in the 2,200 mile trip thread a discussion about oil viscosity was started. I am curious about the use of 20w-50 oil or something heavy outside of the manual's recommendation of 10w-30.

I use 10w-30 in my 1991 240 non-turbo and live in TN. Consumption is about a 1/2 qt every 1,500 miles or so. There also appears to be a slow leak from the front of the engine, almost behind where the belt is. Not enough to drip, just enough to accumulate on the engine and slowly weep down to lightly cover the parts in the area. Current fill is Castrol High Mileage, have a 5qt jug of Castrol GTX ready for the next change. Filter on now is a pure one, although the next filter will be an STP (came with the GTX in the autozone change special).

Those of you using a heavier weight, are you using a HDEO, such as Rotella, or regular dinos in the heavier weight? Any other high mileage oil users? Synthetics?

 

High Mileage oil is a joke for any Volvo... 1qt every 3,000 is not a problem... quite acceptable-It'd be nice if it was none, but... 10-30 is fine, get a MANN filter...I use 10-30 NAPA full syn for all my cars, at $3/qt (on sale).