Engine oil is one of the most important fluids of the whole engine; it is like the blood that flows throughout the whole engine component. The main role of the engine oil is to lubricate all mechanical moving parts like bearings and linkage.
There are two classifications of engine oil. The first one is the mineral based oil and the other one is the synthetic or fully synthetic engine oil. There are some advantage and disadvantages of these two kinds of engine oil.
Mineral based engine oil is good for everyday use and for budget change oil maintenance. Ideally you should change your engine oil every 3 months or 5000km (whichever comes first). The advantage of using this kind of oil is that it’s affordable and you change your oil much frequent. Remember, using fresh oil will help protect your engine and preserves its condition. The disadvantage would be it is not recommended for high performance and racing engine plus you should give more time to change your oil.
Synthetic engine oil is also known as performance oil. The advantages of using this kind of oil are the following: higher break down temperature, adds more protection for the engine in extreme usage, longer change oil intervals and it adds a bit of horse power. The only disadvantage would be the cost of using this kind of motor oil. The price would be double as compared to mineral based motor oil.
Remember, you should know the viscosity recommended to be used for your vehicle. You can based it from the manual. But usually on tropical places they recommend the use of 50-40 viscosity while on places that has winter or four season climate they recommend to use 40-30 viscosity. It would be helpful for old engine to use thicker oil like 20w 50 because older engine are prone to oil leak for the seal would worn out. On the other hand modern engine would be fine using 15w 40.
Changing your oil would be very interesting to do. You can do it by yourself or just bring your vehicle to a shop and let them do the job.
Here are some steps on how to change your engine oil.
1. Jack up the front part of your vehicle. Make sure that it’s high enough for you to put a container where the use oil will be drained.
2. Look for the drain plug; it’s usually located at the lowest part of the oil pan.
3. Carefully remove the oil plug and be ready for the container, for after removing the oil plug the used oil will squirt out.
4. Don’t forget to change the oil filter. It is recommended to change it at the same time with the engine oil.
5. Give some time to fully drain the use oil.
6. Install the new oil filter and make sure not to over tight it.
7. Install back the oil plug. Never over tighten it. You don’t want to have it loose its thread.
8. Add fresh engine oil to the engine; make sure to look for the oil capacity of the engine. It should be always on the exact level.
9. Start its engine. Let it idle for a couple of minutes and don’t rev the engine.
10. Shut of the engine then check the oil level in the dip stick or sight glass. Always make sure that the level should be on the exact level. If the level is low add a bit of oil, but if over the limit you should drain some of it.
11. Lastly check for any sigh of oil leak. If there’s any, repair it at once. You wouldn’t want to run your engine without oil or else it will kill it.
We hope that this article would be very helpful to all readers and enthusiast.
