New here from the cold north

[Metsuri]

Hi

Since we are both American car lovers and needed a car that can handle snow and ice easely we decided to buy a Explorer. After going through some adds we found one that was still in pretty good shape and had a running engine. It is a '92 Explorer XLT, it will need some body work and there is some work on the engine to be done.
Right now I'm going to work on the engine and the things that are going to be done this week is oil and cooling. The cooling is not the prob but the oil is, not the changing but what kind of oil. Officialy it's 10W-30 or 5W-30 for very cold weather. Now comes the problem 10W-30 is only sold as tractor oil here and you can only buy it when you get 5 gallons or more and I don't need/want that much. The 5W-30 we can only get for diesel engines.
So what if I put in there 10W-40? The car has engine heating for in the winter so the viscosity shouldn't be that big problem.
We live in Finland and temps can drop to -22 F and sometimes lower.
Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[RaiderKC]

I use 10w-40 in mine and its fine, but then again I never see temps lower than single digits.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! You could use synthetic oil which has a broader temperature range. It would be recommended for such a cold climate. I guess you have to use a block heater in order to be able to start it.

 

[rileyrs]

you dont wanna run 10-30, thats a summer oil in the v6.
if you can find 5w30 anywhere nearby, or even a drive away, just get a few cases to last you a while... i realize oil doesnt last forever on the shelf, but it should be ok for 6 months.
so if you can find a 5-30 oil anywhere id go with that, it will work out best for cold temps. and yes, if you can get synthetic it will work even better.
5-40 would also be good for very cold starts, but it might be harder to find

 

[corkey]

even in - 45 i still run mobil 1 synthetic 10w30 in my Ex,,
it works okay for me,,
i use my block heater every night at that temp,, it helps with the heater,

 

[rileyrs]

well sure it works, and since its synthetic its not too bad. and a block heater deffinately helps, but still the 10w is the viscosity when cold, and 10 is pretty high, so the starter, and engine are going to need to work harder to push around the thick oil.
thats why 5-30 is a good year round oil, its what i use at least.
many people run 5-30 in the colder months, and 10-30 in the hotter months, since the engine starts out warmer.
but if you use a block heater, then the oil starts warmer, so its not too big of a deal anymore.
the second number is the viscosity at operating temp, and 30 is deffinately best in explorers.

 

[Metsuri]

Thanks for the reply's.

The car has block heater so if I can find only 10W-30 than that's ok for me, cause if it works still in -45 than -22 shouldn't be a prob but if I can find 5W-30 than that's the one that will go in there. So it's time to go to the city.