Oil Advice and Recommendations Here

[opieoilman]

OMEGA said:

I use a type 1 vw beetle engine of 1776 c.c.in a beachbuggy and intend to run a stroker motor of 2.4 litres in my next one. What oils work best with these aircooled flat fours? I do know that synthetics are not recommended due to their inability to absorb much heat, Thanks for all your help.

For a normal VW (1200 to 1600cc) any 10W/x or 15W/x mineral or semi-syn multi is OK. For a modified high-capacity engine, an oil capable of putting up with more heat is advisable; this is where the ability of the RIGHT synthetics to tolerate MORE heat is useful, again staying with a thick grade, 15w-50 etc.

Cheers

Guy.

[barreti]

opieoilman said:

nasz said: Make: TVR Model: Chimaera Year: 1992 Engine size and type: 4.3 V8 Any significant modification: None Brand and viscosity currently used (if known) 10/40w Nic ... If you go for a Full synthetic around the 10w-50 or 15w-50 grade it will be fine plus you get all the benefits of using a synthetic oil. Cheers Guy.

Hi Mr Oil,

I have a 1992 TVR Griffith 4.3BV - you should hear that V8 growl, it makes you go all week at the knees . . . Sorry, anorak put away now, back to the hard facts.

The BV is a factory mod to lighten the flywheel and flow the head etc. It never had cats and has a straight through performance exhaust. No other mods that I know of.

My guess is to use the same oil as you recommended to NASZ but I want to be sure because the previous owner recommended Castrol RS which I've just found locally but it's synthetic 10/60.

I've not had it long but in the 750 miles I've done I think it's used abuot 3/4 litre of oil but theres nothing to indicate a problem.

So whats it to be
Mobil 1 0/40
Other quality 10/50
Castrol RS

Oh, it had a 6k service before it came to me, so I have no idea what oil is in it so I've been using Mobil 1 to top it up. I take it this is OK ?

Thanks very much
Ian

[opieoilman]

barreti said:

Hi Mr Oil, I have a 1992 TVR Griffith 4.3BV - you should hear that V8 growl, it makes you go all week at the knees . . . Sorry, anorak put away now, back to the hard facts.

I know, I have a Porsche 928 S4 5.0 V8 and with an RMB exhuast it gives me a hard on every time my foot goes down!

barreti said:

The BV is a factory mod to lighten the flywheel and flow the head etc. It never had cats and has a straight through performance exhaust. No other mods that I know of. My guess is to use the same oil as you recommended to NASZ but I want to be sure because the previous owner recommended Castrol RS which I've just found locally but it's synthetic 10/60. I've not had it long but in the 750 miles I've done I think it's used abuot 3/4 litre of oil but theres nothing to indicate a problem. So whats it to be Mobil 1 0/40 Other quality 10/50 Castrol RS Oh, it had a 6k service before it came to me, so I have no idea what oil is in it so I've been using Mobil 1 to top it up. I take it this is OK ? Thanks very much Ian

You can use the Castrol RS 10w-60, however I personally do not rate it as it is a hydrocracked mineral oil and not a true synthetic at all, not only that it is just too thick for almost any engine.

The Mobil 1 0w-40 I would also not use, too thin for the good old V8, you will find your engine may be noisy with this and it will use a LOT! If you like Mobil go for the 15w-50.

My personal choice would be 10w-50 or 15w-50, my choice of brand would be Silkolene, now I have to be carefull mentioning brands here as not to be seen pushing! I have had stick already for this. However I supply all of the brands and grades mentioned in this question and Silkolene would still be my first choice.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Guy.

[Fatboy chim]

Dear Opec oilman,
What can you suggest for the T5 gearbox, it is designed to use ATF to Dexron 111 can you recommend which Brand might be most suitable.
Also if i was to change from a Carlube fully synthetic (RRR 5/40) engine oil in my RV8 to a Slkolene Pro R, would I need to flush?
thanks in advance
Andy

>> Edited by Fatboy chim on Wednesday 29th September 22:03

[SlowRider]

opieoilman said:

You can use the Castrol RS 10w-60, however I personally do not rate it as it is a hydrocracked mineral oil and not a true synthetic at all, not only that it is just too thick for almost any engine.

Great! TMS seem to now be putting Castrol RS 10w-60 in RV8's and have just done so for my 4l Chimaera. There must be lots of us out there.

[opieoilman]

Fatboy chim said:

Dear Opec oilman, What can you suggest for the T5 gearbox, it is designed to use ATF to Dexron 111 can you recommend which Brand might be most suitable. Also if i was to change from a Carlube fully synthetic (RRR 5/40) engine oil in my RV8 to a Slkolene Pro R, would I need to flush? thanks in advance Andy >> Edited by Fatboy chim on Wednesday 29th September 22:03

Andy,

Any Dexron III atf will do the trick, if you want a brand I would go for Silkolene, this is the one I choose to stock as it is of top quality.

If you were to change to the Pro R the textbook way to flush is as follows.

Flushing Procedure (Don’t use flushing oils or additives)

1. Warm up engine to get oil circulating
2. Turn off engine and drain old oil
3. Fill with new oil to minimum (you will be wasting this)
4. Warm up engine to get oil circulating
5. Turn off engine, drain new oil and change filter
6. Fill to marker on dipstick

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Guy.

[opieoilman]

SlowRider said:

opieoilman said: You can use the Castrol RS 10w-60, however I personally do not rate it as it is a hydrocracked mineral oil and not a true synthetic at all, not only that it is just too thick for almost any engine. Great! TMS seem to now be putting Castrol RS 10w-60 in RV8's and have just done so for my 4l Chimaera. There must be lots of us out there.

The 10w-60 will not damage a big old V8, but its over kill in my opinion, you will get slightly better performance, temps and mpg with a 10w-50.

Cheers

Guy

[Fatboy chim]

opieoilman said:

Andy, Any Dexron III atf will do the trick, if you want a brand I would go for Silkolene, this is the one I choose to stock as it is of top quality. If you were to change to the Pro R the textbook way to flush is as follows. Flushing Procedure (Don’t use flushing oils or additives) 1. Warm up engine to get oil circulating 2. Turn off engine and drain old oil 3. Fill with new oil to minimum (you will be wasting this) 4. Warm up engine to get oil circulating 5. Turn off engine, drain new oil and change filter 6. Fill to marker on dipstick Hope this helps. Cheers Guy.

Sorry Guy, i should have worded it better, would YOU reccomend flushing when changing between Carlube f/s and Pro r?
Andy

>> Edited by Fatboy chim on Thursday 30th September 19:53

[matzo]

Hello Opieoilman,

I have just had my 5ltr V8 engine rebuilt at TVR Power.
Currently I am using a 15w40 mineral oil at the mo & have covered 1500 miles so far with an oil change at 1000.

What are your thoughts on Castrol GTX 15w40 as I have been told that its good for the V8 cos of its high detergent qualities ?

Would you stick to GTX & change every 3000 miles or switch to a fully synthetic (Mobil Motorsport 15w50) & change every 6000 miles ?? & if so when should I change ?

[opieoilman]

Fatboy chim said:

opieoilman said: Andy, Any Dexron III atf will do the trick, if you want a brand I would go for Silkolene, this is the one I choose to stock as it is of top quality. If you were to change to the Pro R the textbook way to flush is as follows. Flushing Procedure (Don’t use flushing oils or additives) 1. Warm up engine to get oil circulating 2. Turn off engine and drain old oil 3. Fill with new oil to minimum (you will be wasting this) 4. Warm up engine to get oil circulating 5. Turn off engine, drain new oil and change filter 6. Fill to marker on dipstick Hope this helps. Cheers Guy. Sorry Guy, i should have worded it better, would YOU reccomend flushing when changing between Carlube f/s and Pro r? Andy >> Edited by Fatboy chim on Thursday 30th September 19:53

Yes it is always worth a flush to help get rid of the old sludge and deposits that may be floating around, just steer clear of flushing oils and addatives, they can do more harm than good, and for what it costs its cheeper to use new oil any how.

Hope this answeres it.

Cheers

Guy.

[opieoilman]

matzo said:

Hello Opieoilman, I have just had my 5ltr V8 engine rebuilt at TVR Power. Currently I am using a 15w40 mineral oil at the mo & have covered 1500 miles so far with an oil change at 1000. What are your thoughts on Castrol GTX 15w40 as I have been told that its good for the V8 cos of its high detergent qualities ? Would you stick to GTX & change every 3000 miles or switch to a fully synthetic (Mobil Motorsport 15w50) & change every 6000 miles ?? & if so when should I change ?

After having the engine rebuilt running in on thick mineral oil is good idea to help bed the engine back in again, you want to do this for around 1,000 to 2,000 miles.

After the running in is complete you can stay with the mineral or go to synthetic as you mentioned.

The detergent qualities of the GTX are quite good for a mineral oil, a full synethic like the Mobil 1 15w-50 will have equally if not better detergents/addative packs. Not only that you get all the benefits of using the synehtic, heat tolerances, shear stability and the list goes on. I have posted about the benefits of synthetic here before under the post "synthetics vs minerals" have a look at that as it lists the pros and cons of moving to a full synthetic.

If it was me I would go full synthetic and change every 6000 miles+.

Cheers

Guy.

[chimper]

is it ok to mix different brands of oil?.ie fully synthetic Castrol 10-40 with fully synthetic Halfords 10-40.

[SXS]

opieoilman said:

leorest said: opieoilman said: Mobil 1 15w-50 4 liters £26.49 Silkolene Pro R 15w-50 5 liters £26.99 Bear in mind the Pro R is a superior oil. My car... Make - TVR Model - 350i Year - 1985 Engine - Fuel injected 3.5l RV8 as per SD1 Vitesse Any significant modifications - None Oil - Mobile 1 motorsport (15w/50 I think) Do you recommend that I use Silkolene Pro R at the next change? In what way is it better than Mobile 1 motorsport? Quality and quantity for less dosh, that doesn't happen often:-) You're providing an axcellent service, manny thanks Leo The Mobil 1 you are using is the of the right grade and quality and if you are happy with it dont change. The Silkolene has the edge as it is a PAO/Ester as apposed to a straight PAO synthetic. Esters assist the additive pack in a motor oil formulation because they are surface-active (electrostatically attracted to metal surfaces), so they help to reduce wear and friction. They are fluid at very low temperatures and at high temperatures they are very chemically stable and have low volatility (don’t evaporate away). They also help to prevent hardening and cracking of oil seals at high temperatures. The reason the Mobil is so expensive is because it is trendy, quite simply you pay around 30% extra for their product because of this and their marketing, all those Formula 1 signs we see on TV every sunday cost a bit of money etc. Hope this helps Cheers Guy.

I aint no expert on oil, but what I do know, and I saw this on the Discovery channel, any quality brand synthetic oil with a 5-50 or 10-50 will be good enough... anything else, and you're pissing your money away for marketting buzzwords, and specialist racing companies trying to get their product recognized amongst the big players....
Its like the old Daz is best, or Bold is best - and tests conducted scientifically by a third party proved that Tescos brand outperformed both at half the cost... my 0.0002p's worth IMO ....

[opieoilman]

chimper said:

is it ok to mix different brands of oil?.ie fully synthetic Castrol 10-40 with fully synthetic Halfords 10-40.

We generally do not recomend to mix oils. The addative packs within the oils are finally ballanced and are different in each brand of oil. You can top up ok but anything more than that and you risk upsetting the addative packs.

Cheers

Guy.

[crankedup]

Hi Opieoilman,

Thank you for helping us all out by sharing all your oil knowledge.

I am going back to basic's with a R/R 3.6 straight 6. The car is of 1932 vintage with original engine in good condition married to the standard gearbox. The car is model 20/25. Can you recommend oils for this please. Also I have been led to understand that I should change oil every 500 miles?

Thank you for any guidence.

[opieoilman]

crankedup said:

Hi Opieoilman, Thank you for helping us all out by sharing all your oil knowledge. I am going back to basic's with a R/R 3.6 straight 6. The car is of 1932 vintage with original engine in good condition married to the standard gearbox. The car is model 20/25. Can you recommend oils for this please. Also I have been led to understand that I should change oil every 500 miles? Thank you for any guidence.

My knowledge of vintage cars is not exceptional, so I consulted a firend who is an expert on vintage cars, he is also the Chief R&D Chemist for Silkolene, so he does mention his oils, but it will give you an Idea of what to look for.

This is what he said;

Quote

Go for Chatsworth 30 for the engine. After a ‘flush out’ run of say, 200mls., this oil will be OK for 3000ml. oil changes, or once per year, whichever comes first. (500mls was unusual even for ’32! The old ‘straight’ non-detergent oils were OK for 1000mls, or more in a large sump/low stress engine.) Rear diff. is hypoid, so use Boa 80W/90 or Geartran 90. I think the gearboxes used to run on the same oil as the engine, but Hardwick 50 may be more suitable than Chats. 30. (V.good anti-wear, less noise, less leaks!)

The early 20/25s with the red RR badge are much less stodgy, and better looking than the later 30s models. In the 60s-70s a local taxi firm had a ’32 RR ‘sports hearse’. When driven unofficially (minus cargo) it went like a rocket!

EndQuote

I hope this helps.

Cheers

Guy.

[Avalanche]

opieoilman said:

s2art said: Perhaps, but if there was a 5w 50 available then I would be interested. a 5W will get to the head faster than a 10w. Yes there are some 5w-50 grades around, however most of the ones I know of are phased out or being phased out. The reason for this is because of the amount of vi improvers needed (Viscosity Index) to keep the oil in grade, so much is needed the oil is not really all that stable. Mobil 1 have or are phasing out their 5w-50 which was available in France and Fuchs are phasing out theirs. Cheers Guy.

I'm using 5W-50 Mobil 1 Rally Formula Fully Synthetic Motor Oil. (~GBP7/litre here)
Think it's new - says new on the bottle anyway: "New SuperSyn Technology" Suits the following sir?:

Tuscan 4.0L Speed Six 00 14k miles.
Typical mix of cold starts, sitting around in traffic, motorway speed and the occasional "rally"

Due an oil change and was thinking of going back to Mobil 1 0W-40 for winter (like S2ART was saying earlier) Can be -20 here. But like this new oil as the Tuscan seems to drink less of it. Why's that..?

Given that I'm using this oil vs. your comments above - could you expand on your point re stability, or lack of it please....

- Should I phase out as well or be stocking up?!

Thanks for your advice!

[powerlord]

thanks to the advice here (and my high oil consumption at the moment of 1.5 litres per 500 miles) I mentioned to Kerridges about the possibility of putting a heavier oil in my tusc.

they always use mobil 0w40, but I mentioned I'd heard advice (here and from others) that 5w40, 10w50 or even castrol RS 10w60 is good.

They hadn't heard this and said they'd check with the factory.

The factory (to my surprise to be honest) came back saying that yes, they recommend 10w60 as being very suitable and will dramatically reduce oil consumption.

so.. it's getting that in it (assuming they can find it somewhere... apparently it's more expensive than mobil 1!!! christ I though that was the most expensive) as it's in for it's 24K service at the moment.

I'll let you know how it goes.

stu

[opieoilman]

powerlord said:

so.. it's getting that in it (assuming they can find it somewhere... apparently it's more expensive than mobil 1!!! christ I though that was the most expensive) as it's in for it's 24K service at the moment. I'll let you know how it goes. stu

Drop me an email.

Cheers
Guy

[opieoilman]

Avalanche said:

I'm using 5W-50 Mobil 1 Rally Formula Fully Synthetic Motor Oil. (~GBP7/litre here) Think it's new - says new on the bottle anyway: "New SuperSyn Technology" Suits the following sir?: Tuscan 4.0L Speed Six 00 14k miles. Typical mix of cold starts, sitting around in traffic, motorway speed and the occasional "rally" Due an oil change and was thinking of going back to Mobil 1 0W-40 for winter (like S2ART was saying earlier) Can be -20 here. But like this new oil as the Tuscan seems to drink less of it. Why's that..? Given that I'm using this oil vs. your comments above - could you expand on your point re stability, or lack of it please.... - Should I phase out as well or be stocking up?! Thanks for your advice!

With the Speed Six you do not need to go as thin as a 0w. A 5w is still good for -35.

The 5w-50 is a good oil, when I meant unstable it is because the VI Improver which is the addative that keeps the oil in viscosity has to work so hard to keep it in grade due to the large gap in viscosity 5w all the way to 50, VI Improvers just like addatives are used up. Lots of VI Improver lots of using up to be done. The result is the oil will begin to shear down quite early for synthetic.

The Tuscan is eating less of it because it is thicker than a 0w-40. Oils this thin are renowned for going through TVR,s this is because lovely as they are they are not the most refined engine in the world and are more suited to a slightly thicker oil, where you are I would suggest 5w-40 for winter and 10w-50 for summer. But by all means stock up on the 5w-50 just keep your eye on it and change on a regular basis.

Hope this makes sense.

Cheers

Guy.