Mailing List flyrotary@lancaironline.net Message #11258
From: jesse farr <jesse@jessfarr.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] oil viscosity?
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 12:26:05 -0400
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Message
Rusty: Strange that you mention that but I think many of us are going to try this, right about now. Probably not all great minds running in similar tracks thing, but just something many have concluded to try lately. I was amazed to see what all grades viscosity wise they now have available. The new foreign car stuff has extremly wide range. You may want to try it.  jesse farr
----- Original Message ----- From: Russell Duffy
 
For my next question, what weight of oil are you using?  I'm using Mobil 1 SuperSyn, and have only used 15W-50 so far.  I don't know about the RX-8, but I know that almost every vehicle on the planet uses 5W-30 now.   I bought some 5W-30 the other day, but still haven't decided if I'll use it, or swap it for one of the other weights. 
 
My thinking when picking up the 5W-30 was to limit the resistance through the cooler, and filter.  I also understand that lower viscosity oil will probably provide better cooling, due to higher flow, and perhaps better heat transfer.  It would also limit the initial pressures that will be seen on a cold startup.  Bruce did mention that he thinks Tracy prefers the higher weight oils for the benefit of the redrive, since it's using engine oil, rather than the proper gear lube.  Of course, these are auto transmission gears, which don't use heavy lube anyway.   
 
SuperSyn comes in 5W-30, 10W-30, and 15W-50, so which would be best?
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