Winter time oil change.. what is best for the 1993 accord 2.2?
 

I run valvoline maxlife and I was thinking maybe a 0w30 would be nice? I can't stand hearing a motor run with that dry sound on cold mornings.. I think it is really very bad for them, right?

Then I notice that my sister's car (2012 Accord / some kind of 4cyl) calls for 5w20 ... why on earth did that happen? Should I put 5w20 in mine, now? Mine calls for 5w30, I believe.. I can't find the stupid climate chart telling you this weight for then and another one for that, now

I never did understand the xWx nonsense. I am 99% sure that the first number is the thickness when it's cold.. yeah? Or the viscosity of it? or. . .

Honda changed their oil spec to 5w-20, retroactively to 1998+ cars. So I wouldn't use 20 for your 1993.

Seems like 0w-30 would be OK substitute for 5w-30. The 5w (or 0w) refers to it's thickness/viscosity when cold. The 30 (without "W") refers to it's thickness when hot. So 0w-30 should flow better than 5w-30 when it's cold. But both should be about the same once they get hot.

Seems like the only 0w-anything that I've noticed are synthetic oils. That's not a bad thing for cold starts. But that "dry sound" might be anything else like alternator bearings or something else having nothing to do with engine oil.

Everything has to be so complex, these days.. I'm reading now that the greater the difference between your numbers, the more links in the chain of little molecules there, and then the worse the oil can get.. I guess.

I have arrived at a conclusion, though, I have never put a full synthetic into anything ever and I am curious about how noisy the car would get AND if I understand correctly- a full synthetic will flow better than anything when the oil happens to be sitting there at 1F, so this? Mobil 1 High Mileage 5W-30 Full Synthetic Motor Oil, 5qt: Automotive : Walmart.com (Mobil 1 full synthetic high mileage formula 5w30)

Since a lot of fools warn about, well, a synthetic is going to dislodge all of your garbage and you should change it twice when switching over to synthetic, I thought maybe I could use good old motor flush when I do the oil change. . . Maybe that will quiet down my engine a little? Got that little metallic tapping in the top end.. But I don't know a lifter from a tie rod to a valve

Please correct me if I am wrong.. after an hour of reading I understand it all less than I did in the first place.

Use the 5w-30 recommended for your car. I would use regular oil. Just change at the recommended interval.

Synthetic oil gives you more miles between oil changes.

The noise you are hearing on the top of the engine when cold is the valves. The noise goes away when warmed. That noise is normal. The valve clearance may need adjusted. I'm not sure if that would eliminate the noise when cold.

My prior '93 and current '92 also had/have 'oil dry' sound when 1st starting in cold
when the engines race above 2000rpm. Never chose to address it.

photo of '93 owners manual
Attachment 17331



So I looked in my current car manual '92 (same motor) - and it says 5W-30 is preferred from -25F and above, but 10W-30 is OK above 18F.

I had changed to Synth oil in my '93, synth Amsoil just 'cuz I had it in the garage, and 2000 miles later my car was disabled
on side of road because of oil leak into distributor. I blame it on the Synth Oil change.
Synthetics are known for superior metal to metal wear protection - but inferior seal and gasket integrity, which is #1 issue with older cars.

I'd stay with your current oil.
That said, please post up your experience with that specific Mobil-1 high mileage oil over the next couple yrs - thanks. I can learn.
But I'd still stay with current oil myself, and I'll stay w/ 5W-30 dino oil myself for the winter...



Tell us what you decide.

It's funny you'd mention that because I noticed that AMSoil has one there that costs the same as Mobil1 ... So I would love to try that **** because I have always heard how wonderful it was. This is a 200k engine but it was ALWAYS driven by adults (slow and nice) and ALWAYS maintained just to death (military people who believed in maintaining things extremely well) ...And I've been running a synthetic blend for a couple of years now.. So I am thinking I might be alright with synthetic .. maybe? I only lose about 1/2 quart driving it 5000 miles which I think is fairly good

I would like to know the difference in their $6 and $8 and $10 oils though.. longer drain intervals, but why, a more robust additive package? More of the additives or BETTER additives or what.. I sure hope it doesn't end up causing any leaks though... that would suck

I use Mobil-1 in the Saabs because they're turbo & they need it for the spool bearing temperatures. I don't use it in the Hondas because I've had good oil-analysis results with Castrol GTX.

Stronger additive package can allow extended drain-intervals, but sometimes an older car will "use up" the oil through dilution or combustion products anyway. If you REALLY want to learn, check out www dot bobistheoilguy dot com. Send in oil samples to be analyzed. Become a real oil-geek ;)

you just destroyed any understanding here of why you would want to change oils ...

I just want something that will flow better at cold start in winter time because engines apparently take 90% of their wear upon startup before the oil is all pressurized ...

It's still a reasonable question to ask - whether you can find something "better" in some way.

I'm in northeast Ohio & it gets cold in winter. Using Castrol GTX 5w-20 in the Hondas, I've had good oil-analysis results. But nevertheless, it's right about all the wear during startup.

I'm not a huge fan of semi-synth, only because you can probably take 5% synth with 95% petroleum and label it "semi-synthetic". I'm more a fan of having some information about the particular oil. That bobistheoilguy forum has a lot more discussion about those things.