Festiva engine oil; 5-30? 10-30? 10-40?

[toecar]

Put in recommended 5-30 engine oil in a '93 with about 130,000 miles on it. Now have hydraulic lash adjuster noise at idle. Live in Wisconsin. Temp range 80F summer, -10F winter.
What oil weight is everyone else using in similar climates?
Drained the 5-30 and put in 10-30 Synthetic. Lost some "tapping" at idle but some still there.

[blacklabels]

10-30 What I use and nice to see someone close to me in location!

[Ninjawimp]

I also use 10-30 & runs fine

[Movin]

Add a couple quarts of the same oil and see if the tapping goes away. Drain the two out or whatever it takes to reach the full mark.

If the tapping goes away the oil pump is worn enough to let air in where the pump pulls a slight vacuum. The port where the oil pick up tube is. A restricted screen and sludge in the bottom of the pan adds to the vacuum up at the pump. The noise is the compressed air bubbles bleeding out of the oil system through the lifters.

This is different from low oil pressure at idle that will not provide enough oil pressure for the lifter to work. If the lifters still rattle the same then you would need to find where all the oil is going..worn bearings and such. A heavier oil would help dampen the noise a little by providing more pressure at idle.

There is also the possibility you got a little dirt in the system at the oil filter mount, or you may have used Fram filters that do not seem to filter as fine as Baldwin, Hastings or wix filters. If this is a possibility then Rislone helps clean out the filters and if a cheap filter let dirt through you would need a better filter to keep it fixed. Google specs and see if the filter you use achieves 10 microns or close to it.

The brands suggested are guidelines, use anything like it or better.If you feel left out and want some real lifter noise use a can of motor flush for the oil and a filter like fram or cheaper..lol !

[koRnhead]

I ran synthetic 10/40 for years in mine. With zero issues. need any help give a shout out. im in the area as well.

[Eaglefreek]

Whatever's on sale.

[Bert]

I ran synthetic 10/40 for years in mine. With zero issues. need any help give a shout out. im in the area as well.

This is good advice for worn engines in older cars. I switched over to 0W20 synthetic in a 93 Festy during a serious cold snap 5 years ago while driving as a courier. Car started wonderful at -30 but clattered like crazy when hot (ie outside temp was above 0; Festy engines never overheat below 0 even without a rad). That experiment, and the clatter, was short-lived when one quart got siphoned off and replaced by 10W30 Syn.

As an aside I ran 5W50 synthetic in my 86 F150 for 15 years and that engine (10 years later but now running on 5W30 Syn) still does not use more than a cup of oil between changes. Worn bearings and older engines benefit from thicker oils! The way I understand it first number is viscosity at cold start-up 0 degree F (?) and final number is viscosity/lubricating property at engine operating temp of 200 F (?).

[Movin]

Yes and the w is to remind you that 0w50 is closer to 15w50 in the summer cold start. 10w40 becomes what? 25-40 ? All this becomes closer to one number the older the oil gets. If the PCV is plugged water will rapidly break the oil down to a straight weight and then thin out with the PH change and acids destroying the additive package..

figure out what caused the noise and decide what is best after you know the facts.

[Movin]

Yes and the w is to remind you that 0w50 is closer to 15w50 in the summer cold start. 10w40 becomes what? 25-40 ? All this becomes closer to one number the older the oil gets. If the PCV is plugged water will rapidly break the oil down to a straight weight and then thin out with the PH change and acids destroying the additive package..

figure out what caused the noise and decide what is best after you know the facts.

[muleskinner]

10/30 synthetic.

[toecar]

This '93 has hydraulic lash adjusters. Did not have any lifter noise before I changed the oil. I did the last oil change with 5-30 regular oil. No lifter noise.
This change I used a different brand filter. Maybe that is causing the lifter noise (?). So I drained out the 5-30 oil and put in 10-30 synthetic......this did quite it down some, but not all the way. Did not change the filter again because only had 50 miles on that last oil change. Maybe put a premium filter on it and see what happens. Under these circumstances, hard to believe a filter would make such a drastic difference between oil/filter changes. Maybe it's a "bypass/no bypass filter thing?

[n5554t]

10w40 and 1 quart of Lucas Oil Additive.

[Movin]

No about the valves in an oil filter, they are the same between brands for the application.
the way the filter is attached, the area of paper to filter through, the microns of carbon and debris that is actually removed vary a lot from brand to brand. This does not matter much with most engines but those that have light weight tiny lifters built into a tiny rocker arm on an overhead valve engine can suffer lifter failure due to debris slightly bigger than 10 microns stuck in the check valve area of the lifter causing lifter collapse and lifter noise.

[200KGPGTP]

5W30 Supertech Synthetic

[azex2001]

10w30 winter, 10w40 summer.