Meh, your fine. You probably have valve noises, not knocks, all disco engines are loud turds. If your in a cold climate run 10w30 next oil change. Its not too thin and will allow oil flow better, rather than restricted with the heavy weight oil. I ran 10w30 with mmo and it cleared up my noises, now I can run a thicker oil without my engine knocking.

 

Dane, you sure know how to talk me off the ledge. Thanks!

I'm going to install an oil pressure gauge before I put any more miles on her, from there I'll assess whether I need to pull the oil sump and clean it out.

As for the Oil Pressure Gauge. Can somebody clue me in as to the type of gauge that I've seen in peoples photos generally mounted above the rear view mirror. It's got a color display. I've looked at Ultragauge and ScanGauge but can't seem to find the one I think I've seen. I'm looking for something with brains that is expandable to add many sensors as needed with a digital read out and alarms.

(I'm a robotics sensor guy so the more robust the sensor read out the better as I'll continue to add to it as the years go by.)

 

I'm not big on dial gauges so I went with the Auber Instruments. And installed a sandwich adpater to hook up the sensor.
auberins.com, Temperature control solutions for home and industry

I first mounted it in the ashtray but then removed the old cupholders and mounted it there. Thinking I could add more gauges as want/needed.

 

Powderhound: Yeah, no problem, no sense in getting yourself worked up by thinking the worst! I'd get a ScanGaugeII, they will read everything the D2 ECU reads iirc.

OFFTOPIC: Ralph, where'd you get those D1 switches. I can't find them. I can only find the thinger that the switches actually go in, just not the switches themselves.

 

Ultra guages are nice and only $70! Or this guy reads ABS codes too:
Oh and RALPH! SWEET SETUP WITH THE SIRIUS/ RADIO! Would love to hear about how you did it... Looking to do that to my truck

 

I have no issues running 15w40 year round in Seattle... As a matter of fact the top indy shop in town (Lamorna Garage) puts 20w50 in everything he works on.

The reason for the Rotella is the the detergent and additive package that contains ZDDP.

If you are in sub freezing weather for extended periods use the Rotella T-6 when cold.

 

If you want the zinc buy the 8$ bottle and add it yourself.

 

I'll look into Rotella T-6 for sure. Just a few fun facts, you mention Seattle, a prior commenter mentioned New England... New england feels cold because of humidity and wind chill... which our cars don't care about (from a cold start standpoint.)

////////////// Seattle // Boston // Crested Butte
Avg temp/// 51.95f // 58.7f // 33.7f
record cold/ +11f // -18f // -47f

In crested butte our official "growing season" where frost is unlikely is 4 days long. It's only the northern midwesterners (in the continental US) that can really relate to the cold of high mountain valleys in CO and WY. That's why I was worried about heavy oil. I run Mobil 1 10w-30 on my VW Diesel but that's with a block heater. I've heard of people running 5w and 0w. We'll have months on end where the morning lows are in the -20's to -30's. It's rough on motors and starters.

 

Jeeez that's cold. Coldest it has ever gotten here is 8*, but average is 36 without wind chill.

 

So I've been confused about this all day and I finally called ScanGauge (Linear Logic.) The Scan Gauge 2 can not have external sensors hooked to it so it can only read data from the trucks computer. Since the truck only has an oil switch (binary at ~7-8psi) it's not any more help than the existing switch andcoil pressure indicator light.

Is this right or is there another oil pressure transducer on the Discovery 2 somewhere that measures oil pressure in real time (analog or digital) and reports it to the computer? I can't believe that is the case.