Choosing Motor Oil (According to climatic conditions in your area)

In our past article "Engine Oil and Additives" we know that we wrote so long, so some of you may think that everything is messed up. Although we didn't receive any e-mails requesting a shorter one about engine oils, we decided to write another one to help choosing motor oil according to climatic conditions in your area.

Look at the graph on the right. The graph is divided into 3 categories: cold, normal and hot. All these 3 groups represent general climatic conditions and you decide which one suits your area best.

As TuningLinx, we believe that there's no answer to a question like: "Which is the best motor oil?" or "What weight is the best for a modified car?", cause this highly depends on where you live. At first, that may sound different to you, but I will show you why.

Let's assume you reside in Turkey. People in Turkey ask that question in tuning forums, too. But Turkey, at least has 4 different seasons at the same time. If we go a little bit further, some people swim under 45 degrees Celsius, while some other people are skiing on the mountains of Antalya. All these two happen in the came city!!! So, can we recommend only 1 kind of weight for a motor oil under that conditions? No. The motor oil weight depends on the maximum and minimum temperatures and ONLY YOU know the maximum and the minimum temperatures in your area.

Choosing Motor Oil

The minimum and maximum temperatures in Istanbul-Turkey, the city where I reside are 0 degrees Celsius in winter (the minimum) and +30 degrees Celsius in the summer (the maximum). According to these data which look NORMAL, let's look at the above graph to find the right motor oil.

15 W40 in the NORMAL category looks like it suits best. the problem here is that the temperature data for Istanbul above are the average of the past years, so what if the minimum temp for this year is lower than the averages?

This year, a couple of days before I wrote this article the minimum temperatures were between -4 and -6, and it will be -8 degrees Celsius tonight. What I mean is, the viscosity you choose must include some tolerances to guarantee to include all possible temperatures. Even the minimum temperature is -8 degrees, it looks like 15W40 covers it, meaning it is safe to use 15W40 viscosity in Istanbul. Look at the graph:

• The minimum temp that a 15W40 weight oil covers is: -15 degrees Celsius
• The maximum temp that a 15W40 weight oil covers is: +40 degrees Celsius

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