Quote:
Originally Posted by wheelhaus
Ive been doing more research into it, and apparently a lot of people blame the HTHS rating, which is another method to rate viscosity at the most critical high temp areas, like bearings under load. I believe German Castrol has a 0w30 but it actually operates more like a 10w40 or something because it's HTHS is so much higher. The consensus seems to be higher is better, but it also means the oil is thicker, which means less efficiency and less power. The bigger consensus is for a daily driven car, use what's specified by the mfg, including HTHS ratings. Most synthetic 0w20s fall around 2.6-2.9 it would seem. If you're boosted or run at the track a lot, the constant high heat and high load would warrant a thicker oil with a higher HTHS rating, also an oil cooler. That may be a 5w20, 0w30, or even a 0w20 from another brand.
This would make sense why a lot of people on nasioc were blaming Mobil 1 (again I feel largely because it's so popular/common) and people are modding like crazy making the engine produce huge power with just an exhaust and flash to hit 300whp (nearly 400chp). Maybe 5w30 was a little thin to begin with, but you boost the power by 30% and of course you might have issues without addressing the oil.
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Winner, winner chicken dinner!
Yes, Mobil1 is the most popular synthetic oil in the world by sales. So many knucklehead WRX and STI owner's modify their cars, don't check their oil levels, get a bad tune, and BAM! "MoBILe 1 sUx cuZ mY EnJUn bLOWEd up usINg iT"! And some continue to use 5W-30 "because it's on the cap", even after modding their engines. Low HTHS GF5 5W30 oils are designed to shear for the best fuel economy.
But as uoa's here have shown, the factory recommended GF5 0W20 from any brand does well in a LOT of conditions (excluding modded cars or track conditions).