on a new vehicle and reduce running costs.

This led initially to service intervals being extended from 6,000 miles to 10,000 miles and now well beyond that. One of the many problems with this was that the synthetic oil became contaminated with the products from Sulphur in the petrol leading to the formation of corrosive by-products such as sulphuric acid. The solution was to add micronised chalk to neutralise the acid production and bond with the water molecules to prevent corrosion by acid formation.

As modern oils start to age some of the oil is lost due to burning off past the piston rings etc but the actual volume of oil does not always fall as much as expected due to the absorption of burn gas waste including emulsified water.
This gives the false impression you are not using oil as the dipstick level does not fall significantly. During the winter this is not a big issue but during hot summer days on long journeys this emulsified water is evaporated off leading to a quite substantial drop in oil levels over relatively short distances.

I have simplified the Oil Chemistry to illustrate why sometimes it seems to burn off quite quickly.

 

[solarman216]

That explains a lot, thank you Mac, but if I remember it it will be surprising, Rick