More on WHGCL Hemi Engine oils for OZ

[warod]

Hi 5.7 Hemi lads,

more on the easily obtained or not easily obtained engine oil for the 5.7 Hemi.......
Check out this article..
http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/518/motor-oils

Sort of gives you the background on whycarmakers wanted to explore the 5W-20 type "eco" viscosities. (Apparently to satisfy fuel economy & emission benchmarks?). After reading this I am now more inclined to use 5W-30 full synthetic in my Hemi simply because nearly all my running around is gonna be at 5W with a warm/hot engine. The 30W rating during start-up / warm-up maybe throw a code ? - doesn't seem so, and I also like the idea of have a slightly more viscous film adhering to bearings/bores on start-up ?

I cannot source Redline/Fuchs/Mobil 1/Mopar 5W-20 here in Perth...have now given up and after reading the article am not so sure the 5W-20 recommendation is in the best interest of the vehicle owner ?
Kick me hard if I am getting this wrong ??

[briteway]

Originally Posted by warod

Hi 5.7 Hemi lads,

more on the easily obtained or not easily obtained engine oil for the 5.7 Hemi.......
Check out this article..
http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/518/motor-oils

Sort of gives you the background on whycarmakers wanted to explore the 5W-20 type "eco" viscosities. (Apparently to satisfy fuel economy & emission benchmarks?). After reading this I am now more inclined to use 5W-30 full synthetic in my Hemi simply because nearly all my running around is gonna be at 5W with a warm/hot engine. The 30W rating during start-up / warm-up maybe throw a code ? - doesn't seem so, and I also like the idea of have a slightly more viscous film adhering to bearings/bores on start-up ?

I cannot source Redline/Fuchs/Mobil 1/Mopar 5W-20 here in Perth...have now given up and after reading the article am not so sure the 5W-20 recommendation is in the best interest of the vehicle owner ?
Kick me hard if I am getting this wrong ??

Yeah, I read similar articles long time ago. I don't think the 5W-20 oil will increase the wear of the engine. My HEMI's got better fuel economy now than it ever had, haha. It performs well. But I'm yet to try a good quality 5W-30 oil to see how that performs in comparison to the -20. I'm inclining to try the Shell Helix Ultra 5W-30.

Looks like I love oil discussions, hahaha.

5W-30 oil will not throw a code but any other surely will.

I can't understand why you can't source 5W-20 oil. Did you check with the dealer? AJOR member deserthucker can get the Fuchs 5W-20 in Kalgoorlie and for a pretty good price too. I pick my Mopar 5W-20 from the dealer every time now.

[warod]

Hi briteway
Yessiree, checked every dealer metro area....
Get the old "we can import it for you" response.
I'll give the shell 5w-30 syntho or maybe the Mobil 1 syntho a go next change
Incidentally, I dropped from 14.7l/100km down to 12.6l/100 just by gutting out the Original muffler... I am sure my sump is full of 5w-30 dino from the dealer service when I bought the car, thus far no codes & mds working o.k.
Wanna go synthetic though...cleanliness is next to godliness bro !!

[JamesLaugesen]

Interesting article thanks.

But I'm still on the fence about this... as an engineer myself, I appreciate that manufacturers (or at-least the ones we trust, maybe DC and Penrite for me haha.) have more reasoning going on behind their specs than we're aware of, or could correctly conclude from a few hours of reading.

I'm not suggesting we blindly follow word of-course, but I think if we're going question the specs, then we 'ought to do it properly... and honestly in this case (engines, oils, wear, etc.), without a lot of background knowledge, experience, and time to research - ultimately we'll end up "wrong"... or at-least, following someone else's advice rather than the manufacturers.

Personally in this case I don't want to spend all that time, so I'm happy to give the engineers involved benefit-of-the-doubt, and trust that they've made smart decisions on my behalf...
The flip-side would be, to assume that they've not considered our 'best interests', which would be a bit cynical considering the trust (I assume) we have in the rest of their engineering.
ie, why would DC get the the rest of the vehicle (or the majority of it haha) "correct", but the oil wrong?

The other popular argument is that the 5W-30 spec is appropriate for the US but not Aus. Since apparently they have a significantly colder climate... that's just funny. Sure they have more populated cold regions, but there's plenty of stinkin' hot places in the US just like here.

Aanyway, I'm sure 5W-30 will be fine, and I'd use it if I couldn't get anything else.

The 0W-30 from Penrite is easy enough to get (here in Sydney at-least), recommended (by Penrite) for use in Aus. where 5W-20 is spec'd, and again specifically for the Hemi MDS engines.
So I'm going to trust that Penrite's engineers work just as hard as I do during my day-job, and have made an effort to make me some good oil

PS, I was thiiis close to going with 5W-30 for my first oil change (since owning the WH), but once I got a look the MDS mechanics, I decided to stick with whatever they spec. It's a seriously tuned piece of engineering and easy to imagine how it was designed for a narrow viscosity range.

*off soapbox* and sorry for the rant LOL.

[warod]

What I can't get my head around with the Penrite 0W-30 is that this visco range is 5 points under and 10 points over the DC spec of 5W-20 - somewhat wider than a 5W-20?
My "gut-feel" (and my gut is substantial hahaha) is that motoring for regular use will be, (for 95% of engine "on" time) with a warm/hot engine - thus operating @ 30W visco with a 5W-30 rated oil? More than the hot/warm visco as the specified Mopar 5W-20. The Penrite 0W-30 would,(if used), be at 30 point visco 95% of my running time?.....therein lies my dilemma, do I consider the 10 point increase (and outside the DC specified hot operating range) with Penrite @ 95% of engine run time?
I might be missing something here, but I too, am a slave to an engineer's logic....

[briteway]

Originally Posted by warod

I'll give the shell 5w-30 syntho or maybe the Mobil 1 syntho a go next change
Incidentally, I dropped from 14.7l/100km down to 12.6l/100 just by gutting out the Original muffler...

I wouldn't use the Mobil 1 or Castrol Edge 5W-30 oils. There are too many reports of louder tapping noise coming from the tappets caused by using the above oils. The original Mopar oil is actually Mobil 1 5W-20. I'd either try the Shell, Penrite or Redline 5W-30 full synthetics.

Oh yeah, on the muffler... it was in another thread. Might as well keep it here as that thread wasn't suitable for this discussion. I said I was going to an exhaust shop last Saturday...so I did! Here's what happened: the guys gave me 3 options on gutting out the muffler (from flange to flange):

1. $220 Replace the muffler with 2 back-to-back high flow resonators
2. $150 Replace the muffler with a Lukey muffler (as you did)
3. $120 Replace the muffler with the hotdog resonator (the longest one you can get - 18 inch)

I asked them what would be their preference and they said that they're all good but if they have to put them in order of own preference then it would be 1, then 3, then 2. So I decided to go with option 3 and booked it in for this Saturday Can't wait. It's all your fault HAHAHA, wouldn't have done it if you didn't mention anything. I always wanted to do something to the exhaust and make the HEMI sound a bit beefier (but not too much though). The main reason I want to do this is because of 4WDriving, didn't want that muffler getting caught onto anything and everything else is covered with bash plates.

In terms of your fuel economy, that's a significant drop and I'm happy to hear that but did you double check that by calculating after each fill at the pump to verify your EVIC is in sync. I always recalibrate the tyre settings whenever I change between (my 3 sets of) tyres to make sure my speedo is in line. When I calculate the fuel consumption, my EVIC is spot on and actually sometimes reading "more" than what it should, like, my calculation at the pump is better by .2 or .3 than what the EVIC is displaying and not the other way around as when you get it factory stock.

[warod]

I,ll accept your advice on the oil & give the Shell or Redline a whirl next change...

On the muffler......the OEM exhaust system is 409 stainless steel so if the exhaust centre is going to weld - then they should use ER309L grade wire.

The before and after economy trials I (so diligently) performed for the muffler changeout was controlled. Same road, same distance, similar atmospheric conditions, same tank of gas, same tyres & pressures etc. Monitored also on live data OBDII/CAN bus scanner to back-up EVIC accuracy ?
I reckon you will have good old belly laugh when you find the same.....provided of course, that the 18inch hotdog is 3 inch bore straight-through configuration.
Even my wife's chicky friends have commented how cool the throbby timbre of the Hemi now sounds (monster thumbs up on that score buddy)....
Let me know what happens after your changeout ?