contrary to popular opinion

[T Biller]

I put THICKER oil in my engine and it quitetened my lifters QUITE a lot. 15-40 Mobil 1. The theory is that thinner oil gets in better, but thicker oil stays in better. Also the bottle recomended that weight for high performance engines. bonus

[MAZDASPEED STEVE]

I was told that synthetic oil is good for japan engines because they have less clearance between moving parts, where as thicker/heavier wieght oils work good on N.A. engines.<BR>In your case you needed something thicker to "stick" to your moving parts. One does not need to go to a thicker/heavier oil, just add LUCAS ENGINE treatment next time you do an oil change, I swear by it.

[curtklze]

The only problem with thick oil or lucas(oil thickener) is in cold weather it takes a lot longer for it to start flowing.<P>The lifters will be very noisy untill the oil can get to them. This also creates lots of engine wear.<P>My piece of s--- 2.8 V6 86 fiero GT used to have very low oil pressure because of exsessive clearance in the oil pump and main bearings, I put 20W50 oil in and the pressure came back up out of the red, but I didnt want to use it in the cold so I bought some synthetic oil 5W50 and guess what.... it was still out of the red zone!!! <P>so I used canadian tire 5W50 all winter long and had no problems with my oil pressure or with bad flowing oil. Even on some of the hotest days when I really beat my car the oil pressure wouldn't drop in to the red zone. <P>Dont use thick oils in the cold if you have a pressure or ticking problem use a synthetic 5W50 oil. Its designed to be the best of both worlds, and it is.

[mr.hunt]

That is right about the weather but most canadian cars use block heaters so if you plug in your not likly to get as much of a problem

[white fish]

Dont you want your oil to shed quickly and be re-aplyed quickly for cooling

[MAZDASPEED STEVE]

Curtklze you're a GENIUS! not only did nail it on the head, but I think you may have solved why my oil light flickers after a long hard drive.<BR>The engine was rebuilt, and is still kinda in the "break in" period, but I have fully synthetic in it right now and that could very well be why there's low oil pressure when the engine is idling, and hot.<BR>SOMETIMES THE SIMPLEST SOLUTION IS THE RIGHT ONE!

[T Biller]

If you use genuine Mazda oil filters they are supposed to have a valve in them that stops the oil all running back into the pan while sitting. I expect that if I left it for a while it would still drain though. K&N filters are supposed to have the same thing. If you do experience the dry start problem ( I don't) whatever you do don't rev it until you get some pressure. When winter rolls back around I'll opt for thinner oil though.

[curtklze]

Block Heaters have the wrong name.<BR>They dont really heat the block up and make it warm.<P>They warm the coolant (antifreeze). But warm is a relative term. <BR>When the outside temp is -25 and the block heater warms the coolant to -10 or -5 the coolant is then warmer than the outside air.<P> the oil is still very very thick because it is -5 degrees.<P>The ONLY purpose of the block heater is to keep the water/coolant/anti-freeze from freezing and cracking the block.<BR>