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read in the car manual it will give u temps and what oil grades to use.. i think ur head is in the right direction 5-30 winter 10-30 summer ..

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the only difference between 5W30 and 10W30 is the 10W30 is thicker while the oil is COOL. they are both the same when the oil is hot and up to operating temp.

the first number is the weight of the oil at a cool room temp.

the second number is the weight of the oil when the oil/engine is up to operating temp.

10W30 does not have any advantage over 5W30.

if your oil cap says 5W30 then thats what you should be using, regardless of outside temp.

i used to work at jiffy lube, hehehehe

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Thanks for all the responses. I'll use 5W30 in winter and 10W30 in summer. That's what I've always done, and I've yet to get rid of a car because the engine was worn out.)

Murphyg: (BBBrrrrrrr! Cold here in Winnipeg!)
If you come up to Canada one day, you'll notice that every car has an electrical cord sticking out of the grill. That's to plug in an engine block heater. The block heater sits in the water jacket of the engine and heats the engine coolant, which in turn heats the engine, and that in turn helps keep the oil in the oil galleries warmer than it would otherwise be for easier engine starting. Still, the real problem is that most of the oil is sitting in the oil pan on the bottom of the engine where it's only 1/16th of an inch of steel away from the ambient outdoor temperature, which can get quite cold. But, without those block heaters, few cars would start here in Winnipeg on the coldest days of the year. Typically, a block heater will heat up an engine in about 4 hours. After that, the rising engine temperature results in it losing heat as fast as the block heater can provide it, so you reach an equilibrium condition where the engine doesn't get any warmer.
They also sell engine dipstick heaters up here. Basically, that's a small heater that goes where your engine oil dipstick goes to heat the oil in the oil pan. Few people use them, and I expect they might actually be a fire hazard.

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Amazingly the temperature was -59C (about -74F) with the windchill factored in.

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Below -35, most cars cannot reach operating temperature at all. Mine sits at about 1/4 on the temp gauge in such cold.

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I'd replace your thermostat. If the engine doesn't reach operating temperature, then neither should the coolant and the thermostat should remain nearly closed. (and that, in turn, should cause the engine to warm up)
(I've noticed that the repeated warming up and cooling down of the engine tends to "anneal" (or soften) the closing spring in automotive thermostats so that the water pump pressure will be enough to open them wider than they should be in cold weather. If your car doesn't warm up properly in cold weather, I'd replace the thermostat with a new one. You should notice a big improvement.)

(Although I'm not sure if you'd even need a "cooling system" for your engine with an outdoor air temperature below -35. You might be losing heat to the cold air as fast as your engine can generate it. Still, I had the same problem with a 1973 Plymouth Satellite, and replacing the thermostat helped a lot.)

THANKS TO GLOBAL WARMING (and a BIG THANKS), we haven't seen temperatures colder than -40 deg. F here in quite a while. When I was a kid, -40 was common, and colder than that was common too. For the past 10 years at least, I've noticed the winters have gotten gradually milder so that even -40 is becoming rare, thank GW.

People living in the South don't understand the "joy" that comes over us Canadians in March and April when the winter starts to give way to spring.