I had a mechanic say don't use 20W-50 in the winter. Is he correct? Our winters in Georgia usually are in the 20's at night and 40 to 50 in the daytime.

I use Brad Penn oil.

Thank you in advance.

What's Winter?... oh it comes around with that stuff called snow

You're in Georgia, you should be fine

He is located near me in the Mountains of NE Georgia, above 2,500' elevation. Last winter we had temperatures near zero and a foot of snow. All of Georgia isn't warm and its too cold for BP 20/50 in winter in this area.

I found two things.
If I used the 20/50 oil in the winter, I could blow out oil seals when its cold and it barely cranked.
Second, I dont drive the car in the winter anymore...so YMMV

I only really had the issue below 20 degrees...and we can get nights into -20 on occasion.
Nothing really starts well in that weather, so the lighter oil at least helps a bit.
Cant crank over 20/50 in those temps.


Rich

The pour rate of Brad Penn isn't as great as other 20/50 oils. The only downfall to our Snake oil is that it has a greater pour rate and simply cannot be used in temps less than 50 degrees. I learned this is last year's winter testing.

Lake Speed and I are working on a 10/40 version that should be the perfect middle of the road oil.

An old friend of mine and I used to waterski in Jackson MS back in the 70s and he was friends with Lake. Nice guy and a good skier

This is Lake's son, Lake Jr.
He is the director of the Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil division... He and I work very well together and see eye to eye :-)

He is also a WKA champ, along with his Dad.

IIRC the owners manual (that little book in the glovebox) says 5-30W in winter.

It's weight or viscosity related - not brand related, unless BP doesn't make the proper winter weight oil.