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serialk11r · 02-02-2022, 12:41 PM

Well this is pretty incredible, the oil viscosity made even more of a difference than I expected.

I was going to do an oil change but the process is quite involved (have to remove two metal mesh filters and clean them, adding about 9 extra bolts and 2 O-rings to your typical oil change process, and that's after the 17 bolts on the underbody panel!), and with under 2000 miles on the oil with a stellar used oil analysis, I decided to just pump out 2 quarts of 10W-60 and replace it with 0W-16 for 9 bucks, then I topped it off with a few more ounces of 5W-20. 10W-60 has the consistency of snot so it stuck to the tubing on my fluid pump and made a huge mess everywhere that took a lot of time to clean, so I might have been better off just changing all the oil, but oh well.

The second day I cold started the car, I was astonished how the engine revved up like a normal car would...it used to slowly sputter to life. Clearly, the main oil pump was doing much less work.

The other day I was on the freeway and I put it in cruise control at 60mph. There's a very slight downhill grade on that stretch of road, less than 0.1% but enough to cause a difference in mpg, but the display was fluctuating between 27.2 and 28.8mpg when there was a car ahead of me, and it fluctuated between 26.6 and 28.2mpg with a completely clear road. Wow, that's a huge jump from 24!

I still need to verify this with more runs but the mpg is very clearly higher than before. I was driving into a 20mph headwind at 65mph yesterday and still getting 21.5mpg (used to be 22.5 with no headwind).

Using a viscosity blend calculator, 8 quarts of 21cSt oil and 2 quarts of 7cSt oil comes out to 16.5cSt (basically the same as Castrol 5W-50), so I actually have even more mpg left on the table if I go to a ACEA A3/B3/B4 40 weight oil.

Obviously, my car is a bit abnormal in that it has a very short 6th gear but this is kind of crazy to see. I would recommend anyone with a car that asks for 30 and above oil and a reasonable sump capacity to try Redline/300V and dropping a grade. The reduction in oil pump power consumption should be noticeable.

02-02-2022, 12:41 PM	#46 (permalink)
serialk11r Master EcoModder Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: United States Posts: 1,756 spyder2 - '00 Toyota MR2 Spyder Thanks: 104 Thanked 407 Times in 312 Posts	Well this is pretty incredible, the oil viscosity made even more of a difference than I expected. I was going to do an oil change but the process is quite involved (have to remove two metal mesh filters and clean them, adding about 9 extra bolts and 2 O-rings to your typical oil change process, and that's after the 17 bolts on the underbody panel!), and with under 2000 miles on the oil with a stellar used oil analysis, I decided to just pump out 2 quarts of 10W-60 and replace it with 0W-16 for 9 bucks, then I topped it off with a few more ounces of 5W-20. 10W-60 has the consistency of snot so it stuck to the tubing on my fluid pump and made a huge mess everywhere that took a lot of time to clean, so I might have been better off just changing all the oil, but oh well. The second day I cold started the car, I was astonished how the engine revved up like a normal car would...it used to slowly sputter to life. Clearly, the main oil pump was doing much less work. The other day I was on the freeway and I put it in cruise control at 60mph. There's a very slight downhill grade on that stretch of road, less than 0.1% but enough to cause a difference in mpg, but the display was fluctuating between 27.2 and 28.8mpg when there was a car ahead of me, and it fluctuated between 26.6 and 28.2mpg with a completely clear road. Wow, that's a huge jump from 24! I still need to verify this with more runs but the mpg is very clearly higher than before. I was driving into a 20mph headwind at 65mph yesterday and still getting 21.5mpg (used to be 22.5 with no headwind). Using a viscosity blend calculator, 8 quarts of 21cSt oil and 2 quarts of 7cSt oil comes out to 16.5cSt (basically the same as Castrol 5W-50), so I actually have even more mpg left on the table if I go to a ACEA A3/B3/B4 40 weight oil. Obviously, my car is a bit abnormal in that it has a very short 6th gear but this is kind of crazy to see. I would recommend anyone with a car that asks for 30 and above oil and a reasonable sump capacity to try Redline/300V and dropping a grade. The reduction in oil pump power consumption should be noticeable. Last edited by serialk11r; 02-02-2022 at 03:10 PM..