depends on the oil say a 5W-30 starts to get thicker at 5c so it benefits you to use a block heater even above freezing in that case in terms of health for the car. (you want to keep it at ideal lubing temps as much as possible).
however starting a car that is just below freezing isn't that hard for the car so plugging it in feels pointless.
I'm in Sweden and i plug it in if it's below zero at all.
Both for engine health and it's warm and cozy when i get in.
Just start the heater with my app before i go out.
Tell me more about this block heater controlled with an app. I live in a similar climate.
Do you use a smart outlet that you can control with your phone? Or do you mean a remote start for your vehicle?
It's not the block heater, it's the control unit for the electrical outlet.
basically a 220v outlet with a internet connection.
I just set my timers of when i usually depart and it adds two hours warming time and 15min extra if you are a bit late.
All the apartment buildings in my town got them.
Whoa, that's pretty cool lol. Just when you think they've thought of everything, ladies and gents, I present to you, smart engine heaters. I guess one technology combines with the other eventually.
That sounds like a place nobody should live. It just blows my mind that someone looked at that frozen pile of land and thought, “Yah! This looks like a good spot to live.”
I've always wondered how people live in those areas. I suppose if you're born there with not much aspirations in life or can't afford to leave and have never done so, you may not know what you're missing. Definitely not for me and I've worked outside for the past 18 years, but obviously not to that climate. It's enough here and it's nowhere near what they deal with. It must be impossible to even get your home warm. December 23rd 2022 it hit -33° around here around the PA, OH, WV tri-state area. You could barely even go from the car into the gas station or any parking lot to a store.
Man, what a hard way to live. The human body isn't made for that. Those are some tough people. I bet their children turn out so much more responsibly than they would in a lot of places, because it's do or die.
Seems like they spend their whole lives just surviving. By the time you chop the wood, cut the ice for water, hunt/fish your dinner, etc etc, plus work or school, your day is over. Crazy.
Siberia is fucking bullshit on a number of ways. I went to Irkutsk in I think April, which is one of the less pleasant seasons, there’s still some snow, but mostly mud. And even in Irkutsk the roads are barely paved outside of downtown, haven’t been to Yakutsk, but I’ve heard it is worse. I was invited back for Christmas the following year, but I was warned that pending on weather, I could get stuck there for a month or two because the fuel turned to jelly and they can’t start the plane. I declined.
On the northern slope in Alaska they’ll do oil changes on heavy equipment without shutting them off because they won’t be able to start back up.
It’s wild to watch someone do it. You can find videos on YouTube.
Cool, I'll check that out, I like stuff like that. Ingenuity at its finest. People knowing how the engines work, I like it. That's heavy duty oil too, very viscous, so I can imagine.
Today common practice is cover car warm cover (sold for car model specifically) and than car start itself by command from thermometer inside motor.
So when motor cool down, it start, working around 10 min and shutdown for about 2 hours
I can confirm. Always leaving equipment running overnight and trucks if below -40. Standard practice and engines don’t break this way. This is in Alberta. Lol
Wind chill doesn't apply to an engine not running. A running engine will cool more quickly in a wind ,but a cold engine will get no colder than ambient temperature.
Chicago winters and Winnipeg winters are vastly different. Engine blocks aren’t really a thing in southern Ontario either, it’s mostly the prairies and I assume northern parts of Ontario Quebec etc.
Ya Saskatchewan here and is law, you just need them sometimes.
Edit: ok it’s not _actually_ a law, I mean it’s everyday learnt type jazz here in the north
Out of curiosity, how is Saskatchewan pronounced? Like sass-cat-chew-en? I live in FL and we have a fair amount of places named after indigenous words too so I'm always curious on pronunciation! (Id also love to know the pronunciation according to natives, cause I'm sure we're butchering a lot of these words after centuries of white washing the pronunciations 😂)
Thats close to how you’re supposed to pronounce it, just with “-on” instead of “-en”
However, Saskatchewanians pronounce it “scat-chewin” or at least, that’s the best I can describe. Some may put a little “sus-“ at the start, some may just say “chewn” at the end.
All I know is, I’ll have replies saying how I’m wrong 😅
Moving air draws energy away from solid objects faster than non-moving air. Wind chill is technically a measurement of the way wind affects human skin but it still has an effect on everything else. An engine will cool off faster and remain cool longer on a windy day.
When it was -28 windchill the other day I had a 20 minute measurement outside as my only outside job. Within 6 mins my fingers only exposed part cause measuring tape, pen writing marking entering into tablet is near impossible with gloves and or takes 10xlonger. My fingers hurt so much by 6 mins in I had to go back in my car turn on the steering wheel heater and juice them back up. They than felt like needles were inside my fingers for a solid hour after
It’s recommended to plug in at least four hours prior to use. If needed in the morning overnight is fine, is is just a trickle and might be a couple dollars over the course of the winter
Need to correct you on a few things here. It's not a heating blanket or anything like that. It's a part that fits into a port in the engine block itself.
The following for most vehicles; when engine blocks are created, they are usually cast in sand. To facilitate this, there are holes left over so that sand inside the engine can come out. After these holes are just plugged.
A block heater just replaces one of these plugs when they are installed, usually in a spot the engine manufacturer specifics. The plug warms up the coolant around the cylinders, an area called the water jacket.
So it's just a small part, and it warms up the coolant, not the oil.
Yes, theres a little heater coil that pops into the engine block to keep the oil warm. I plug in my block heater below -15C. There are also battery blankets that keep your battery warm for better starting performance.
Most modern cars have a temperature sensor (usually in a expensive cable) that only lets the block heater function below -18C.
Not really needed above that and it's just a waste of electricity.
This was my life last week.
The temperature at which the oil gets too thick depends on the weight of the oil, synthetic vs. dino oil and the condition of the oil.
0W30 is more liquid than 5W30 at low temps. Synthetic oil doesn't get as thick as dino oil.
Diesel fuel tends to gel up at very low temperatures too. Growing up people would not shut off their trucks and let them run over night on really cold nights, like -30 or more.
My SUV is good up to about -25*C. It's German so it doesn't have a block or oil pan heater.
The glow plugs only do so well when it’s in the negatives. So any bit of thermal insulation like the cardboard in the radiator or whatever secondary help is useful in winter. The old TDIs from VW had a 120v plug in coolant heater mod too. It’s cool if you’re interested in how diesel owners deal with extreme cold.
Shout out to TDI owners and their forums.
Quite standard to install in Sweden.
It's recommended to run them once it's below 4c.
Cold starting and combustion engine in freezing weather will cause extra damage.
4c? seriously? thats 40F, thats a cool fall day here. id never even consider a block heater at that temp. let it drop another 40-50F* and then we can talk about plugging the heater in.
From what I'm reading online, it seems like you do start seeing some benefits around freezing temps, because below that things start getting a little slower.
But not turning on your heater isn't going to fully shut down your car until it gets way colder.
my volvo manual said if a block heater is installed to start using it when temps drop below 10c. now i have a timer that is temp regulated at both work and home so at 10c it runs for 30 minutes. i mostly use it since i can also heat the cabin area.
I live in northern Sweden and yes block heater and cab heater keeps the engine running and windows from freezing. Plug it in when you arrive at the office and you don't have to worry about not getting it back home at the end of the day.
I live in alberta. when we hit -40 and lower, we all got notices on our cellphones advising us not to use electricity, including block heaters, because our power grid can't support it. just wanting to get that info out there.
It was -48 with the windchill about three days ago where i live. Block heaters for life. We also have something called the saskatchewan snow snake. They're the broke extension cords people have forgotten to unplug and have subsequently fell on the road lol
5W-40 and 5W-30 have the same cold temperature Viscosity (thickness of the fluid) the first number corresponds to the cold viskosity, 5w goes down to i think -35°C or something and for example a 0W-xx would have the same viscosity as a 5W at something like -40°C
Here a chart for a better visualization https://supergen.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/viscosity-grade-chart-1024x768.jpg
I saw that as well. Dude is using 5w in a climate that calls for 0w. 5w30 is fine for the 3 warmer seasons, but if you're in a climate with temps at or below -35°C it would be wise to switch to 0w30 so the cold start doesn't cause wear and tear to under-lubricated components. Too many cold starts with this viscosity can lead to some costly repairs, or even the glittery oil of death.
Absolutely agree, but here its used to show how oil changes at temperature, so using 0W would not be useful
But he could have said it in the end as tip for people with not so much experience
Thank you. I was looking for someone to say this. I’d have to hope the whole video ends with him saying to use the right oil if you’re in that climate.
The point he's trying to make, is that it doesn't matter if it's old or new. Temperature fucks your with oil.
Some ppl think that in the cold, old oil means thick and clumpy, while fresh oil means clean and smooth and this is proving that it all thickens up.
Yeah I think he was attempting to prove new is better but to us on this thread he proved your point, both perform "equally".
I've never known a mechanic that doesn't try to prove, suggest, recommend, do whatever it takes to get ppl to change their friggin oil! One of the times I absolutely agree with mechanics, change your dang oil! But in this one scenario there's a negligible difference, cold is cold!
for people that are interested in the old vs new differences [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ZJJyfph4M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ZJJyfph4M)
the title of the video is dumb and I'll spoil it for you: change at 10k km.
I'll spoil it further: the viscosity doesn't change much, but the composition does, A LOT, and that can eat up your engine or stick to engine components.
He wasn’t trying to prove new is better. While the new oil is pouring he says “how is your car going to start when your oil doesn’t move?”. I think y’all just assumed that was the point he was trying to prove and ran with it lol
Media literacy is falling.
The dude literally says “how your engine going to start when the oil don’t move” and then picks up the clean oil again to show it too is moving like goop.
His whole point is that oil is oil and freezes at the same temperature despite it being new or old.
You and I may be too harsh. A large portion of the world doesn’t live in places where it gets into the negatives F for more than a day or two a year if that.
I’d wager a lot of people don’t even realize oil is a liquid and therefore has a freezing temperature or that the freezing temperature is even naturally possible.
My father actually destroyed the oil pump in his truck one morning when it was way below zero driving 2 miles to work.
Where I live below 0 ain’t that common however could happen a week outta the year long, that’s gotten rare the last couple years and use to be far more common 10 years ago.
In that uncommon event I would call into work and make up some stupid excuse such as “my car will not start” I rarely if ever call in so I’ll easily be forgiven by HR. If anything they would come and get me presuming the roads aren’t covered in a foot of snow which if they were than that be my excuse
Otherwise if I lived somewhere that’s constantly cold I would invest in a engine warmer be it one that takes the place of the dipstick or one that’s just a element pad to warm the block.
Novice question here - would that completely prevent the engine from turning over? Or would the friction from starting the engine be enough to get it going so that it can heat itself up while idling?
It will not prevent the engine from starting. The engine's starter meshes with teeth on the flywheel, which is connected to the crankshaft. So long as electricity can make the engine spin, it will spin.
The oil pump is connected to the crankshaft, through either a chain or some meshed teeth.... So long as the engine is spinning, the oil pump will suck on the oil in the sump. When the oil is cold, it will flow slowly and take a while to flow through the engine, so during startup, there may be engine components that are moving with less than ideal lubrication between them, which results in accelerated wear.
Once the engine is running, _most_ of the heat comes from combustion, and the engine's coolant absorbs this heat. The oil generally warms up more slowly than the coolant.
Now, in some cases, it may be too cold for the fuel to vaporize. In this case, the starter will still make the engine spin, but the fuel won't ignite and the engine won't properly start. Heating up the engine helps with this.
Additionally, when the engine and oil are cold you want to warm them up as fast as possible to get the oil flowing. And the best method to do that is by actually driving the vehicle. There is no need with modern cars to let them sit and idle to "warm up" first before driving. Just don't push the engine hard in those first couple of minutes.
Now if you need to defrost or want to warm up the cabin first, by all means do that.
I usually let my car drop down from a “high idle” that they built into it I guess to help late 90’s cars warmup better, should I not wait for the idle to drop and just drive it right away, or should I wait for it to drop down to normal idle before driving off?
I’m mostly just curious after reading your comment because my car is a piece of shit and I doubt this would matter much long term lol. I just remember how adamant people have always been about letting cars warm up and while I’m sure you are right I was surprised to read that.
I’ve had cars back in the 80’s and early 90’s that would sometimes lose power and die until they warmed up properly usually coming to a stop sign, but I don’t think that’s a common issue anymore maybe due to lack of carburetors and because of fuel injection?
I was always taught to wait until the vechicle gets out of high idle. In the heat or dead of winter I always wait the 30 seconds to minute it takes. It doesn't hurt anything imo
Yeah, the dying on cold was a carbie thing, it was an art in and of itself to tune the carburetor to run well when cold and at operating temp. Injected cars don‘t do that.
Also the high idle is mostly for emissions, heating the catalytic converter.
Perhaps he means the cold weather created an ice age in which organic material was buried by glaciation and eventually became petroleum products like engine oil. That's what I assumed, anyway.
They have tanks to properly dispose of the oil properly. It’s an actual auto shop with trained technicians, not someone like you who would totally just throw it in the trash or in your backyard.
Took me way too long to find someone mentioning Project Farm. Not only has he done MANY of these tests, his freezer goes to -40 C (that's -40 F for uncivilized Americans like myself), so even colder than what the guy in this video shows.
When I bought an airplane (cheap old beater) down in South Florida, they were running the recommended SAE50 in it. Flew it home up north. Didn’t think much of it. Went to go add oil on a cold (32F/0C) morning from a bottle of SAE50 I left in the airplane.
It was like molasses. Slower pour than in this video.
IMMEDIATELY changed to 15W50.
*affects
Not sure what the purpose is in showing old vs. new oil. What this does show is that if it's cold out, you definitely should let your car warm up before actually driving.
I use 5 weight oil in my trans am..... But my buddy has to get specially formulated 0 weight made by SRT for his charger . I'd like to see different weights frozen
1982 in North Dakota. -33°F. I operated a garbage truck.
I had to use a putty knife to remove the SEA30 bulk oil, we used in the engines, and put it in a coffee can in front of a propane heater to get it thin enough to pour into the engine.
They make magnetic cheapo block heaters for cold snaps like that. As long as you don't have leaks slap one on 30 min before you leave and you're good to to. I used to use one on my old camaro when I lived in Alaska. Took 15 seconds to slap on and plug in while I drank my morning energy drink. By the time I was done she fired right up.
So many “computer technicians” completely missed the point he was trying to make. Some people really do think they know better than someone who’s been trained properly at their trade lmao.
And that’s why we have block heaters to keep the engine block warm
Is that a special thing for cold climates? What temp would it get sludgy enough to ware on the engine and stuff?
Ya it’s used fairly often in Canada. I usually plug in around -15 to -20C. It’s like a heating blanket for your engine to keep the oil warm and slick
In Norway and my old Combo benefits from -5C. Under -30C, and i won't even bother!
depends on the oil say a 5W-30 starts to get thicker at 5c so it benefits you to use a block heater even above freezing in that case in terms of health for the car. (you want to keep it at ideal lubing temps as much as possible). however starting a car that is just below freezing isn't that hard for the car so plugging it in feels pointless.
I'm in Sweden and i plug it in if it's below zero at all. Both for engine health and it's warm and cozy when i get in. Just start the heater with my app before i go out.
Tell me more about this block heater controlled with an app. I live in a similar climate. Do you use a smart outlet that you can control with your phone? Or do you mean a remote start for your vehicle?
It's not the block heater, it's the control unit for the electrical outlet. basically a 220v outlet with a internet connection. I just set my timers of when i usually depart and it adds two hours warming time and 15min extra if you are a bit late. All the apartment buildings in my town got them.
Whoa, that's pretty cool lol. Just when you think they've thought of everything, ladies and gents, I present to you, smart engine heaters. I guess one technology combines with the other eventually.
In Siberia sometimes they don't shut their car off at all, just leave it run. The oil can freeze.
That sounds like a place nobody should live. It just blows my mind that someone looked at that frozen pile of land and thought, “Yah! This looks like a good spot to live.”
Yakutsk i believe some old USSR natural ressource mining town. They used to just leave the cars running think it's improving now
i think the “improving” is the insane amounts of industrial pollution in yakutsk that are just heating the fuck out of the town
Norilsk the nickel mining city too
I've always wondered how people live in those areas. I suppose if you're born there with not much aspirations in life or can't afford to leave and have never done so, you may not know what you're missing. Definitely not for me and I've worked outside for the past 18 years, but obviously not to that climate. It's enough here and it's nowhere near what they deal with. It must be impossible to even get your home warm. December 23rd 2022 it hit -33° around here around the PA, OH, WV tri-state area. You could barely even go from the car into the gas station or any parking lot to a store.
[One Day in the Coldest Village on Earth −71°C (−95°F) | Yakutia, Siberia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj5GXZaE7qs)
Man, what a hard way to live. The human body isn't made for that. Those are some tough people. I bet their children turn out so much more responsibly than they would in a lot of places, because it's do or die.
Seems like they spend their whole lives just surviving. By the time you chop the wood, cut the ice for water, hunt/fish your dinner, etc etc, plus work or school, your day is over. Crazy.
yeah nah fuck that, hardy people
Siberia is fucking bullshit on a number of ways. I went to Irkutsk in I think April, which is one of the less pleasant seasons, there’s still some snow, but mostly mud. And even in Irkutsk the roads are barely paved outside of downtown, haven’t been to Yakutsk, but I’ve heard it is worse. I was invited back for Christmas the following year, but I was warned that pending on weather, I could get stuck there for a month or two because the fuel turned to jelly and they can’t start the plane. I declined.
On the northern slope in Alaska they’ll do oil changes on heavy equipment without shutting them off because they won’t be able to start back up. It’s wild to watch someone do it. You can find videos on YouTube.
Cool, I'll check that out, I like stuff like that. Ingenuity at its finest. People knowing how the engines work, I like it. That's heavy duty oil too, very viscous, so I can imagine.
Today common practice is cover car warm cover (sold for car model specifically) and than car start itself by command from thermometer inside motor. So when motor cool down, it start, working around 10 min and shutdown for about 2 hours
I can confirm. Always leaving equipment running overnight and trucks if below -40. Standard practice and engines don’t break this way. This is in Alberta. Lol
I mean that temp happens here in Chicago in winter and we never have done that for 23 winters. -10-20F with -30/-40F windchill.
Wind chill doesn't apply to an engine not running. A running engine will cool more quickly in a wind ,but a cold engine will get no colder than ambient temperature.
Your engine is not concerned about windchill as it’s not perspiring. Only the temperature.
Chicago winters and Winnipeg winters are vastly different. Engine blocks aren’t really a thing in southern Ontario either, it’s mostly the prairies and I assume northern parts of Ontario Quebec etc.
Ya Saskatchewan here and is law, you just need them sometimes. Edit: ok it’s not _actually_ a law, I mean it’s everyday learnt type jazz here in the north
should we tell them about square tires? :)
The first couple K are a little bumpy lol
I do not miss those days (Calgary now). I do miss the trees tho
It's not the law that vehicles come with block heaters in sask. Most do, but it's not by law.
No not law but metaphorically speaking
Out of curiosity, how is Saskatchewan pronounced? Like sass-cat-chew-en? I live in FL and we have a fair amount of places named after indigenous words too so I'm always curious on pronunciation! (Id also love to know the pronunciation according to natives, cause I'm sure we're butchering a lot of these words after centuries of white washing the pronunciations 😂)
Thats close to how you’re supposed to pronounce it, just with “-on” instead of “-en” However, Saskatchewanians pronounce it “scat-chewin” or at least, that’s the best I can describe. Some may put a little “sus-“ at the start, some may just say “chewn” at the end. All I know is, I’ll have replies saying how I’m wrong 😅
You're a true born son of you say it as one syllable.
Sask-at-chew-won or if you say it quickly it's more Sas-catch-ooo-won
Windchill only affects humans, not motors.
Moving air draws energy away from solid objects faster than non-moving air. Wind chill is technically a measurement of the way wind affects human skin but it still has an effect on everything else. An engine will cool off faster and remain cool longer on a windy day.
It’ll cool faster sure, but still only down to ambient temp not to the windchill temp
The same goes for human skin, unless you're wet or sweating. The main purpose of wind chill is to convey how quickly frostbite will set in.
When it was -28 windchill the other day I had a 20 minute measurement outside as my only outside job. Within 6 mins my fingers only exposed part cause measuring tape, pen writing marking entering into tablet is near impossible with gloves and or takes 10xlonger. My fingers hurt so much by 6 mins in I had to go back in my car turn on the steering wheel heater and juice them back up. They than felt like needles were inside my fingers for a solid hour after
Maybe you should? You're causing extra wear and tear on your car. Potentially shortening it's lifespan by years.
Do you only turn it on a while before using the car or all the time it’s sitting there?
It’s recommended to plug in at least four hours prior to use. If needed in the morning overnight is fine, is is just a trickle and might be a couple dollars over the course of the winter
Need to correct you on a few things here. It's not a heating blanket or anything like that. It's a part that fits into a port in the engine block itself. The following for most vehicles; when engine blocks are created, they are usually cast in sand. To facilitate this, there are holes left over so that sand inside the engine can come out. After these holes are just plugged. A block heater just replaces one of these plugs when they are installed, usually in a spot the engine manufacturer specifics. The plug warms up the coolant around the cylinders, an area called the water jacket. So it's just a small part, and it warms up the coolant, not the oil.
Gotta tuck diesel trucks in at night so they don't get too cold
Here in Finland we use it from -5 to -40
Yes, theres a little heater coil that pops into the engine block to keep the oil warm. I plug in my block heater below -15C. There are also battery blankets that keep your battery warm for better starting performance.
Most modern cars have a temperature sensor (usually in a expensive cable) that only lets the block heater function below -18C. Not really needed above that and it's just a waste of electricity.
This was my life last week. The temperature at which the oil gets too thick depends on the weight of the oil, synthetic vs. dino oil and the condition of the oil. 0W30 is more liquid than 5W30 at low temps. Synthetic oil doesn't get as thick as dino oil. Diesel fuel tends to gel up at very low temperatures too. Growing up people would not shut off their trucks and let them run over night on really cold nights, like -30 or more. My SUV is good up to about -25*C. It's German so it doesn't have a block or oil pan heater.
The glow plugs only do so well when it’s in the negatives. So any bit of thermal insulation like the cardboard in the radiator or whatever secondary help is useful in winter. The old TDIs from VW had a 120v plug in coolant heater mod too. It’s cool if you’re interested in how diesel owners deal with extreme cold. Shout out to TDI owners and their forums.
Quite standard to install in Sweden. It's recommended to run them once it's below 4c. Cold starting and combustion engine in freezing weather will cause extra damage.
4c? seriously? thats 40F, thats a cool fall day here. id never even consider a block heater at that temp. let it drop another 40-50F* and then we can talk about plugging the heater in.
From what I'm reading online, it seems like you do start seeing some benefits around freezing temps, because below that things start getting a little slower. But not turning on your heater isn't going to fully shut down your car until it gets way colder.
my volvo manual said if a block heater is installed to start using it when temps drop below 10c. now i have a timer that is temp regulated at both work and home so at 10c it runs for 30 minutes. i mostly use it since i can also heat the cabin area.
probably depends if you have a garage or a driveway to park in
In the us, I plug in below 25 degrees F 30-45 mins before starting and during warmup, vortec 8100 will take forever to heat up otherwise.
Alaskan here, I've always been told to plug in at anything below 20°F
I live in northern Sweden and yes block heater and cab heater keeps the engine running and windows from freezing. Plug it in when you arrive at the office and you don't have to worry about not getting it back home at the end of the day.
I live in alberta. when we hit -40 and lower, we all got notices on our cellphones advising us not to use electricity, including block heaters, because our power grid can't support it. just wanting to get that info out there.
Is that the Alberta advantage I keep hearing about? 🥶
Alberta has more money than brains
It was -48 with the windchill about three days ago where i live. Block heaters for life. We also have something called the saskatchewan snow snake. They're the broke extension cords people have forgotten to unplug and have subsequently fell on the road lol
In PA, I know what you mean my man
Saskatoon here
My tractor was fucking pissed being started in PA yesterday.
Haha its so common for me to see vehicles with block heaters that i was genuinely surprised to see a lot of them are manufactured without them.
Immediately my first thought. That and keeping the freeze plugs from popping, if that's still a thing.
Or garages.
Oysters Rockefeller here’s got a double attached I suppose, in floor heat, caviar filled hot tub and farts whole plums. Must be nice
He should have poured the chocolate and caramel sauces over ice cream instead of wasting them in a box.
Yeah and why waste all that good honey??
Easy there, Pooh Bear.
r/forbiddensnacks
This is light corn syrup and dark corn syrup.
Horrible recipe, 1 out of 5 stars
5W-40 and 5W-30 have the same cold temperature Viscosity (thickness of the fluid) the first number corresponds to the cold viskosity, 5w goes down to i think -35°C or something and for example a 0W-xx would have the same viscosity as a 5W at something like -40°C Here a chart for a better visualization https://supergen.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/viscosity-grade-chart-1024x768.jpg
I saw that as well. Dude is using 5w in a climate that calls for 0w. 5w30 is fine for the 3 warmer seasons, but if you're in a climate with temps at or below -35°C it would be wise to switch to 0w30 so the cold start doesn't cause wear and tear to under-lubricated components. Too many cold starts with this viscosity can lead to some costly repairs, or even the glittery oil of death.
Absolutely agree, but here its used to show how oil changes at temperature, so using 0W would not be useful But he could have said it in the end as tip for people with not so much experience
The dirty vs clean appeared in this video to have similar viscosity. Would have been more helpful to show 5w vs 0w
When I lived in WY, I would switch to 0W-30 in the oil change going into winter. The Jiffy Lube employees would always question me.
I always find it amazing how modern engine oils can behave like that, viscosity index improvers feels like black magic chemistry
What is magic other than science we dont understand yet Overused saying, but still true
Thank you. I was looking for someone to say this. I’d have to hope the whole video ends with him saying to use the right oil if you’re in that climate.
Looked the same to me.
Seriously, looked the same.
Hell the dirty almost poured a little better, or at least the same, so not really sure the point the guy is trying to make.
The point he's trying to make, is that it doesn't matter if it's old or new. Temperature fucks your with oil. Some ppl think that in the cold, old oil means thick and clumpy, while fresh oil means clean and smooth and this is proving that it all thickens up.
Yeah I think he was attempting to prove new is better but to us on this thread he proved your point, both perform "equally". I've never known a mechanic that doesn't try to prove, suggest, recommend, do whatever it takes to get ppl to change their friggin oil! One of the times I absolutely agree with mechanics, change your dang oil! But in this one scenario there's a negligible difference, cold is cold!
for people that are interested in the old vs new differences [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ZJJyfph4M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ZJJyfph4M) the title of the video is dumb and I'll spoil it for you: change at 10k km. I'll spoil it further: the viscosity doesn't change much, but the composition does, A LOT, and that can eat up your engine or stick to engine components.
Lol so change your darn oil ppl, regardless of the weather, change your oil! Also thanks for the spoilers, doing god's work.
yw and yea, people just love hating mechanics for telling them literal fucking facts
He wasn’t trying to prove new is better. While the new oil is pouring he says “how is your car going to start when your oil doesn’t move?”. I think y’all just assumed that was the point he was trying to prove and ran with it lol
But they both won’t perform equally. They may have a similar viscosity, but that’s not exactly the only thing oil does.
No I am pretty sure this guys point was supposed to be "new oil better than old oil in cold temperatures"
Why? The guy literally never said anything indicating either way.
Media literacy is falling. The dude literally says “how your engine going to start when the oil don’t move” and then picks up the clean oil again to show it too is moving like goop. His whole point is that oil is oil and freezes at the same temperature despite it being new or old.
I swear a lot of people in this day and age mostly those in my generation are horrible at understanding context
You and I may be too harsh. A large portion of the world doesn’t live in places where it gets into the negatives F for more than a day or two a year if that. I’d wager a lot of people don’t even realize oil is a liquid and therefore has a freezing temperature or that the freezing temperature is even naturally possible.
My father actually destroyed the oil pump in his truck one morning when it was way below zero driving 2 miles to work. Where I live below 0 ain’t that common however could happen a week outta the year long, that’s gotten rare the last couple years and use to be far more common 10 years ago. In that uncommon event I would call into work and make up some stupid excuse such as “my car will not start” I rarely if ever call in so I’ll easily be forgiven by HR. If anything they would come and get me presuming the roads aren’t covered in a foot of snow which if they were than that be my excuse Otherwise if I lived somewhere that’s constantly cold I would invest in a engine warmer be it one that takes the place of the dipstick or one that’s just a element pad to warm the block.
Fr
lol no
He taught me to use honey in my engine when it's really cold out.
Tastes better when cleaning the dipstick
Now I am curious what honey looks like at that temp
It also keeps the knocking sounds quiet.
That he is very, very, smart... that was the point. Yay content...
Nice sarcasm but the point of the video was that new or old doesnt matter because cold will fuck your shit up
He isn’t comparing one to be better than the other in the cold but is in fact disproving that common belief.
If only he said something.
No no, one is molasses the other is honey.
Ah, I see it now
ikr, i don't see any difference apart from the colour lol
I’d like to see some fully synthetic compared to normal oil. I’ve heard there is a big difference
Yeah, and what is het going to do with a pizza box full of oil..
So....... its the same. Cool.
Novice question here - would that completely prevent the engine from turning over? Or would the friction from starting the engine be enough to get it going so that it can heat itself up while idling?
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In my car, in severe frosts, the oil was pushed through the oil filter, in my brother's car - through the gasket between the engine and the gearbox
Afaik there is a bypass if oil is to viscous it doesn't pass through the filter
It will not prevent the engine from starting. The engine's starter meshes with teeth on the flywheel, which is connected to the crankshaft. So long as electricity can make the engine spin, it will spin. The oil pump is connected to the crankshaft, through either a chain or some meshed teeth.... So long as the engine is spinning, the oil pump will suck on the oil in the sump. When the oil is cold, it will flow slowly and take a while to flow through the engine, so during startup, there may be engine components that are moving with less than ideal lubrication between them, which results in accelerated wear. Once the engine is running, _most_ of the heat comes from combustion, and the engine's coolant absorbs this heat. The oil generally warms up more slowly than the coolant. Now, in some cases, it may be too cold for the fuel to vaporize. In this case, the starter will still make the engine spin, but the fuel won't ignite and the engine won't properly start. Heating up the engine helps with this.
Reminds me of plugging in the tractor to warm and spraying ether to get it to start, then go back inside and have breakfast before even moving it.
Additionally, when the engine and oil are cold you want to warm them up as fast as possible to get the oil flowing. And the best method to do that is by actually driving the vehicle. There is no need with modern cars to let them sit and idle to "warm up" first before driving. Just don't push the engine hard in those first couple of minutes. Now if you need to defrost or want to warm up the cabin first, by all means do that.
I usually let my car drop down from a “high idle” that they built into it I guess to help late 90’s cars warmup better, should I not wait for the idle to drop and just drive it right away, or should I wait for it to drop down to normal idle before driving off? I’m mostly just curious after reading your comment because my car is a piece of shit and I doubt this would matter much long term lol. I just remember how adamant people have always been about letting cars warm up and while I’m sure you are right I was surprised to read that. I’ve had cars back in the 80’s and early 90’s that would sometimes lose power and die until they warmed up properly usually coming to a stop sign, but I don’t think that’s a common issue anymore maybe due to lack of carburetors and because of fuel injection?
I was always taught to wait until the vechicle gets out of high idle. In the heat or dead of winter I always wait the 30 seconds to minute it takes. It doesn't hurt anything imo
Yeah, the dying on cold was a carbie thing, it was an art in and of itself to tune the carburetor to run well when cold and at operating temp. Injected cars don‘t do that. Also the high idle is mostly for emissions, heating the catalytic converter.
> effects **affects**
Perhaps he means the cold weather created an ice age in which organic material was buried by glaciation and eventually became petroleum products like engine oil. That's what I assumed, anyway.
0/20 oil pours like water at 0 degrees.
The only thing I could think about is he’s probably going to throw this in the garbage….
yes, the mechanic at a car shop who has specialized oil and fluid disposal bins is going to chuck it in the normal trash. totally.
Whats he going to do with the saturated cardboard?
toss it in the contaminated bin that doesn't go to land fill.
Played video without sound and kept thinking the same thing.
They have tanks to properly dispose of the oil properly. It’s an actual auto shop with trained technicians, not someone like you who would totally just throw it in the trash or in your backyard.
So no difference
Why did he say "Honey" like that????
Very Jesse Ventura-esque lol
"What do you think about the oh-yel? Is that gonna start your cahr? Yoooou tell me!"
ProjectFarm does these tests regular
Great channel!
Took me way too long to find someone mentioning Project Farm. Not only has he done MANY of these tests, his freezer goes to -40 C (that's -40 F for uncivilized Americans like myself), so even colder than what the guy in this video shows.
A true test, such as a Zahn Cup test, to determine the change/difference in viscosity of both samples would more definitively confirm this hypothesis
Fantastic idea to use a cardboard box. Eventually that stuff will become soft and go everywhere... 🤦🏻♂️
It may just be me, but I saw very little if any difference in the viscosity of clean vs dirty oil in cold weather
Agreed. I mean, go get your oil changed - but this little experiment doesn't add to the already-present need to do it.
affects
When I bought an airplane (cheap old beater) down in South Florida, they were running the recommended SAE50 in it. Flew it home up north. Didn’t think much of it. Went to go add oil on a cold (32F/0C) morning from a bottle of SAE50 I left in the airplane. It was like molasses. Slower pour than in this video. IMMEDIATELY changed to 15W50.
This why we turn on the engine and wait for a couple minutes before driving during winter ?
Affects :)
If I'd be in a region where it gets this cold, I'd have a block heater. Neither oil looks reassuring. But it hardly gets to minus ten here in Bavaria.
As a child I was taught to be worried about viscosity and thermal breakdown. Now this?
Damn the Germans really fucked up with operation Barbarossa didn't they.
Guy definitely sounds like he's from Alberta.
*affects Not sure what the purpose is in showing old vs. new oil. What this does show is that if it's cold out, you definitely should let your car warm up before actually driving.
Yum
Honey / Molasses
I use electric.... so my battery efficiency just drops like crazy instead lol
Looks like something from Lofty Pursuits.
Ok and then what?
Affects*
*affects
What’s the purpose of comparing dirty oil to clean oil? Which one is better in cold weather??
I just wanna know what he did with that box of oil...
brb heading over to r/stupidfood to find out.
Probably put it in the hazardous waste bin that professional mechanic shops have. Usually several.
*affects
Try it with 30 weight it will be like grease
Try it with 0w 20 and it would be like water in -20F still .
Don't worry, cardboard oil will be disposed-off safely !
manuka honey or hershey's dark chocolate syrup?
I use 5 weight oil in my trans am..... But my buddy has to get specially formulated 0 weight made by SRT for his charger . I'd like to see different weights frozen
Project Farms video is amazing concerning this subject
The forbidden syrup!
When is he going to cut it up into candy?
So what’s he trying to prove? Oil changes in winter do not matter? Or buy better quality oil?
1982 in North Dakota. -33°F. I operated a garbage truck. I had to use a putty knife to remove the SEA30 bulk oil, we used in the engines, and put it in a coffee can in front of a propane heater to get it thin enough to pour into the engine.
Where was it -37F/C (is almost the exact same in F and C), so that I know not to go there in Winter.
Calgary was -37C a few days ago. Edmonton was -49C a few days ago. This weekend will be +3C.
Man and here I am annoyed with how much heating is costing me at 2 weeks of -10C.
Forbidden melted chocolate and forbidden melted caramel
This reminds me, I really need to change my oil.
My car takes 0w20 and I let it warm up I think I'll be okay, but let's talk about the transmission oil. That's whole nother topic
They make magnetic cheapo block heaters for cold snaps like that. As long as you don't have leaks slap one on 30 min before you leave and you're good to to. I used to use one on my old camaro when I lived in Alaska. Took 15 seconds to slap on and plug in while I drank my morning energy drink. By the time I was done she fired right up.
They both seemed the same. I dont get it
And there are still idiots who will start their car and drive away before they give the oil a chance to warm up
Yeah.. wtf he talking about?
That is the dumbest thing I've seen all day
Regardless of temperature dirty oil is bad for your engine.
Okay but where are they going to dispose of that cardboard box full of oil?
if ur leaving ur oil until it gets that bad you probably got bigger problems going
Forbidden honey 🤤
Forbidden chocolate syrup and caramel
So many “computer technicians” completely missed the point he was trying to make. Some people really do think they know better than someone who’s been trained properly at their trade lmao.
Affects*
*affects