BatsTDK
Full Access Member
What oil weight were you running before?
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5w30 Mobile 1What oil weight were you running before?
To be more accurte, Idles at about 35-38. Giving it the gas barely gets to 40. Which makes me hopefully think it's a weak sending unit. I'll switch the sending unit and if I don't see an improvement, I'll dump the oil and go to Rotella like I had wanted before......Are you sure they put in what you asked for? Mine idles at about 38psi and around 45-50 when I hit the gas. Yours doesn’t seem too far off. Filter maybe?

Thanks youIF the reading is correct, you have no problems.
Thank You for the info..35 at idle is perfectly dandy
It's my opinion that >30 hot idle is just dandy on these vehicles. 25 is where I start looking for issues. Even though lower is technically 'in-spec,' it will anecdotally cause problems.
m1 5w30 is on the 'thinner' side, having a viscosity of 10.37cSt as per blackstone labs. Note that the range for XXw30 when hot is 9.3-12.5. So, a 5psi difference between oils in that acceptable range isn't out of the ordinary.
It's also normal for oil to have a 'bell curve' of viscosity when in an engine. When new, lighter / more voltatile components will flash off over a couple hundred miles, making it slightly thicker. Then as it's used, the oil will shear down and become thinner again. It's a little difficult to pick up on the analog gauge, but if you have a digital readout, you can watch it happen in real-time. It's weird.
Fun fact: the difference in viscosity between cold and hot is the viscosity index. It's an inverse relationship - so the lower the ΔV between cold and hot, the higher the VI. This trend continues as the oil heats above 100c, there high VI oils won't thin down as much as a low VI oil. This can show up where oils commonly referred to as 'too thin', like a 0w30, will have a higher viscosity and keep oil pressure up better under high temperatures than a 'texas thick' oil like a 10w30, because of the difference in viscosity index. 0wXX oils were avoided for a long time because they had a tendancy to shear down and get thin with use - they weren't as stable. But advancements in synthetic modifiers have made this largely a problem in the past. 'Tis why I run a 0w40 in mine year-round. It actually flows better at 0c than say... M1 5w30. The crossover point for this 6c / 43f.
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Find a reasonably priced 5w-30 Dexos oil. If the label has Dexos on it, then it meets the OEM requirements. It's kind of a scam from what I've learned about oil ratings, but it DOES mean that it has met certain criteria for that motor.
Or, like stated above, go with a known premium oil and stick with that. A lot of premium oils that don't say DEXOS APPROVED, meet the criteria or exceed the criteria for a 5w-30 synthetic.
I've personally used a good off brand made for fleet use by RELADYNE and it has been stellar for MANY oil changes. Plus it's reasonably priced because the sticker doesn't have any big name on it.
How do you guys feel about changing oil, but not the filter? I currently have a Fram Ultra Synthetic oil filter which I’ve read is one of the best you can buy and is designed to run up to 20k before changing (not that I’d ever run it that long).
To be more accurte, Idles at about 35-38. Giving it the gas barely gets to 40. Which makes me hopefully think it's a weak sending unit. I'll switch the sending unit and if I don't see an improvement, I'll dump the oil and go to Rotella like I had wanted before......![]()
This is one of those threads that will give gravitational pull to just about any forum.
oil when it’s on sale and do it yourself you can do a full synthetic change for about $40 including the filter on your truck. buy something that meets spec.
just about any synthetic of the correct weight for your car will do.
These cars are pretty forgiving to the oil as there’s no turbocharger in it.
You can spend a lifetime reading opinions about what oil is good or bad but hard to go wrong if you stick with the correct weight.