Oily Stuff

Crash Test · 30 Apr 2003, 13:05 (Ref:584989)

Q: What sort of oil do you put in your road car and why? Did you see a good tv ad, or support your race team? Go on advice, necessity, or something we don't know? Does price come into it? Do you even put oil in your car?

Logrence · 30 Apr 2003, 13:25 (Ref:585016)

I picked the nicest looking box - not the most expensive, but not the cheapest one in Halfords.

garcon · 30 Apr 2003, 14:08 (Ref:585075)

I pay my Subaru dealer handsomely to put overpriced synthetic Mobil 1 in mine. Not necessarily by choice, but rather because that's what they always put in it, and it's the best of the recommended type. So I guess if I get round to having to top up, I'll put Mobil 1 in it too.

I could have opted to use 98 octane fuel in it too, but since it's an extra 4 or 5 pence a litre I decided against it. Advice was stick with one or the other - 98 would give slightly better performance in some circumstances, but I think I can live without that...

sss · 30 Apr 2003, 17:26 (Ref:585321)

tescos

AndyF · 30 Apr 2003, 18:07 (Ref:585381)

Does it really make any difference? What does it do to the car to improve performance?

Mattracer · 30 Apr 2003, 23:41 (Ref:585765)

Mobil 1. (5w/40)

It does make a difference what oil is used. Not necessarily to improve performance, though that is a benefit, but for the protection of the internals, particularly when running cold.

graham bahr · 1 May 2003, 19:39 (Ref:586609)

a couple of years ago we upgraded the spec of engine oil(we were already using a good quality oil, castrol actually) that we fill our service customers cars with, why? because we can make more money out of dearer oils! for my cars both road and race i stuck with cheaper GTX.

most car manufacturers are now specifying very high spec oils because they are using very long service intervals, great in the short term, but in the long term i believe it to be bad, i see a lot of engines that have been serviced by the book but the engines are still rather dirty inside, i would say its better to use a cheaper oil and change it more often. what you should be looking at is the oil specification or API grade check out the last letter of the grade if you want to try to compare different oils ie an SFJ grade is better than an SFH, if you look at the oil companys application list for an oldish car you will probably find they recomend a higher spec oil than existed when the car was new, i would say go for a middle of the road spec oil but not from one of the major brands as you will be paying extra for the name, but change it regulary.
dirty sludged up engines used to be a thing of the past, but they are coming back.

Amaroo Park · 2 May 2003, 10:31 (Ref:587139)

Mobil 1 5w/50. I have always used it then I stopped for a couple of oil changes and had an increase in fuel consumption. Went back to mobil 1 and the fuel consumption improved again back to what it was previously

KC · 2 May 2003, 13:06 (Ref:587322)

I use Valvoline in the Focus. We use Castrol 10W-40 or 10W-50 depending on temperature in the race boat engine. Methanol fuel is hard on the oil and it gets changed once every race weekend minimum.

I do think oil matters. In today's engines, whiich have composite plastics, aluminum, and other non-ferrous alloys in them require specific lubricant additives to make these parts last longer.

There was an interesting article in Road & Track a few years ago written by the engineer responsible for the performance oils made by Mobil for their racing department. He would not give specs on the oils being used by McLaren and Penske at the time, but he said it was in the 00 weight range. He also made some interesting observations about road car oils. He said that expensive synthetic oils truly only benefitted the engiones being run in extreme conditions. The oil was originally designed to run in sub-arctic conditions without gelling. It also has a good range into super high temperatures as well. He also recommended that diesel oil be used in older cars. The reason behind this is that the newer oils do not have water inhibitors and wax added to them because the newer cars do not need them. Engines have a bad habit of developing condensation in them as they heat and cool and older engines are especially susceptible to rust damage and corrosion and the diesel engine oil still has the older formulas that include wax and additives to help deal with this.

Amaroo Park · 3 May 2003, 12:18 (Ref:588414)

Quote:

Originally posted by KC
I use Valvoline in the Focus. We use Castrol 10W-40 or 10W-50 depending on temperature in the race boat engine. Methanol fuel is hard on the oil and it gets changed once every race weekend minimum.

I do think oil matters. In today's engines, whiich have composite plastics, aluminum, and other non-ferrous alloys in them require specific lubricant additives to make these parts last longer.

There was an interesting article in Road & Track a few years ago written by the engineer responsible for the performance oils made by Mobil for their racing department. He would not give specs on the oils being used by McLaren and Penske at the time, but he said it was in the 00 weight range. He also made some interesting observations about road car oils. He said that expensive synthetic oils truly only benefitted the engiones being run in extreme conditions. The oil was originally designed to run in sub-arctic conditions without gelling. It also has a good range into super high temperatures as well. He also recommended that diesel oil be used in older cars. The reason behind this is that the newer oils do not have water inhibitors and wax added to them because the newer cars do not need them. Engines have a bad habit of developing condensation in them as they heat and cool and older engines are especially susceptible to rust damage and corrosion and the diesel engine oil still has the older formulas that include wax and additives to help deal with this.

with diesels oils though you would have to be very careful NOT to use a detergant diesel oil.........

ss_collins · 3 May 2003, 18:40 (Ref:588638)

Castrol GTX with Millers additives - though I may soon go over to using Millers with Eclipse

Airhead · 4 May 2003, 21:56 (Ref:589578)

In the Ducati Fuchs Silkolene synthetic, it's expensive and probably a waste of money seeing the bike is water cooled but you gotta pamper the baby.

Neil C · 6 May 2003, 13:43 (Ref:590995)

I use expensive Mobil 1 synthetic because:
1. I do my own oil changes and synthetics allow me to change oil twice a year rather than 4 times (I drive about 28k miles/year)
2. I live in cold weather climate. Synthetics maintain viscosity better in below zero climes. Nothing wears an engine more than cold weather starts with a lump of thick petroleum in your crankcase.
3. They offer a variety of "weights" from 5w to 50w

shiny side up! · 8 May 2003, 19:31 (Ref:593896)

I have tried 0 weight oil in a race car and a couple of karts. In karts is was absolute

, actually lost 2 motors on it... the oiling system in a Briggs engine is too primitive, you need the viscosity! It worked OK in the car engine, but too expensive when you figure in the extra oil changes.

I witnessed a NASCAR team running tests on different oils (full synthetics), they saw pretty significant differences between some of the bigger brands here in the US in terms of wear, not much in the way off power/lower friction. The winner was Quaker State, believe it or not. (Coincidentally, QS is one of their secondary sponsors, but I saw the test being run and saw the disassembled motors, so I know they didn't cheat!!!) There is also a wonderful oil additive called Militec One that is pretty good stuff developed for the Military...