RE: synthetic oil

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

> I now use 10w30 Mobil 1 synthetic in my Milano 3.0 and have noticed
> better oil pressure at idle. When I used 15w50 Mobil 1, the oil
> pressure gauge at idle showed almost 0 psi. This is supposed to be
> "normal" as the oil pressure gauge sender is known to be notorious for
> being inaccurate. After the switch to 10w30, the oil pressure at idle
> increased to about 25 psi.

The 25 PSI at idle sounds questionable to me - have you checked it with
a mechanical gauge?  I thought you should get 5-10 PSI at idle
(regardless of what the electrical gauge indicates).

> I've talked to a reputable Alfa tuner and he has also recommended the
> same thing, but added that an oil cooler is a must (which my 3.0 has).
> Especially in relatively cool weather. IMHO 20w50 is too thick. I
think
> Alfa recommends 10w40 for the 164 3.0. But so far I have had good luck
> with 10w30 so far and will keep on using it until the weather warms up
> a little. When summer comes I will switch to 10w40, most likely
Castrol
> Syntec 10w40.

Have you measured your oil temps?  For what purpose are you adding the
oil cooler?

For track use, I'd agree, for most street use, I'd disagree, especially
in cooler climates.

One interesting gauge to add to your car is an oil temp gauge.  For
those that use their water temp gauge as an indicator as to when it's ok
to begin an Italian tune up, I'd suggest you need to wait a few extra
minutes.

I found that the oil temp lags behind the water temp significantly, by
as much as 5-10 minutes, more if it's a cool morning.  Also, depending
on the climate, addition of an oil cooler may prevent the oil from ever
coming up to a proper operating temperature.

Ideally, you want the oil temp to be roughly the same as the water temp.

I wouldn't just blindly install an oil cooler unless you know for a fact
you have a specific reason to, or you've installed an oil temp gauge and
have found conditions under which your oil is running too hot (such as
on the track).

Alfa did a great job with the lubrication system, for the most part, and
under most conditions there's very little need to muck with what came
from the factory.

YMMV,

bs
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