Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

If you are driving in -10 or below with 15w40, it's not a good thing for your engine.

You can hear that wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....wwwwrrrrrrrrrrr.... trying to turn over sound... not good.

I recently changed my oil from 15w40 (stock) to Rotella synthetic 0w30.

5w40 is a good balance.

It was all I needed to do to start normally at -20 and below.

Before it was doing the chugging and lurching at startup.

Now after the oil change, it's smooth as butter.

Also, synthetic oil is better. It works much better in cold weather for ease of starting.

Do you change it again in summer or can you use it all year around? Had no problems so far with 15W40 and -10

NOTE: if you have a discount at lordco, Rotella is ridiculously cheap, 4L of Rotella 5w/40 was 12.00 for me about 2 weeks back. That is cheaper than a 4l of the generic lordco dino stuff. Pretty good deal for some of the best diesel oil out there! I'm going to go back and stock up the next chance I get.

Completely agree with jfarsang. Your lubrication in cold weather is one of the most important things to watch out for. 15W40 is so thick at -20 that it will usually take over a minute before it reaches the cam. it's like running your engine dry for a minute. trust me you will start to see smoke if you haven't burnt your starter already. I actually just plotted the viscosities of fully a synthetic esso product comparing their 0w40 and the 15w40. At normal operating temperatures 80-100C, they both have almost the same viscosities. but when you get to the -20 to -30 range they are incredibly different. the 15w40 has viscosities close to tar and the 0w40 still has a good visc and flowing very well.

I'm not telling anyone to go right out and switch oil right away. do your research on the specific oil you plan to use and make a decision based on that. I run 0w40 all year round in calgary and I couldn't be happier. I have on occasion run 5 or 10w40 when i am going on trips south. Really understanding the properties of the specific oil is the key because there really is a huge differnce in quality out there and you need to pick the right one for your operating conditions.

fexlboi wrote:Do you change it again in summer or can you use it all year around? Had no problems so far with 15W40 and -10

You should be changing your oil at LEAST every 5,000 km's.

To me, that's every 3-5 months.

As for the 15w40. I switch back in spring/summer.

jfarsang wrote:

fexlboi wrote:Do you change it again in summer or can you use it all year around? Had no problems so far with 15W40 and -10

You should be changing your oil at LEAST every 5,000 km's.
To me, that's every 3-5 months.
As for the 15w40. I switch back in spring/summer.

Hmm. Well I don't drive that much. It takes me at least 6 month to reach 5,000km's.
Why can't you use the other oil also in the summer?

fexlboi wrote:

jfarsang wrote:

fexlboi wrote:Do you change it again in summer or can you use it all year around? Had no problems so far with 15W40 and -10

You should be changing your oil at LEAST every 5,000 km's.
To me, that's every 3-5 months.
As for the 15w40. I switch back in spring/summer.

Hmm. Well I don't drive that much. It takes me at least 6 month to reach 5,000km's.
Why can't you use the other oil also in the summer?

Too light viscosity.

In the summer months, these little 4 cyl diesels need heavy oil.

I second the advice to switch oil! 15w40 fossil oil was working fine in vancouver but I drove to calgary last week and one night outside in -30 and she froze solid! Jump start/fuel additive/nothing would get the engine firing, had to push it indoors to warm it up.

Switched to petro-can duron-e sythetic heavy duty 0w40 which is a diesel designed oil, and it is much better now. Smoother running, and ended up parked outside overnight again and started up no problem :)

Also filled up on shell's premium diesel and added more powerservice winter additive which I'm sure helps.

http://lubricants.petro-canada.ca/en/products/603.aspx

I went to CVI yesterday for an oil change and asked them about this and they said 15W40 is totally fine...I trust their judgement.

If you plug your block heater in for a few hours before driving do you still need to switch to lighter oil?

nvanadm wrote:I went to CVI yesterday for an oil change and asked them about this and they said 15W40 is totally fine...I trust their judgement.

I'd say it's just fine for the lower mainland and -10. Was doing just fine for me there.

for most of the rest of the country where it can get down to -30 or colder I think 15 weight is way too thick for the cold start.

coaxial wrote:

nvanadm wrote:I went to CVI yesterday for an oil change and asked them about this and they said 15W40 is totally fine...I trust their judgement.

I'd say it's just fine for the lower mainland and -10. Was doing just fine for me there.

for most of the rest of the country where it can get down to -30 or colder I think 15 weight is way too thick for the cold start.

I agree.

below -20 in whister with 15w40. no thank you.

take it as you may.

15w40 in cold is bad for the engine if left overnight and then started.

a) puts a strain on the starter/batteries
b) takes 1-2 mins for oil to reach you lifters because it's the consistency of molasses.

up to -10 in the lower mainland. sure. it's fine. colder ? it's not fine.

Ford/Chrysler used these engines in the 80's. 5w40 is what is listed on the manual for -15 celcius. They wouldn't blow smoke up your ways for no reason.

Peterbuilt/diesel truckers and cummins diesel trucks. 5w40 maximum viscosity below -18 celcius.

Just because Delica's are new, doesn't mean diesel in Canada isn't. Preventative maintenance on your diesel rig no matter what it is, is the prudent thing to do. In winter, use 5w40 or lighter viscosity.

I thought it wasn't good to switch backand forth between regular oi and synthetic ??

I'll just be running Rotella 5w40 synthetic all year round.

http://www.shell.com/static//ca-en/down ... _sheet.pdf

http://www.shell.com/static//ca-en/down ... s/1-98.pdf