Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

This.

The latter is also useful to check for impending headgasket doom (or cracks) before it is otherwise visible.




Here's the oil analysis from my most recent change: https://bbot.org/etc/oct2022change.png

The cold starts aren't great for driver comfort, but don't seem to have a big effect on engine internals.


The problem is that that cold oil is like sludge to pump around but your oil pump will try anyway. The result of that is insane oil pressure until the oil has warmed up enough to flow and that can cause all kinds of issue, from pump failure to cracks in lines. So it really isn't good but it will not show up in your oil analysis until something fails (and likely catastrophically) leaving your engine entirely without lubrication (you should get an immediate oil pressure alarm though when that happens, the sooner you can switch it off after that smaller the chance of damage).

On my car even with the 0W30 in it in winter the oil pressure starts almost at the top of the scale and as the oil warms up it drops, by the time it is warm enough at idle it sits at the lowest point on the scale + 1 unit. If I use the more sluggish summer oil for too long in winter I'll see it peg the needle on the oil pressure meter, and I have no idea how high it really is. So there is a substantial difference between the two, running temp is more or less the same when the engine is well and truly warmed up.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: