hi,

i have read several articles on oil suitability on engines and im quite confused with the rigidness of the classification.
my kelisa is currently using 5w30 but im planning to try 5w20 for lesser friction, more power and better FC

i know technically saying 5w20 will expose the engine to faster wear but at what rate? what if i use race-grade 5w20 on daily rev engine? sounds to me it would protects better than low grade 5w30

my thoughts were perodua recommends 10w30 to accomodate users with standard quality perodua engine oil to safeguard their reputation on reliability and also legal issues, but if i have a much higher budget, logically race quality 5w20 oil should not breakdown at 1.0 engine heat right?

i mean myvi 1.3 engine is recommended to use 10w30, my brother honda 1.4 is also recommended to use 10w30 too and both these engines produce a lot more heat than mine under the same weather condition. i read in outside forums, cars like miata use 5w20 as recommended by mazda

so i think 1.0 engine and below like 660 and 850 kancil can use 5w20

thoughts please?

This post has been edited by upontheriversky: Oct 16 2011, 10:00 PM

u think so much for wat
the rating is to determine the oil holding strenght for specific tempreture la
can use but it will evaporate very fast la
but having said small displacement engine ir kcar can tolerate low viosious rating

no im just curious and trying to justify my decision on using 5w20, so i need supporting reasons ive read some oil threads here but they tend to get personal in the end, so i opened this discussion

how faster will it evaporates?
anyone knows the average engine temp of kcar size? if i know this then can probly refer to the oil spec

ive got 1 ok now, thanks

oh LOL.

anyways seriously, i personally think you should follow the rating that your engine/manual, i dont think risk of faster engine wear is something worthy of consideration.

on a related note, racing oils are meant for engines that are rebuilt before/after races so they dont need any cleaning agents to keep your engine clean and are totally focused on the performance factors of its lubricating properties

ive done some research to challenge the conventional thoughts on engine oil recommendation:

this is the used oil analysis done by owner of an acura comparing his mobil 1 5w30 to amsoil 5w20


although does not differ much but we can see here that amsoil syn 5w20 seems to protect better judging by lower amount of iron, aluminium, chromium (piston ring) and copper (bearing) considering it is a lower viscous oil.

surprisingly, from the chart, mobil 1 has much more molybdenum than amsoil but protection is about the same

this is another comparison i found on a forum, however it is done on different engines:


same pattern here, amsoil 5w20 offer better if not the same protection over mobil 1 5w30. even though this comparison was done on different engines, we can still conclude that it is possible to safely use lower viscous oil provided that it is a high quality one.

and most importantly, most of the cars where oil is being used and tested produce lot more heat than my car and it seems that it does not harm their engine since the wear level is acceptable. i even read from a forum that a 4.0L V6 is using 5w30 on daily ride and no one seems to object:)

i have also extracted the flash point of several quality 5w20 oil that i prefer and all of them have more than 200 degree celcius flash point, i dont think a daily stock/lightly modded car especially like mine can even go higher than 150 celcius even on hot days

so from these facts, i think if the engine does not have leaks, it is safe to use lower viscous oil than manufacturer recommendation and this only applies strictly on high quality oil.

lesser friction, more power, same or better mileage while still providing sufficient protection to engine

This post has been edited by upontheriversky: Oct 17 2011, 10:30 PM

ermmm.. though i support of using 0w-20 or 5w-20 but i still have skeptisicm on using it in small engine(below 2000cc).
the characteristic of this small engine is high revving while 4.0l v6 for daily drive i believe is low revving(1-3k rpm) because of the nature high torque it has.
though i still say go for it!!!

My friend use before in Honda CT. Seems it won't evaporate (disappear) if revs kept below 3to 4k rpm.
Highway runs then seems to consume some oil.
Another friend in his kelisa use 5w-30 2L mixed with 5w-20 1L......

i did that in myvi but was running Redline oil and from 10k to 20k je
no lost in oil

5w-20 oil??

2 quarts redline 5w-30 + 1 quart redline 5w-20.

is it ok to mix different viscosity rating oil?

i agree with the rev range comparison between small and large engine but we cant be sure the heat produced by 3 cylinder 1L at 5k rpm can even match the heat from a 4L having twice the no of cylinders revved to 3k rpm and my gut is telling me that it will be lower in 1L

critically thinking, i think the grade of oil we can use depends more on driving habit and engine normal rev range. all i have to do is to learn how to read and compare different oil specs and see if it protects the engine at my rev range heat, if it does, get the thinnest one for best lubrication. if want to use thinner oil, go with bigger budget, its a calculated risk

i might fork out some money for UOA just to be sure, this result can mean a big change on the rigid classification when recommending oil to others, oil option can be made more flexible by having smarter consumers

thanks for the supporting comment

u have just boosted up my confidence buddy! thanks


no right answer until we try it on and do UOA on the oil. my guess is ok, like mixing used cooking oil and fresh one, both have different viscosity but when heated they mix and come to one final viscosity but then the oil we have in the car now will not have same characteristics of the original spec on neither of the bottles

2 5w30 and 1 5w20, chances are the oil in general would behave like a very light 5w30 but it could be more complex hehe

This post has been edited by upontheriversky: Oct 18 2011, 11:04 PM

i dont really worry about the heat because i believe all the engine optimum temprature is 95 celcius to 115 celcius.
no matter where u are and normal petrol engines will operate at tht temprature.
im more worry on the oil film strength because the higher the rpm = higher pressure on the oil = higher temperature(temperature of the oil at the contact point).

what about worrying about viscosity being too thin that causes oil pressure loss and losing the capability of keeping the conrod and main bearings in full-float mode via lubrication?

The new grade from idemitsu introduce is 5w20 also, and the manufacturer claim that FC will be lower than if we used 5w30.

nobody's asking. lol

TS asking lol

so ure gonna pour 5w20 into a k-car?

y oil pressure will be loss?

*side topic
both of u grow up before report button will be use!

too thin of a viscosity?