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Left a shop in Atlanta that swore by 15w40 year-round and saw my injector issues disappear within 2 months after switching to 5w40 in winter.
Watched a guy named Ray at a depot in Birmingham drain his oil at 20 degrees and it looked like molasses, so I asked him what he ran and he told me straight up he switched after a batch of injector failures taught him the hard way.
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irisowens1mo ago
Man it's wild how that same pattern shows up everywhere, not just with engines. I swear half of life is just realizing you've been making things harder than they need to be because that's how you were taught. Like I used to think you had to prime a lawnmower five times before pulling the cord, turns out that's just how you flood it. Same thing with cooking, people swear by searing meat on high heat but if you actually look at what's happening you're just burning the outside. Why do we all just blindly follow what someone told us once instead of checking if it makes any sense?
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jamie8041mo ago
Whoa, yeah, you're totally onto something there. I remember reading this piece about how the "searing locks in juices" thing was actually debunked years ago in some food science book, but restaurants still teach it because it looks good on a grill (and that's a whole different argument, right?). @caseythompson's point about the honey-like oil is a perfect example of that same blind trust, too. It's crazy how much of what we accept as fact is just tradition dressed up as knowledge, and half the time it's someone like Ray from Birmingham who figured out the hard way. I swear, questioning one stupid thing usually leads to realizing a dozen more you've been doing wrong your whole life.
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Yeah and I bet that molasses-looking oil was doing some real heavy lifting keeping those injectors company on cold mornings. I mean, I've seen 15w40 at 20 degrees come out of a pan and it looks less like motor oil and more like someone forgot to drain the honey out of their tea. Maybe it's just me but if my oil is that thick I'm not sure it's actually lubricating anything until the engine's been idling for 15 minutes. Ray from Birmingham sounds like he's been to the school of hard knocks and graduated with a degree in injector replacement costs. Idk, some lessons you just gotta pay for yourself I guess.
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