cooking oill

my truck has a oil leak around a quart a day , one day I was caught out there with no oil and ticking but I had a gallon of new cooking oil from a curb find.
I figured better then nothing . Put the gal in and ZERO issues worked perfect on my 160,000 mile chev 3.3 - 6
Today I was given from a Pizza shop 10 gals of used cooking oil . I put a filter at funnel and poured in 5 qts.
considering cooking oil has a 450 temp flash point similar to conventional oil & I don't hot rod car I just float around slow .
will this work in the long run

hmmm. if you lived in constant 70 degree weather and drove your car a few miles then shut if off, maybe.

problem with vegetable oil is, temperature-wise it performs the opposite of motor oil.

A blended motor oil with "pour point additives" will have low coalescing at low winter temperatures, say 10, and more coalescing at high temperatures, say 40. So you have 10W-40 oil. The oil has to be thin when cold, then more coalesced (higher viscosity) when hot to protect against shear.

corn oil, on the other hand, has a viscosity of 50 at 75 degrees F, but drops down to 5 at 212 degrees F. Worse than that, when you get winter temperatures, the viscosity may be something like 110. So you have oil that is essentially 110W-5. That means it is too thick to crank when cold, too thin to protect when hot.

In an emergency, yeah, I'd add some. But I wouldn't plan on driving far or heating things up, and then I'd drain it.

In my old clunkers that I run till the death then scrap I would only do it in the worst emergency conditions just to get someplace safe then drain it and change the filter but under any other circumstances I would walk a few miles to get real motor oil......even used motor oil would be far better than cooking oil.
In any engine that I care about I would slap you on the head for even thinking about it.

Originally Posted by volvoscrapper

hmmm. if you lived in constant 70 degree weather and drove your car a few miles then shut if off, maybe.

problem with vegetable oil is, temperature-wise it performs the opposite of motor oil.

A blended motor oil with "pour point additives" will have low coalescing at low winter temperatures, say 10, and more coalescing at high temperatures, say 40. So you have 10W-40 oil. The oil has to be thin when cold, then more coalesced (higher viscosity) when hot to protect against shear.

corn oil, on the other hand, has a viscosity of 50 at 75 degrees F, but drops down to 5 at 212 degrees F. Worse than that, when you get winter temperatures, the viscosity may be something like 110. So you have oil that is essentially 110W-5. That means it is too thick to crank when cold, too thin to protect when hot.

In an emergency, yeah, I'd add some. But I wouldn't plan on driving far or heating things up, and then I'd drain it.

Yes, get it out asap.
Take a 10w-40 oil. When it is cold it flows like a cold 10 weight [a cold straight 40 weight would not flow good]. When 10w 40 is hot it flows like a hot 40 weight where a straight 10 weight would be too thin. As a general rule if your engine calls for 10w-40 it is ok [passably better] to use 5w-40 or 0w-40 but it is not a good idea to use a 10w-50 [I don't know if they make a 10w-50, just an example]

well no need to take out cause of the leak will be out in a few days, I agree winter will never work cause will get thick. summer and driving slow as i do it is working fine naturally the leak has a more pleasant smell .
I will look into used oil as you say that would be better

my old truck leaks 1 to 2 quarts daily,depending.ive put everything you can imagine in it.ive not had a problem yet .i got 2 cases of white greasse once and every other day id put some of it in there.an old timer told me it would slow down the leak.it didnt but the truck still runs.my uncle runs a large chicken farm and i get the used oil from the feeder gear boxes.it is extremley thin.its all i use.i do mix it with other used oil i get but it hasnt caused a problem in 6 years.id never think of this with a nice vehicle but this is an 86 ranger,very rough but it never lleaves me sitting

i have always used lucas for an additive,in my nice vehicles.ive never tried the slick 50 but ive heard good things about it time and time again

Years ago a Chev van I had the oil pump went ,
I did limp it to the station and no question when you have no oil flow it's worse then no coolant .
But by gosh my motor is running fine no ticking & smooth . I am sure a 50 50 mix of 10 40 and cooking oil will work in summer .
winter - i think it will kill motor

Bio fuel is cooking oil and also has issue in use up north. Bot since I use my truck around 75 miles daily , (slow hwy or country road not any real traffic ) thats known as easy use.
I don't recommend this as a different car or road conditions can change the out come , I am not flooring the car or reving it up.