oil cooler or oil heater in the far north winter.

[madrogers]

I am putting together a caddy winter truck  1.6 n/a and was wondering what would be better , running a 5w-40 syn oil  or to install a oilcooler to heat a thicker oil like 10w- 40 or 15w40 or to use it with the 5w-40 syn. oil to help moderate the oil . the temps are from -15C to -35C. in the winter here.
Any thoughts or opinons??
Thanks Mark.

[Vincent Waldon]

My opinion: keep it simple and stock.  Run Castrol Syntec 5W50 (available at finer Canadian Tire stores everywhere  :wink: ) and your engine won't care if its -35 or +35.

Thin in the winter... thick in the summer... how does it know ??!!!  :roll:


BTW... is -35C the best you got ??!!!!   Move to Edmonton and experience a *real* winter... :lol:    Actually, it's been raining all weekend... oh joy.

[dieselweasel]

BTW... is -35C the best you got ??!!!!   Move to Edmonton and experience a *real* winter... :lol:    Actually, it's been raining all weekend... oh joy.

Ha!  It's minus 20 here tonight in south-central Ontario...the Jetta's definitely getting plugged in.  I know what you're saying though...when I was little we lived in Edmonton.  Was talking to my folks today about it actually.  They said it would stay at -40 for a week or two!  If you had all season tires on in that cold they would stiffen to the point that there would be flat spots in them until you drove for a while!  We rarely see even -30 here...-25 is very cold to us.

Anyway, yeah definitely go with synthetic for easier winter starts, less frequent oil changes, and longer engine life. I use Shell Rotella 5w-40, also available at Cdn Tire!  An oil cooler won't warm the oil when the coolant is cold anyway.

[burn_your_money]

Anyway, yeah definitely go with synthetic for easier winter starts, less frequent oil changes, and longer engine life. I use Shell Rotella 5w-40, also available at Cdn Tire!  An oil cooler won't warm the oil when the coolant is cold anyway.

The coolant warms up a lot faster then the oil does, so it helps to get the oil up to operating temperature so that the oil filter can start filtering it, amongst many other useful things when the oil "cooler" (heat exchanger) is used.

I always run rotella T SB 0W40 in the winter. I've started my car in -40 without it being plugged in. It wasn't happy about it, but it started.

I personally don't run the full 10k with synthetic, maybe 6 or 7k. There is a lot of soot accumulating in the oil so unless you have a oil bypass filter there are increased risks of damaging your motor as far as I'm concerned.

[madrogers]

I like the ideal of haveing warm/hot oil sooner.
Tyler do you have any advers effects of running 0w-40 oil with the cooler/heater that you can think of??  that temp of a thermostat are you running??

[the caveman]

That's what i want to see- an arguement from out west as to who is colder. Makes me feel warm cause it was only - 17  this morning. And just to chime in my 1.9 doesn't have synthetic yet and cranked okay, but i had to keep my foot on the throttle to keep it from dying, ran fine after 30 secs. Although i couldn't get it into 2nd gear once i got rolling.
I would think it would help engine wear if you can get the internal temps up asap, but my only concern is to get to start in the first place. I already had one customer cancel this morning cause he couldn't get beat up TDI going. We will check his compression when he can get it here.

[arb]

If your rings have seated (after a rebuild) I'd go with the full synthetic 5w50 and a mobil-1 M1-301 full synthetic filter for a 1978 diesel rabbit - it has about 3 times the filter area of the stock VW filter - it has 377 sq inches.  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_/ai_19951656

[vanbcguy]

That's what i want to see- an arguement from out west as to who is colder. Makes me feel warm cause it was only - 17  this morning. And just to chime in my 1.9 doesn't have synthetic yet and cranked okay, but i had to keep my foot on the throttle to keep it from dying, ran fine after 30 secs. Although i couldn't get it into 2nd gear once i got rolling.

Sure is cold over here... It was 8C yesterday and got down to almost 3C last night!    Haven't had any trouble cranking yet but did have one bad starting morning a week or two ago...

[the caveman]

That's what i want to see- an arguement from out west as to who is colder. Makes me feel warm cause it was only - 17  this morning. And just to chime in my 1.9 doesn't have synthetic yet and cranked okay, but i had to keep my foot on the throttle to keep it from dying, ran fine after 30 secs. Although i couldn't get it into 2nd gear once i got rolling.

Sure is cold over here... It was 8C yesterday and got down to almost 3C last night!    Haven't had any trouble cranking yet but did have one bad starting morning a week or two ago...

yeah,yeah. west coast,golfing at xmas,blah blah,flowers inn febuary,blah.
 I guess it can be nice, but i keep telling myself that the cold toughens me up. I don't even do any winter sports- other thanpushing and boosting cars and trucks. AARRRGGGG  look at me i'm a MAN !

[madrogers]

Just a comment on the weather. we have a "Dry Cold" here and over 2200 hrs of sunshine on average a year. I cannot coment on Montreal but I have been to coast of B.C. and have alway had more rain and cloud than sun. does the sun shine in that area in the winter?
PS> just giving the west coast a hard time  no offence intended.
Mark

[jackbombay]

That's what i want to see- an arguement from out west as to who is colder.

  I think its a touch colder int he east, but IMO it iteasier to start a car there because of the lower altitude, assuming that by west and cold you mean the rockies.

yeah,yeah. west coast,golfing at xmas,blah blah,flowers inn febuary,blah.
 I guess it can be nice, but i keep telling myself that the cold toughens me up. I don't even do any winter sports- other thanpushing and boosting cars and trucks. AARRRGGGG  look at me i'm a MAN !

  That had me laughing!

  South east idaho here, we bottom out at -30* F most winters for 2-3 weeks. Although we only hit -15 or so last winter.

[jackbombay]

Oh, I'd run 5/40 and use an oil heater too, and a block heater. I have my TDI set-up like that and use a "lamp timer" from the hardware store, its a heavy duty one and can take 1500 watts (I'm actually pulling 1300with the 2 heaters), I set it to come on ~2 hours before I am going to leave, the car fires RIGHT UP  :lol:

[burn_your_money]

I like the ideal of having warm/hot oil sooner.
Tyler do you have any adverse effects of running 0w-40 oil with the cooler/heater that you can think of??  that temp of a thermostat are you running??

People say it causes leaks but my car leaked just as much before as it did after. I have a gasser right now :oops: so I'm just running regular dino oil. I was advised to drop the pan after the first oil change with synthetic to check out the pickup screen. I did that after about 3 oil changes and everything was hunky dory.
I run the hottest thermostat I can. 92C I think??? It gives me less margin of error if it ever did overheat, but I speculate that the warmer engine temps keep my fuel economy up, and the moisture in my oil evaporating.
TDIs have glowplugs in the coolant, and the EGR may also be used to help heat the coolant up faster (I think), which in turn will get the oil temps up faster.
As long as your rad, rad fan and waterpump are working properly you shouldn't have any problems... other then the normal VW ones that is :lol:

[jackbombay]

and the EGR may also be used to help heat the coolant up faster (I think)

  Yep, the exhaust gas is cooled by the coolant before it goes into the engine.