I am just coming up on my first 3500 km's and the motor oil is starting to look dirty and I will be changing it this upcoming week. My question is that the local Mitsu dealer here only uses 10W-30, being located in the very hot and humid city of Panama City, I am looking for some additional protectection like a 10W-40 or 50.

Couple of things, the tempurature is always above 30 Celsius with the humidex is usually 35+, what type of motor oil would give me the best protection and should I change the oil more frequently then 5000 kms?

Should I use a lighter oil like a 5W or 0W?

Also, I think I need 4 quarts of oil can someone confirm that? thanks guys.

in the uk as standard we use semi synthetic 10w/40.I personally would stay away from fully synthetic or a lighter oil as it has tended to be a bit destructive on bottom end bearings.our service intervals are also 9000miles or yearly so really the choice is yours.if in doubt then check your owners manual as it will list the various oils you can use depending on temperature ranges driven in

Funny to hear conan's coment (stay away from fully synthetic or a lighter oil as it has tended to be a bit destructive on bottom end bearings) after 20 years and
400 000 km with fully syntetic oil in a 1985 galant turbo..That only got a new filter now and then the last 10 years,and newer a compleate oilchange...When does bottom end bearings fail when using fully syntetic oil?? After another 400 000 km??? Show me some facts to read aboute this topic.. Bottom end bearings...

One tip to all of u is if u buy a expensive engineoil in 20-50-200 liters at the time. U dont pay more than for the cheapest engineoil by one liter's bottle.... And if u look at the bottles in the store u see that some spend alot more on a fancy bottle just to get us to buy that produkt..... There is no really bad engine oil on the market so if u want a lowprize oil u dont spend to much on the design of the bottle.. Just by buying 20 liters u cut the prize allmoast in half...And there is no expiration date on engine oil... Some 10 years ago Ford had mobile1 as ford motorcraft engine oil as there own original oil mutch cheaper than mobile1... Same oil but different prizes.
In northern Sweden where its -30C a 5-10W is needed to get protektion at cold starts... But seriousely if u hawe a 5w oil in the freeser u hawe to squeese it out of the bottle.. On the otherhand a 20w oil wont come out at all...haha If i lived in panama i would not look for the first nr 5-10w oil because the oil newer gets like syrup due to cold weather... Its the 40-50 thats important in hot conditions..The higher the better....

Thanks for the info Stig, I am going to look for a 10-50 oil, it can get very hot here especially in the city with the tropical sun beating off the pavement. I read somewhere that it is best to wait til 10000kms before using synthetic but don't know if that's true or not. So I'll probably just get regular non synthetic oil until then.

It get all confusing when people hawe heard from a friend that is a cousin to someone that used to work at MC donalds but had a father that's sister where married to someone that 20 years ago used to work at a gasstation...

Turbocars are eqipped with syntetic oil from start... As a standard oil easily burn inside the turbo if the user is driving hard and then suddenly shutoff the engine, and this behavior will build layers of burned oil inside oilchanels inside the turbo, until it fails from lack of lube and owerheating.. But ewen a standard oil will work in a turbocar if the driver knows the importans of cooling down procedure before stopping the engine... And so far i hawent resewed any info aboute conanofcimmeria's problems with
(fully synthetic or a lighter oil as it has tended to be a bit destructive on bottom end bearings.)
And as i said beffore there is no bad oil on the market.. But if u want a famous name u hawe to buy minimum 20 litres to get a good prize.... The oil i use is a 5-40 but some 35 year's ago we changed oil during winter/summer in Sweden.. But now eweryone has electric enginheater and get electric power at home and at work, so really cold starts newer really happend.. And today a 5-40 works fine up nort in the arctic winter and summer. But if i lived in panama i wold put the focus in the higher nr... and just forget aboute 5-40 and go for a 10 or a 20-50... Newer forget that a engine is not warm until it gets at the top of temperature.. Diesel or gas...

I agree with you stig about fully synthetic oils but can only speak about my personal experience working on mitsubishi vehicles on a day to day basis.the engines in question regarding the bearing failure is the 4d56 2.5td.it generally seems to be on 2002 model and newer engines as this is when the uk spec vehicle went from semi-synthetic to fully synthetic.before that the engines were literally bullet proof as is evident by how many years that mitsubishi has used the 4d56 engines with little modifications other than the egr cooler.a topic such as this could be debated till the end of time but at the end of the day it is up to each individual.as the saying goes:Advice is free-its up to you to decide what to do with it

There is to many cars out there working fine on syntetic oil so i really would guess that those bearings comes from some low standard material..

EX.. Happend this weak to me... at close to 30000 km
Last weak i'd had a in/outdoor thermometersensor mounted under the intercooler so i would get some differenses in temp after mounting a heinekenbeerbox as a skoop and later a fan on top of the intercooler... So that cable from the termometer goes out from the hood and in at passenger door... Werry simpel but effective..
The heineken beerbox worked fine but it looks alittle funny..Thats why i tested it at late ewening..haha!! This weak i mounted a fan at my intercooler.. One testdrive and it worked fine.. Later on the ewening i was out driving when a nocking sound came from the firewall..Offcause i'd blamed the intercooler but there where no sound at all when ratteling the intercooler by hand... Next morning when the engine was cold i started to shake ewerything and found a ratteling aluminium/rubber pipe that goes from the aircond behind the engine and thru the center of the firewall into the coupe. Abowe the right front wheel is a rubber bushing that is to small so the whole piping could rattle... 30000 km and just at the same time iam working on my car it starts to rattle without me ewen getting close to the pipe....

What i mean is that its not always the first thing that comes in mind that is the problem..

On one picture i hawe rubber gaskets on top of the fan,but i will try another way to get fresch air thru the hood.. Its leaking warm air into the fan so at standing still so the temp under the IC still goes up... But not close as hot as beffore... From (maximum read at tempmeter) 60 C to 28 at +20 degres outside... But right now when driving it's only +3-4 C under the IC compared to outside airtemp... From idle on 2'nd gear up to 100 km at 21C outside i use 7,5 sec... Aboute high 8 sec without the fan at the same outside temp... The Skandinavian outlander turbo tunes down alot when outside temp get abowe 15 C. Abowe 25 C its less than standard 202 hp And close to 250 hp at 10 C

And Conanofcimmeria.... After reading u'r PM to me i started to wonder...When did one dieselengine (4d56 2.5td.it generally seems to be on 2002 model ) become ALL engines?? If there is a problem at all diesel L200 with syntetic oil, how could that result in u recomending not to use syntetic oil in a gasoline outy?? If u work at mitsu u really would knowe that there is a whole world filled with different models and engines. There are good cops and bad cops.. Iam not saying that u are a bad worker for mitsu...But i really wonder... Next door liwes a guy that drives a toyota picup looking like a mexican higwaypatrool and he relly wants the attention.. (I live in Sweden)
If someone has a allergy to paprica the doktor wont adwise that person to stop eating all vegetables..OR???
I can only agree with U that it's up to the buyer do decide what oil to use within the recomended oil's in the manual... And as i said beffore there is no really bad engineoil on the market.. Cars from the 50-60-70 broke down because they did not change the oil/filter as recomended..Then when semisyntetic oil came some of those abused cars broke down when they got the first semisyntetic oil, just because all the layers of old oil and dirt came loose at once and klogged oilpipes... The cleaning factor is still higher in a syntetic oil. But ewerything has it's limitations.. Therefor some people blamed the syntetic oil for a breakdown,but the truth was that that engine was allready abused by owner.. Some of the old volvos (not abused) started to leak ewerywhere when the syntetic oil came.. Only because of the syntetic oils cleaning factor and old gaskets.. Some oilbrands hawe warranty that semes good when reading about it..But how often does a engine break down due to the motor oil? If services are done properly a engine keeps going and going.. Taxicars are often driven hard but still they get more km from a engine and exhaussystem beffore any problems showes... Just because of werry few cold starts and recomended oil/filterlchanges .. And absolutely not because of a special brand/name of oil... A allwaysrunning car newer gets layers of dirt inside the engine..So beffore storing away a 4 stroke engine a oil/filter change is better to do beffore storage than after.. Some people think a oilchange is the best thing to do beffore a long trip..But the trut is that doing it after a long trip remowes particals that still are on the mowe in the oil and not stucked in the bottom of the engine as sediment...
So next time someone asks aboute motor oil to a outlander and what kind of wiscosity is needed at a warm place dont bother to share u'r experience aboute a kompleate different car or not ewen a mining truck....Conanofcimmeria.. If someone ask u what time it is?? Dont say it's friday!!

Iam 187 cm tall... 6foot2 aboute....

Obviously, since I am an engineer and know the facts you are mistaken! What protects a cars moving engine parts? Fluid dynamics, use full synthetic motor oil. It has superior flow characterics and won't break down.

To prove it buy a quart of full synthetic and regular oil. Get two identical frying pans and put 8oz of one oil in one pan and 8oz of the full synthetic in the other pan. Turn the flame on high and observe what happens! The regular oil will smoke and catch on fire where the full synthetic will not. I don't recommend letting the oil catch on fire!

Don't be cheap and buy a synthetic blend. The oil companies are NOT required to give the ratio of synthetic oil to oil. Legally I can add 1% full synthetic and sell it as a blend!

I line in AZ where the temp reaches 113F own a Nissan Titan, Mits Endeavor and Ford Taurus. Everyone gets 10W-30 Supertech Full Synthetic Walmart brand!

I change the oil every 5,000 miles and use a premium oil filter. Bosch is a great choice for the price. Bosch, Mobil 1, K&N and Ams Oil. The used oil from my engines is a light tan color, not dark brown or black.