Beretta.net

Alright, I know I'm setting myself up here... LOL... so please, understand that I know on the oil cap on my '95 Z26 it says 5W-30 oil... I get that... What I am wondering is if anyone has used 10W-30 oil and if so, have you had any problems? I've heard that 10W-30 is fine for this engine {3.1 V6 automatic} but 5W-30 is preferable in the winter months.

Just wondering if there are any first-hand Beretta owners who have used 10W-30 and if you've noticed any problems in doing so. Thanks in advance for any input.

Do you actually understand what the numbers mean?

That is the start of the conversation, the miles on your car and what you do with it.

10w30 won't hurt your car at all.

Asylum wrote:Do you actually understand what the numbers mean?

That is the start of the conversation, the miles on your car and what you do with it.

10w30 won't hurt your car at all.

Yes, I understand what the numbers mean. Right now I'm at 54,746 miles. On average, I'll put around 2,200 - 2,500 miles a year on the car.

5W30!
Just fine for you application

I think I switched my 88 to 10w30 at around 240k.

Well, yes you set yourself up... This is like a balancing act. 5W30 is just a little easier for your oil-pump to push around through your engine, it saves some infinitesimal amount of fuel and is therefore 'EPA rated' to save fuel -hey, a million cars driving around, it can actually save something, IF everyone actually copies YOU...
10W30, being a little thicker, provides slightly better bearing protection to your engine under heavy loads, BUT takes slightly longer to get up into the engine, particularly if your car sits for a few days or more before drives, which it sounds like it probably does. Your miles are really low (probably making most of us with higher-mileage cars a little jealous), so engine-wear is also likely low, meaning that your clearances are probably pretty tight, so a thicker oil like 10W30 is less necessary. The main question in my mind is what temperatures do you drive in? If it is really hot where you are driving most of the time, then 10W30 might be preferable, otherwise 5W30 is good enough. If you notice low oil-pressure after the engine has warmed-up, 10W30 could be considered. You could change your oil twice a year to go 5W30 for the winter and 10W30 in the summer, but that is really excessive.

Bottom line, the choice is yours, and either weight is totally valid. 10W30 will not harm your engine in any way, 12 months around, unless you drive it in severely cold weather after letting it sit in the cold for several days between each start-up, then you will have more engine wear using 10W30. But for what it sounds like you do with the car, 5W30 is the better option for you.

Every engine will handle 10W30, unless you had some underlying issue already present.

I see an average winter temperature of -20*C (-4*F) and lows of -40*C to -60*C (-40*F to -76*F) and still use 15W40 in my engines. The 6.0L in my 2500HD seems to like the thicker oil, as it seems to stay in the top end better and reduces cold start noises.

The only issue I can see is the ever so slight delay getting to full oil pressure over thinner oils, but thinner oils would also make more valvetrain and piston slap noises when started, so it's a trade-off IMO.

Anyway, my point is, If It Works For Me, It Will Work For You

Rettax3 wrote:Well, yes you set yourself up... This is like a balancing act. 5W30 is just a little easier for your oil-pump to push around through your engine, it saves some infinitesimal amount of fuel and is therefore 'EPA rated' to save fuel -hey, a million cars driving around, it can actually save something, IF everyone actually copies YOU...
10W30, being a little thicker, provides slightly better bearing protection to your engine under heavy loads, BUT takes slightly longer to get up into the engine, particularly if your car sits for a few days or more before drives, which it sounds like it probably does. Your miles are really low (probably making most of us with higher-mileage cars a little jealous), so engine-wear is also likely low, meaning that your clearances are probably pretty tight, so a thicker oil like 10W30 is less necessary. The main question in my mind is what temperatures do you drive in? If it is really hot where you are driving most of the time, then 10W30 might be preferable, otherwise 5W30 is good enough. If you notice low oil-pressure after the engine has warmed-up, 10W30 could be considered. You could change your oil twice a year to go 5W30 for the winter and 10W30 in the summer, but that is really excessive.

Bottom line, the choice is yours, and either weight is totally valid. 10W30 will not harm your engine in any way, 12 months around, unless you drive it in severely cold weather after letting it sit in the cold for several days between each start-up, then you will have more engine wear using 10W30. But for what it sounds like you do with the car, 5W30 is the better option for you.

Thank you so much for the response. I look at it this way - this is a board for Beretta owners. Most everyone here either has a Beretta - or more than one - or has had one at some point. So asking questions, no matter how trivial they may seem, to me is a good thing since I'm speaking with people who have the same car as I do. Therefore, I don't believe there are any stupid questions, really, I'm sure they can benefit a lot of people because some members may not post certain questions for fear of being ridiculed.

Your answer was really nice and pretty much what I was looking for. To answer your question, I live in Missouri, which means summer time - particularly July-August - can be hotter than hell itself. It's like every summer Satan decides to relocate and he always comes here! LOL Now in the winter, we can have some brutal winter's... this past winter we had 34 inches of snow in a 5-day period and there are plenty of days where the cold is pretty brutal.

I knew the question would be met with some laughs, but then again, if I'm on a Beretta board, why not ask anything and everything? Getting first-hand knowledge from other Beretta owners is like a God-send. Anyway... thank you so much for your response! Very much appreciated!!!

EDIT: As far as the miles, keep in mind I had a 1991 Beretta GT for 21 1/2 years and had 214,676 miles on it when I finally found the Z26. So I totally understand anyone w/ high miles. I've been there!!!

Echoes71 wrote:

Rettax3 wrote:Well, yes you set yourself up... This is like a balancing act. 5W30 is just a little easier for your oil-pump to push around through your engine, it saves some infinitesimal amount of fuel and is therefore 'EPA rated' to save fuel -hey, a million cars driving around, it can actually save something, IF everyone actually copies YOU...
10W30, being a little thicker, provides slightly better bearing protection to your engine under heavy loads, BUT takes slightly longer to get up into the engine, particularly if your car sits for a few days or more before drives, which it sounds like it probably does. Your miles are really low (probably making most of us with higher-mileage cars a little jealous), so engine-wear is also likely low, meaning that your clearances are probably pretty tight, so a thicker oil like 10W30 is less necessary. The main question in my mind is what temperatures do you drive in? If it is really hot where you are driving most of the time, then 10W30 might be preferable, otherwise 5W30 is good enough. If you notice low oil-pressure after the engine has warmed-up, 10W30 could be considered. You could change your oil twice a year to go 5W30 for the winter and 10W30 in the summer, but that is really excessive.

Bottom line, the choice is yours, and either weight is totally valid. 10W30 will not harm your engine in any way, 12 months around, unless you drive it in severely cold weather after letting it sit in the cold for several days between each start-up, then you will have more engine wear using 10W30. But for what it sounds like you do with the car, 5W30 is the better option for you.

Thank you so much for the response. I look at it this way - this is a board for Beretta owners. Most everyone here either has a Beretta - or more than one - or has had one at some point. So asking questions, no matter how trivial they may seem, to me is a good thing since I'm speaking with people who have the same car as I do. Therefore, I don't believe there are any stupid questions, really, I'm sure they can benefit a lot of people because some members may not post certain questions for fear of being ridiculed.

Your answer was really nice and pretty much what I was looking for. To answer your question, I live in Missouri, which means summer time - particularly July-August - can be hotter than hell itself. It's like every summer Satan decides to relocate and he always comes here! LOL Now in the winter, we can have some brutal winter's... this past winter we had 34 inches of snow in a 5-day period and there are plenty of days where the cold is pretty brutal.

I knew the question would be met with some laughs, but then again, if I'm on a Beretta board, why not ask anything and everything? Getting first-hand knowledge from other Beretta owners is like a God-send. Anyway... thank you so much for your response! Very much appreciated!!!

EDIT: As far as the miles, keep in mind I had a 1991 Beretta GT for 21 1/2 years and had 214,676 miles on it when I finally found the Z26. So I totally understand anyone w/ high miles. I've been there!!!

You are absolutely welcome. It can be really difficult to convey intentions online, I'm glad you took my post how I meant it. I completely agree with you about this being a discussion board that should have open and straight-forward questions and answers, with both fact AND opinion. So, what are you going to use, which oil-weight, c'mon now, what's your answer, hurry up!! (Just kidding, of course !)

Rettax3 wrote: You are absolutely welcome. It can be really difficult to convey intentions online, I'm glad you took my post how I meant it. I completely agree with you about this being a discussion board that should have open and straight-forward questions and answers, with both fact AND opinion. So, what are you going to use, which oil-weight, c'mon now, what's your answer, hurry up!! (Just kidding, of course !)

I'm going to go with the 10W-30 for now... then around late November I will probably switch back to 5W-30 through the winter. I'm kind of curious to see if I notice any differences and since I know nothing bad will happen to the engine, why not experiment a little? If, after using the 10W-30 I don't notice anything different, I can always switch back to the 5W-30.

And FWIW, the car doesn't sit for days at a time. At most I'll go one or two days w/ out driving it. But I typically drive it to the store or somewhere else at least 5 times a week, so the engine is being used even though the miles aren't major. Come winter, I'm going to be very selective as to when I drive it, so then it will probably have periods where it does sit for 3, 4 or 5 days without driving... and that's when I'll switch back to the 5W-30, just to be safe.

I come from an aviation background, and with aircraft, the maintenance procedures are very strict. Engines are overhauled or rebuild and fully inspected on specific schedules. It has been proven over and over again that engines that are run on a regular basis (like daily) have much less wear and will outlast by hundreds of hours of service the engines that spend most of their time sitting. Even though it can be really tempting to keep a low-mileage, super-clean car like yours sounds to be as a garage-queen, actually using it will make it last a lot longer (mileage-wise at least, if not year-to-year). I go to car shows pretty regularly right now, and while I understand when the owners trailer some of their cars in, I applaud the ones who actually drive their cars around. To me, that is a defining difference between a museum-piece or a toy and a car. My old Plymouth is driven regularly, and I do get some odd looks from people, as if to say 'I wouldn't be driving a car like that to the store..' But I didn't buy that car just to look at it -a picture would have been a lot cheaper in that case!

I have noticed on some of my engines (and again, most of mine are higher-mileage) that a little thicker oil makes them run a little smooth, a little quieter (like Koots[/i[ was saying). On some though, it almost makes the engine feel more sluggish, but the difference is so minute that it is hard to say that it isn't just in my head...

5W-30.... there is no place for 10W-30 in todays world.

at operating temp, there is no difference in viscosity(hence the -30 rating). this is somewhat incorrect, since there is a range of vsicosity allowed to be certified as a -30, but for purposes of comparison, they're the same.

at anything less that, the 5W flows easier than the 10W, which means it gets to the important bits in your engine faster, less of the pumped oil is dumped through the pressure relief valve to keep the oil pressure under the 60PSI that the stock oil pumps are setup for.



if you're really curious about oil, the bobistheoilguy forums(and tech articles) are a wonderful resource. until then, the condensed version of oil ratings is this:

the -xx is viscosity when hot.
the xW or xxW is a viscosity rating when cold.

the -xx is established first, then the xW or xxW is determined. that means that for any given -xx rating, the lower xW or xxW rating, the thinner the oil is when cold.

I've always run 10w-30 on all my cars. Only thing I do different is with my GTZ I add a half quart of Lucas oil stabilizer so I don't end up with that "Hey I don't have any oil up here" sound that all quad lifters get.

This is what I use in my 88 Beretta with the 2.8 V6 5 SPD
60% fossil and 40% synthetic.

Summer:
10w-40

Winter:
5w-40

The 5 weight is. Thinner and helpful for when its extremely cold, like below zero.
I use 10 weight all the other times.

I have -40 Finlay weight because the 30 weight was starting to be to thin, my oil pressure was barley half, now its just above half when hot.

Op i hope you don't mind me adding my own oil question here.

I have a 94 z with 134,000 miles. I've always used 10-40. My car is (will) be a daily driver. I live in east central Ohio im thinking shouldnt use 10-40, but 10-30 sounds like what i need. Im hoping to get a beater to drive this winter since this is the cleanest z I've owned. (3). But, should i also switch to 5-30 for our colder months?

Im glad oh asked this op. And its nice to see activity here. Btw, what year is your z? Mine is also purple.

Ps- my engine supposedly only has 32000 miles, but not documented.