Subject: [alfa] Mixing Oil Viscosities

[RonHorowitz <RonHorowitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>t my oil pressure gauge in both my old GTV6 and the
>one in my current 164L both read higher when I use a less viscous oil,

Read _higher_ with less viscous oil or read _lower_ with less viscous oil?

>What if a person were to custom mix off the shelf motor oils to get their
oil
>pressure gauge up outta the panic zone?

I'm not a specialist, so take it with a grain of salt, but as long as the
additive packages in the oils are compatible, you could raise the oil
pressure that way, yes. That's the way motor honey works (or doesn't,
depending on your point of view....) I'm not sure that the additives in the
multi-vis oils are necessarily linear, and synthetic is another kettle of
fish. BTW, old motorcycle racers used to use this technique to tune the
damping characteristics in their front forks.

Also, I should mention is that you don't _necessarily_ need ultra-high oil
pressure, you just need what you need: it's the hydrodynamics at the
journals/shells that actually support the bearings. Too much pressure
wastes power, can unecessarily heat and aerate the oil, and has been
reported to erode or "wash out" bearings. I'm not 100% convinced of the
last claim, never having seen it for myself, but it's been reported....

>when I'd put in a lighter oil and the gauge
>wouldn't move at all.

Again, gauge reads _higher_ with less viscous oil or reads _lower_ with
less viscous oil?

RON
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