Oil advice and recommendations here!
Discussion
MGBV8 said:
The Shell blends appear to be
5W-40 ........... gr. III (or gr.II+ ?)
5W-30 ........... PAO + gr III (or PAO + gr.II+ ?)
5W-30 AB ...... gr.III
5W-30 diesel .. gr.III + PAO + Esters
0W-40 ........... PAO
10W-60 ......... 1). PAO, 2). Esters + PAO
About time for some clear labelling in UK!
I agree, Gernamny is the only place who has to say it does exactly what it says on the tin! If the labelling was precise there would be a lot less confusion.
Cheers
Guy.
GavinPearson said:
I have a Sierra XR4x4. Now pick yourself up off the floor from the uncontrollable laughter.
I live in Detroit. It gets cold in the winter, typically 0 Farenheit - about -20 Celcius. If I am giving the engine a sound thrashing once it's warmed up, what grade should I use? My fear is the oil has a consistency of jelly when cold and will cause problems with the oil filter.
Gee there cant be that many Sierras in Detroit!
I would go for a good quality PAO or Ester 5w-40, this will go as low as -30 with ease. When the climate warms up you could move to thicker grade around a 10w-50.
A good PAO/Ester 5w-40 will be able to take a good pasting when warm.
I do not know what is available out where you are but look at Mobil 1 and Redline etc.
Cheers
Guy.
Kawasicki said:
Make BMW
Model 635CSi
Year 1987
Engine size and type 3.5l M30 Straight 6
Any significant modifications No
Brand and viscosity currently used 15W50 Mobil 1
The is driven quite hard...once fully warmed.
Any advice much appreciated.
Shane
Shane,
You are pretty much on the nail with this one. The old raw straight six likes the thicker oil of the 10w-50/15w-50 grade. You can use mineral semi or full synehtic.
As you are using Mobil 1 15w-50 you cant really do much better as Mobil 1 is a top PAO synthetic. The only way you could go better is to use a PAO/Ester synehtic, as esters are "polar"
Cheers
Guy.
Bee_Jay said:
Sounds sad, but what about an 8-year old, 90,000 mile 4.6 Range Rover P38? I am about to have the valley, sump and rocker gaskets replaced next week as the back of the engine is quite wet. What oil should I be asking them to put in?
I have usually used a 10w-40 Semi-synthetic - is this right?
Not sad at all, I also have one of these.
The old V8 design likes the thicker oil. The 10w-40 you have been using is fine, if you are happy stick with it, however you could move to a fully synth if you wish. Go for a 10w-50 or 15w-50 if you go fully.
I use the Silkolene Pro R 15w-50 in mine.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Guy.
pesty said:
Make Honda
Model:- Integra Type R
Year 2000
Engine 1800 Vtec
No mods but it revs to 9k quite regulary and has around 190 BHP suposedly
Brand and viscosity currently used (if known) :-
I found that Vauxhal sell quite cheep fully synthetic 25 litres for about £40.( I bought this beofre I found out there were different types of synthetics from your posts)
Its 5/40 and says on it this API SJ/CF/F.C ACEA A3-98/B3-98
Any advise appreciated
You have the right grade here, the type r calls for a 5w-40 all year round. you could do much better in terms of quality though. The Vauxhall oil is made to acost hence the price, just like tescos coca cola.
Next time go for a good brand name like Mobil, Silkolene, Redline, Motul etc.
Cheeers
Guy.
Bee_Jay said:
Bee_Jay said:
Sounds sad, but what about an 8-year old, 90,000 mile 4.6 Range Rover P38? I am about to have the valley, sump and rocker gaskets replaced next week as the back of the engine is quite wet. What oil should I be asking them to put in?
I have usually used a 10w-40 Semi-synthetic - is this right?
Not sad at all, I also have one of these.
The old V8 design likes the thicker oil. The 10w-40 you have been using is fine, if you are happy stick with it, however you could move to a fully synth if you wish. Go for a 10w-50 or 15w-50 if you go fully.
I use the Silkolene Pro R 15w-50 in mine.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Guy.
Cool, Hope to see you pop into the Land Rover Forum occasionally (though we seem to keep you quite busy here...)
I was going to use fully synthetic when I first bought it a few months ago, but then someone told me that these engines don't like fully synth.
Would there be any benefit in going fully synth? I only thought of doing it because I bought into the marketing hype (I used to run it in my 3.7 Audi A8)
How do I know if I am happy with Semi-Synth?
One last thing - I have a company petrol card which allows me to buy oil from petrol stations for 'free', hence I am restricted to what I can get at those - seeing as I can't get Silkolene at these, what else? The semi-synth I have been using is Shell Helix (as I only ever use Optimax !!!)
However what you have said is reassuring - I may try that next time.
Joe.
Joe,
If the garage sell Mobil 1 15w-50, go for that as this a full synthetic of the right grade. If not go for a semi synth. These in my opinion are always worth going for over a mineral. The reason for this is they tend to be a blend of mineral and synth and for the little extra money they cost are well worth considering. A semi should have better heat tolerances and shear stability than a mineral plus you can extend your drain intervals.
Cheers
Guy.
viper_larry said:
Hi, can you answer this one for me:
(www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=128862&f=76&h=0)
"I know we've covered this before, but if the service manual says '10W-30 API Certified' oil, what advantage is there in using Mobil 1 which is 0W-40?"
Currently use Mobil 1 and dealer will put in Castrol RS if I let them.
Thanks, oh, and I'm taking the car in today!
The recomended oil for the Viper in the UK is a 10w-40 semisynthetic or a 5w-40 full synthetic. The 10w-30 you mention is most likely to be a semisynthetic.
I personally would not go as thin a 0w viscosity, the reason for this is for a big engine with lots of torque it will be a little thin, 5w is the lowest I would go. However if you want to improve on this then you can buy getting a better quality one PAO or Ester based. The dealer is unlikely to put in a top oil unless requested, the reason for this is just like most people they are there to make money, so they will put in a quite cheap oil to keep their costs down and charge you a pretty price for it.
What Castrol have they offered to put in, they do some good oils but it depends which one it is? if it is the 10w-60 dont go for it as it is too thick.
Cheers
Guy.
viper_larry said:
It was Castrol RS and I think he said 5W-40. Other Viper owners have recommended Mobile 1 15-50W as I do use the car occasionally on the track and it does seem to run excessively hot.
Yes you could use the 15w-50, the Mobil is a good PAO synthetic and is good with temps. If you are tracking the car and getting high temps, the best bet is to go for a PAO/Ester 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.
Look at Silkolene, Redline, Motul for the futre, around the 10w-50 grade.
danwebster said:
Hi, this is very interesting. I'd be very grateful for your opinions on oil for my engine.
Its a 1380cc A series with a KAD twin cam 16 valve cylinder head on it. Its highly modified and produces 159hp at 7596rpm. It has an all steel bottom end and runs a straight cut box, drop gears, and a semi helical CWP. Its done 1400 miles, and was run in on a 10-40 mineral oil, before switching to a fully synthetic.
As i'm sure you're aware oil is a bit of an achilies heel for highly modified A series, after looking around a bit i used Castrol R4 superbike oil (5-40 if i remember rightly) for the first 1000 miles after the run in, mainly because i was led to beleive that motorbike oils have properties that are desirable for the a series, as the both share engine and gearbox oil.
I have just done an oil change though, and gone for mobil 1 15-50, mainly because the castrol was very thin, although it was a 5-40 it was very runny, almost like water, which was causing me problems at high revs.
The gearchange was very sweet with the castrol, a noticable change from the mineral oil i was running it in with. I've noticed that its possibly not quite as smooth with the mobil 1 in.
Your thoughts?
Thanks very much
Dan
Wow! This is serious stuff! The best bet is Silkolene Pro-R 15W/50, a very shear-stable synthetic with a high ester content. It has earned a good reputation in modified Minis, and in bikes with ‘difficult’ gearboxes, such as the Honda Fireblade.(In fact, straight-cut gears are easier to lubricate than spiral types.) The high viscosity and excellent ‘stay-in –grade’ performance of P’R 15W/50 should also help to maintain oil pressure, especially if the original A-Series pump is still fitted.
Cheers
Guy.
randtis said:
Unfortunately I don't drive anythink nearly as desirable as the above, but your advice would nonetheless be greatly appreciated.
The car is a basic Ford Ka, which, me being daft, I have chosen to fill with fully synthetic oil. As far as I am aware, Ford specify a 5W-30 semi synthetic, whilst numerous well respected publishers recommend either a 10W-30 or 10W-40, but I have been using 0W-40 Mobil 1 (serious overkill methinks!) Would you foresee any problems through using this oil, or is there anything better you would recommend?
As an aside, what oil would you recommend for a 2003 BMW 330? The manufacturer says only Castrol, but I don't think that is the best that could be used.
Thanks in advance
Ben
Ford recomend 5w-30 semi or full synthetic for the Zetec engines because anything thicker can cause the some valves to stick, poor engineering by ford there in my opinion. The truth is they recomend this to cover their back, we tend to suggest that people stick to it however there are many Zetecs out there running around on Castrol 10w-60 for some reason (trendy I guess).
The 0w-40 you are running on at the moment is overkill but should not cause any problems for you.
Next oil change look for an oil that meets the Ford WSS-M2C913-A/B spec and you will be fine, most are semi synthetic but Total does do a full synthetic one.
For the 330 you will need an oil that meets the BMW LL01 spec, this will be of the 0w-30 grade and I always tend to suggest Fuchs as they filled the car with their 0w-30 originally and it is good quality/price.
Guy.
MGBV8 said:
Guy,
Any views on using the Castrol High Mileage (for more mature engine) oils based on these specs
http://home.comcast.net/~dsmphotos/cgtx.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~dsmphotos/himile.jpg
Paul
Paul,
Just went and had a look. The higher mileage oils sometimes contain addatives to make the oil seals swell up a bit and maybe a few extra detergents.
Having a look a the specs the most important one to look at the pour point and flash point, this will give an indication of base stocks used, on the face of it they look like the same oil with just an extra addative of two to affect the pour point of the 5w-30 high mileage.
We have also found a lot of it is down to market reaserch, put on the can "high Mileage" and all high mileage owners will buy it, so you know what percentage of these cars are buying your oil, same goes with "Diesel" most oils do both so its just another market research.
Cheers
Guy.
Kawasicki said:
Hello again
Is Silkonene Pro R of similar performance to Mobil 1?It seems to be full ester, which I take it is a good thing.
Silkolene also do a Pro S, do you know where that fits in their range.
Thanks again,
Shane
The Mobil 1 15w-50 is a pure PAO synthetic and does not contain Ester, the Mobil 1 are at the top of the game for straight PAO oils in my opinion. The Silkolene Pro R 15w-50 has Ester/PAO base stocks, also has a little mineral added (not base stock!) so it can be used in a larger number of engines going back to some vintage. The Pro S is a Ester/PAO and has no mineral added so is a pure synthetic through and through. In my opinion both the Pro R and Pro S out perform the Mobil 1 but it is close on their heels.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Guy.
wixer said:
What oil would you recommend as a running in oil for a RV8 5.0 TVR Griff, new pistons, rings, honed etc. Basically standard spec other than a slightly upgraded cam ?? And how many miles before it should be changed and what oil from then onwards ??
Many thanks.
To run in an engine you want to use a good rich mineral oil around the 20w-50/15w-50 grade and give it some stick for around 1000 miles.
Once the run in is complete I would personally use a full synthetic either PAO or Ester/PAO. Keep it thick and go for around the 10w-50 or 15w-50 grade, dont bother with 10w-60 its just a little too thick.
Cheers
Guy.
bindit said:
a bit late to this one... but i want to do an oil change on my recently purchased Golf R32. Its done 10k miles and according to VW, not due for a service/oil change until 20k. My handbook tech data does not even cover the R32, so i don't know what oil to use. The help i got from VW service reception was that it needs 'special oil'!!
Any help appreciated!
Thanks
rob
Rob,
If your car is on fixed service intervals than it calls for an oil than meets VW502.00 spec, I think check with your handbook on this one but it will be a fully synthetic 5w-40
If the car is on variable service intervals than you will need a 0w-30 oil that meets the VW503.01 I again think, you will have to check your handbook.
The variable service is when your car tells you it needs a service, could be 10,000 miles could be 20,000 miles.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
Guy.
Hope this helps.
Rob,
That sounds about right, if you put your car in for an oil change it can be done cheaper. If you take in your own oil they will change it for you, and you wont have to buy it at their prices!
However according to my records the Castrol SLX 0w-30 does not actually meet the VW506.01 spec. The Fuchs Titan Supersyn LL Plus 0w-30 does and as a note was used for the original factory fill on the engine. Dealers only use the Castrol usually because they have signed some kind of deal.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Guy.
That sounds about right, if you put your car in for an oil change it can be done cheaper. If you take in your own oil they will change it for you, and you wont have to buy it at their prices!
However according to my records the Castrol SLX 0w-30 does not actually meet the VW506.01 spec. The Fuchs Titan Supersyn LL Plus 0w-30 does and as a note was used for the original factory fill on the engine. Dealers only use the Castrol usually because they have signed some kind of deal.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Guy.
mlvernon said:
Guy,
You sound like the man who can help me choose the best oil to use in my honda integra type R. My local Honda service centre recommend magnetex but i have read bad things about synthetic oils. I would appreciate any advice.
Make: Honda
Model: DC2 Integra Type R (UK)
Engine: 1.8 VTEC
Year: 1999
Currently using Castrol Magnetex. 10/40?
The stock recomendation for the Integra type R is for a 10w-40 semi synthetic or a 5w-40 fully synthetic.
I would personally go for a fully synthetic. Do not be put off by the myths of fully synthetic oil as most of them are untrue.
The Myths regarding Synthetic Oils
The benefits of Synthetic motor oils have been much debated over the last 10 years and misinformation is rife, particularly on the internet.
There are many so-called experts out there who should know better but hopefully this post will shed some light on some of the most common myths.
What are Synthetic Oils?
Synthetic Oils are fuel efficient, more fluid and resistant to thermal breakdown, they are constructed in laboratories using basestocks and special additive packages. They are specially formulated to meet and perform to standards set by API and ACEA as required by OEM’s.
Synthetic motor oils damage seals.
This is untrue. Why would lubricant manufacturers build products that are
incompatible with seals. The composition of seals present problems that all types of oils must overcome.
At the end of the day, it is the additive pack in the oil that counts. Additives are added control the swelling, shrinking and hardening of seals.
Synthetics are too thin.
This is untrue. In order for an oil to be classified in any SAE grade (0W-40, 5w-40,10W-40 etc) it has to meet guidelines with regard to viscosity or thickness.
For example, any oil with a viscosity of 10W-40 has to operate at -25 degrees centigrade and 100 degrees centigrade to pass these tests or it cannot be rated as a 10W-40.
Synthetics mean higher oil usage.
This is untrue. Synthetic motor oils are intended for use in mechanically sound engines, that don't leak oil. In these engines oil consumption will actually be lower because of the lower volatility of Synthetics. They also have better sealing capabilities between piston rings and cylinder walls. Synthetics also have better oxidation stability. (They resist reacting with oxygen at high temperatures)
Synthetic Oils are not compatible with other oils.
This is untrue. The synthesized hydrocarbons, polyalphaolefins, diesters and other materials from high quality basestocks are fully compatible with other oils.
It is best to stick to the same oil for topping up that you have in the engine. It is best not to mix oils, as additives are blended for specific oils. When different oils are mixed additive pack balances can be upset so for the best performance, it’s better not to mix them.
Synthetic Oils produce sludge.
This is untrue. It is a fact that they are more sludge resistant than other oils as they are better at resisting high temperatures and oxidation. Because Synthetic oils have higher flash points, they withstand evaporation better leaving less deposits.
Synthetic oils can't be used with catalytic converters.
This is untrue. There is no difference between synthetic and other oils with regards to the components. Neither will damage catalytic converters.
Synthetic oils can void warranties.
This is untrue. No major manufacturers specifically ban the use of synthetic
oils. More and more new performance cars are factory filled with Synthetic oils.
Vehicle warranties are based upon the use of oils meeting specific API Service
Classifications and recommended viscosities.
Synthetic oils will last forever.
This is untrue. There are some people that believe that synthetic basestocks themselves can be used forever. However, it is a well known fact that eventually the additives will break down and cause the oil to degrade. The additives in the oil are effectively “used up” by moisture, fuel dilution and acids. Regularly topping up the oil will help but sensible oil change periods are recommended.
Synthetic oils will protect an engine for far longer periods than non-synthetics.
Synthetic oils are too expensive.
This is untrue. It has been proven through testing that Synthetic oils do have longer drain periods and provide better fuel economy. Add this to reduced engine wear and better reliability then do the maths. They are in reality better value for money than other oils.
The Castrol Magnatec is only a multigrade mineral oil and you could do much better for your engine than that. I would suggest a true synthetic (no petrolium base stock) over a hydrocracked mineral oil (petrolium base stock).
Consider Mobil, Castrol, Silkolene, Motul, Redline, Total all do true synthetics of good quality.
If you have any questions please ask.
Guy.
Gassing Station | Engines & Drivetrain | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff