Amsoil 10w-40 high zinc formulation

[greymarooneightytwo]

I've been seeing things here and there saying I should be running this, but I'm concerned about the viscosity in the cold Alaskan weather, any advice? Should I go with a different high zinc formulation with less weight?

[mach1mustang351]

The oil heats up and becomes thinner as it warms.  Synthetic is better lubricating so in my opinion it would be a wash on the cold end.  The reality is it doesn't get cold enough consistently to cause a problem.  If you wanted to be super safe use your pan heater to warm it up some when it gets cold.  I have also seen a zinc additive you can add to any type of oil. 

[greymarooneightytwo]

It's hard for me to even believe it, but I'm not allowed to plug my car in... I live with an old crotchety man (said with the utmost love and regard), and he pays the electric. He says it takes too much energy... he's also got a bigscreen tv from 1990, but I keep my mouth shut.

Some days I can talk him into letting me park it in the garage though, so there's that at least.

[carguy87]

I use the Rislone Zinc additive and it works great, can add to any viscosity oil.  But 10w40 should be fine up there, probably better for a higher mileage eagle too.

[dkoug]

Wondering

I have 260,000 klm on my 4.2 in 82 AMC Eagle Limited daily driver.
Has never used oil and change at 5000 klm, mostly city driving and short distances.

Should I look at adding  Rislone Zinc additive or simply play it as good old 10/30 and sometimes 20/40??

Enjoy your Eagles

dkoug

[txjeeptx]

Zinc additives have been removed from all modern oils sold for use in new cars, which all have roller camshafts instead of flat-tappet camshafts, like our old Eagles. The zinc prevents camshaft lobe wear. Th reason they eliminated the additive is that zinc is very bad for catalytic converters and oxygen sensors, and since all reciprocating engines use/burn some amount of oil, and the zinc is not necessary for newer roller cam engines, the manufacturers have stopped putting it into oil spec'd for new vehicles(oils with the latest API letter designation, whatever that is now). Even oils specified for deisel engines have lower amounts of zinc nowadays. I run Shell Rotella 15W40 in my old flat-tappet cam engines, and add the Rislone zinc additive.

As a side note, stay away from any oil filters with orange paint on them(not naming any names, but you know who they are) for all AMC engines, especially the V8s. Their filters are inferior(fall apart internally and plug up quickly and don't bypass oil properly) to almost any other brand.

[mach1mustang351]

It's hard for me to even believe it, but I'm not allowed to plug my car in... I live with an old crotchety man (said with the utmost love and regard), and he pays the electric. He says it takes too much energy... he's also got a bigscreen tv from 1990, but I keep my mouth shut.

Some days I can talk him into letting me park it in the garage though, so there's that at least.

Wow.  Even if you have 1000w of warm up items on your car (which is a lot). It doesn't cost much.  I think power is like $0.10 a KwH.  So if you give it like 4 hours on a timer like I do on the cold days you're looking at $0.40 a day... but its hard to reason with people when their minds are made up. 

[BenM]

After your engine is broken in high zinc levels aren't as critical. That said, I usually run Rotella,  5w40 synthetic in the winter. My diesel requires it year round, and it is fine in the Eagle year round as well. It's 40w when hot no matter what.

I sometimes use the 10w-30 blend or the 15w40 if its warmer.

There are other additives they use now that offset some of the zinc. The diesel oils have proven even with reduction in zinc they have that they still provide good protection for flat-tappet cams, excepting high spring pressure race cams.

[JayRamb]

I use 10W40 Amsoil High Zinc in my Eagle. The previous Eagle I owned I also used the same oil. They have awesome Oil Filters too. If one isn't available, then use WIX oil filters. 

[carnuck]

It's hard for me to even believe it, but I'm not allowed to plug my car in... I live with an old crotchety man (said with the utmost love and regard), and he pays the electric. He says it takes too much energy... he's also got a bigscreen tv from 1990, but I keep my mouth shut.

Some days I can talk him into letting me park it in the garage though, so there's that at least.

Wow.  Even if you have 1000w of warm up items on your car (which is a lot). It doesn't cost much.  I think power is like $0.10 a KwH.  So if you give it like 4 hours on a timer like I do on the cold days you're looking at $0.40 a day... but its hard to reason with people when their minds are made up. 

Alaska is more expensive than that.

[greymarooneightytwo]

Jokes on you, were both in Alaska!

It's really not that costly at all (less than the garage being heated with no cars in it, and a bay door that doesn't seal), those engine block heaters, as far as I know, put out the same amount of heat and use a constant amount of watts regardless of outdoor temperature... it's just not worth pointing it out to the ol' guy about it because his mind is made up, and I like spending time with him... he's getting on in years and I'd rather leave his pride and ego alone as much as possible.

Now, some people up here (especially a bit further north) have oil pan heaters, tranny pan heaters, battery blankets... I could see that costing a bit more.

[carnuck]

Those 1,000 to 2,000 watt heaters are the same as most portable house heaters. According to http://www.aelp.com/rates/ourrates.htm it's $0.12 per KWH which is $89.28 to $178.56 if you left it plugged in all month 24/7

[mach1mustang351]

Those 1,000 to 2,000 watt heaters are the same as most portable house heaters. According to http://www.aelp.com/rates/ourrates.htm it's $0.12 per KWH which is $89.28 to $178.56 if you left it plugged in all month 24/7

I checked my electric bill and it is about $0.10 kWh.  It can get spendy if you plug in all the time.  but I bought a timer and run it about 4 hours before depart time if the temp gets much below 10.  I really don't get much of a power increase in the winter... at least not like my gas bill goes up

 

[greymarooneightytwo]

Gas bill is definitely the more brutal one, especially with how many electronics are constantly running in this house... we've got at least 4 computers on quite often, as well as two tv's. A couple thousand watts on that stuff alone, easily

heck, I've even got a garage computer for nest browsing etc.

I've been practically living at this website for the last few months.