Engine oil for VEA

[SnineT]

Originally Posted by Craigtange

My Volvo specifies a 0w20 oil that meets RBSO-2AE. The car takes 5.2 liters of oil from empty and manufacturer OCI is 1 year or 18000miles although intend on halving this. Does anyone have any experience in using thicker oils in the Drive-E engines? My two concerns are the variable oil pump and the variable timing. What does the oil pump 'vary' on? Is it RPM, load or oil pressure? I'm a bit of a Fuchs fan, the majority of their oils are really keenly priced and they like their manufacturers approvals which to me mean a lot more than "Meets or Exceeds". My current fill Fuchs GT1 Pro V 0w20 is £9.87/litre making an oil change £51.32 plus oil filter. I run Fuchs GT1 XTL 5w40 in the other 7 cars I look after, it's a great 'universal' PCMO. It's an ACEA C3 lube with Dexos2, LL04, 502/505.01, 229.5, 229.31, RN0710 and Porsche A40 thrown in for good measure. It also costs me just £5.13/litre making an oil change just £26.68/litre plus oil filter which is much more reasonable. RBSO-2AE are mid-saps oil and they all seem to have a HTHS of 2.9 which is very high for a 0w20 oil. I'm thinking of doing 2x 9000mile/6 month OCI's with the 5w40 and getting an analysis done and seeing what it looks like. Anyone got any reasons I shouldn't give it a try?

I can see you know your oils but don't put 5/40 in a VEA full stop, alternatives would be a 0/30 or 5/30 if you want to risk it, I personally wouldn't and would stick with the 0/20 and swallow the extra cost and that's purely based on the thin properties which would indicate the engine needs some form of crucial protection from cold starts that then flows rapidly from then on, remember you're feeding 2 turbo's and various other things that thicker oils may block or gum up.