Recommended Oils

[charlescrawley]

I'm a little confused by the recommendation for oil that my prospective service garage are giving. I asked that they use Mobil 1 to replace the oil, to which they replied that they didn't use Mobil 1 as it had a viscosity of 0W/30(!), which I know they do produce, but they also do the recommended 5W/30 as well.
Instead they are recommending using Gastrol (the spelling they used) RS 10W/60. Is this okay?
The garage are Ramspott und Brandt, in Germany, as mentioned in my earlier post and as such perhaps brands and ratings may be different in Germany?

[98gt3]

Mobil 1 do a motorsport grade which is the right viscosity rating for the Esprit.

Phil 98GT3

[charlescrawley]

98gt3 said:

Mobil 1 do a motorsport grade which is the right viscosity rating for the Esprit. Phil 98GT3

Phil,

Yup, I'm aware of this and that's what I was asking them to use, but they do not have Mobil 1 and instead recommend Gastrol RS 10W/60. I am quite happy for this to be used, as long as it's up to the job.
Actually, with the price they're quoting for the oil, it had better be bloody fantastic!
So, thoughts on this Gastrol stuff?

Cheers!

[Del-Esprit]

I use Castrol RS 10/60 in mine for last few services with no problems at all. PUK recommends it. It has a better viscocity when warm than the 0/40 brands which in many peoples opinion is important especially in the 4 pots.
Mobil 1 15/50 would be another good choice with a good high temp viscocity but would stick clear of anything lower than 50.

I'm sure someone can come up with a better technical reason, but my understanding is that the Lotus engine was designed with wider clearances and used a lowish pressure delivery of thicker oils more common at the time. Modern cars are designed with tighter clearances and thinner oil is required in their higher pressure systems.
Modern oil is generally produced for modern cars not older cars and has changed and developed with those cars.
There is all the friction reducers and other elements in oil that are applicable and make oil better, but if the system can't produce the required pressure throughout the whole system due to it flowing too fast then that is bad, synthetic or not ?

As for price of oil, 4 litres of castrol 10/60 is about 35GBP, Mobil 15/50 4litres 45GBP

Del
95 S4s


>> Edited by Del-Esprit on Thursday 9th September 11:33

[Dr.Hess]

I use the Mobil 1 15W50 in my car (89 non-SE). Wal*Mart charges about U$5/qt. Maybe I need to go into the oil export business to the UK. I could probably go down to Wally World, buy you 6 qts, FedEx it to you and still beat your local price.

Dr.Hess

[Del-Esprit]

If you could do that with petrol you have a deal

Oh the joy of high oil duties.

[okc-esprit]

Mobil 1 is a poly alpha olefin. Castrol Syntech is not. Do you know the base stock for the RS 10/60? If it isn't a POA, I would go with the Mobil 1 or another synthetic that is a POA.

[benfell100]

OIL !!!

this is all on Lotus Esprit World website but just flicking through my service notes, the 910/920 engines section says:
above 0 deg C
Agip F1 super motor oil 15W50
Castrol Formula RS 10W60
Elf Competition 20W50
Elf Competition S 15W50
Mobil 1 5W50
Valvoline racing oil 20W50

Below 0 deg C
Agip Sint 2000 10W40
BP Visco 2000+ 10W40
Castrol Formula RS 10W60
Elf Sporti 15W40
Mobil 1 5W50
Texaco Hovoline X1(sp!) 10W40 (Havoline?)
Valvoline XLD 15W40

If none of those available then use an oil with max low temp viscosity of 15W and a min high temp viscosity of 40 eg 15W40, 10W60 5W50 etc
4cyl takes 6.3 L , or 11.1 Imp gallons , or6.7 US qt

I use Mobil 1 15W50 Supersyn but the car has a sticker on it that says Lotus recommends Castrol Formula RS. Either is a good choice for the 4 pot. My oil pressure runs strong throughout the rev range.
Enjoy
Dom
94 S4




>> Edited by benfell100 on Thursday 9th September 21:47

[charlescrawley]

Thanks for all the replies.
I'd checked in the manual and Castrol RS was mentioned. I suppose stupidly I was more confused by firstly his use of the word "Gastrol" (thought it might be a slightly different brand name in Germany for some reason... Don't ask me why!), secondly his statement that Mobil 1 is unsuitable and thirdly I'm sort of getting my head round why so many different viscosities are actually okay and whether the type (syn or non-syn) makes for the different requirements for viscosity. (I've been reading opieoilman's interesting articles in General Gassing to understand the subject more fully).

Anyway, thanks for all the thoughts!

Cheers,

Charles

[dknighto]

I did quite a bit of reading about this when I first got my esprit when trying to decide whether or not to switch to synthetic and if so which to use.

Mobil 1 is one of the better synthetics out there, and given the price there's really no reason to run anything cheaper than that. Alot of people run this in their esprits without any problem.

From the statistics I read, Amsoil and RedLine are probably the best synthetic motor oils out there. Both are pretty expensive. If you don't get the "Racing" derivative of the the oil (and no one should actually need this in their road going esprit) Amsoil is about a dollar more per quart than Mobil 1. Redline only makes the "racing" derivative so going with them will always be big bucks.

I personally use Amsoil High Performance 20w/50 and I'm very satisfied with it. Also, even at 20w/50, pure synthetic has a lower pour point than fossil 10w/40 so you should be able to run it during the winter.

[Paula&Marcus]

Hi All,
IMHO the european Castrol RS 10W60 is the most suitable synthetic oil for the 4-Cylinder Esprits. The second number 60 is the important point here. Castrol RS is the only synthetic oil that has such a strong high temp. viscosity. As you know the 4-Cyl. Esprit engine has wider clearances unlike modern engines AND it has to face high thermically loads. Thats why we need a fully synthetic oil that has a max. high temp. viscosity. Castrol RS 10W60 is just ideal for this job. The Mobil W50 is the 2. choice but all W40 or even lower oils are NOT really up to the job on wide clearances when the engine is really hot !

Cheers
Marcus (www.PUKesprit.de)