Oil advice and recommendations here

[lesz42saxo]

oilman, just got a free bottle of mobil 1 0w-40w, that ok for my standard Y reg VTR? seems thin! but ok?

[oilman]

Yes thats fine mate, its good stuff.

Cheers

Guy.

[lesz42saxo]

thanks oilman! for the fast reply! car seems smoother!


another ?,

my bro has a W reg, suzuki grand vitara, 2000cc, what oil? any idea?


thanks!!

[oilman]

10w-40 semi synthetic as the cost option, the quality route would be a 5w-40 full synthetic.

Cheers

Guy.

[oilman]

Feel free to ask all your oil related quaestions here.

Cheers
Guy

[vtrchris64]

Going to be changing my oil soon so gonna put a 5w-40 oil in, what brand would you recommend as a top option?

Car is a 1.6 vtr with 80k mainly used for short journeys.

[oilman]

As the very best you are looking at the Silkolene Pro S or the Motul 300v as these are ester based oils. The very top ofthe oil tree

Cheers

Guy.

[CHRI5]

1997 Saxo VTS
1.6 16v
55k miles

bmc induction kit, s.s. cat back exhaust

driven hard on all roads daily , may do some 1/4 miles

recommendations for engine + gearbox please, and how often

think it has 10w 40 semi synth in it now

cheers

[oilman]

Chris,

The quality option is for a 5w-40 full synthetic changed every 8,000 miles or so. top options would be the Silkolene Pro S or the Motul.

For the gearbox you will need a good 75w-90 gear oil, again the fully synthetic Silkolene Syn5 75w-90 or the Motul gear300 would be my choice.

Cheers

Guy.

[CHRI5]

Ok, thanks for the reply mate.

Although my mate just read your post over my shoulder here and laffed a lot, basically saying dont be so stupid, I would never need fully synth oil for my car, and that only track cars or cars with turbos need that.

Please tell me he's wrong cause he's one of these twats that thinks he's always right and knows everything about cars!

Cheers

[oilman]

Yes semi synthetic is fine, but they are all mineral based oils... good but true synthetics are designed to do the job, not convereted to do so and are better, its not all about does your car need it... its about is it better for your car and yes it is and thats a fact.

Ive has a dig around some old posts, get your mate to read this, its long but true.

SYNTHETICS vs MINERALS

Oil is the lifeblood of your vehicle's engine. For decades conventional petroleum
oils have been providing adequate protection for all of our vehicles.

The key word here is adequate. Petroleum oils, for the most part, have done an adequate job of protecting our engines from break down. If you change it often enough, you can be relatively sure that your car will last 100,000 to 150,000 miles without a serious engine problem - maybe even longer.

The real question is, why settle for adequate when something better has been available for
about 30 years?

Today's engines are built for better performance, and, although petroleum oils are designed for better protection and performance today than they were 10 or 20 years ago, there is only so much that can be done. Today's engines need high performance lubricants, and the only true ones available are synthetics.

Conventional petroleum oils are insufficient for use in today's vehicles primarily because they are manufactured from a refined substance, contain paraffins (wax), sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, water, salts and certain metals. All of these contaminants must be refined out of the basestock in order for it to be useful for use within a lubricant.

Unfortunately, no refining process is perfect. Impurities will always remain when any refining process is done. It simply isn't economical to continue to refine the oil again and again to remove more impurities. If this was done, petroleum oils would cost as much as synthetic oils do.

There are many components of petroleum oil basestocks which are completely unnecessary for protecting your engine. They do absolutely nothing to enhance the lubrication properties of the oil. In fact, most of these contaminants are actually harmful to your oil and your engine.

Some of the chemicals in conventional petroleum lubricants break down at temperatures well within the normal operating temperature range of your engine. Others are prone to break down in these relatively mild temperatures only if oxygen is present. But, this is invariably the case anyway, especially since oxygen is one of the contaminants within petroleum basestocks.

These thermally and oxidatively unstable contaminants do absolutely nothing to aid in the lubrication process. They are only present in conventional petroleum oils because removing them would be impossible or excessively expensive.

When thermal or oxidative break down of petroleum oil occurs, it leaves engine components coated with varnish, deposits and sludge. In addition, the lubricant which is left is thick, hard to pump and maintains little heat transfer ability.

In addition, petroleum oils contain paraffins which cause dramatic oil thickening in cold temperatures. Even with the addition of pour point depressant additives, most petroleum oils will begin to thicken at temperatures 10 to 40 degrees warmer than synthetic oils.

As a result, petroleum lubricants will not readily circulate through your engine's oil system during cold weather. This may leave engine parts unprotected for minutes after startup. Obviously, significant wear can occur during this time frame.

Even when all conditions are perfect for conventional oils to do their job, they fall far short of synthetic oils. Part of the problem is that (because of their refined nature) petroleum oils are composed of molecules which vary greatly in size. As the oil flows through your vehicle's lubrication system, the small, light molecules tend to flow in the center of the oil stream while

[CHRI5]

I read through your reply and it does makes sense.

My mate had a look and still wasnt convinced, his point now is that the difference with using fully synth would be so small that it wouldnt be worth doing it, so theres no point even over the long term.

So would there be a noticable diff going to fully synth?

Cheers

[oilman]

They are all listed above mate, its one of those things where you need to rely on the chemsitry of it all, but yes if you want to do the best for your engine then Synthetic is it, considering that a true synthetic will also last over twice a long as a mineral based oil they are cheaper in the long run too.

Cheers

Guy.

[lesz42]

well i put in mobil 0w-40 in, and made a huge diffrence!

engine is smoother, does 15 miles or so more to the tank, but the biggest diffrence is in engine temp

before it was always about 2/3 mm above half-way mark

now about 4 mm below, and only going above in traffic/stand still

[DAZ1985]

What is best for 98bhp VTR with Viper, Manifold, Full s/s ??????????

Driven hard on a daily basis and i also get shit mpg

Your help needed! THANKS

[daveg_vtr]

vtr black top 87000miles
285 cam,manifold,system,enclosed induction,piggybak ecu
mostly normal driving sometimes driven hard.

[Mr_Hush]

Originally Posted by oilman

According to my database all Saxos from the 1.0 to the 1.6VTS show either 10w-40 or 5w-40 as the recomended engine oil.

So what the whole oil debate here boils down to is not what grade to use, you have a choice it's 5w-40 or 10w-40.

The questions are

What quality do you need

What are the differences between 10w-40 and 5w-40

What are the benefits/downsides of using 10w-40 or 5w-40

Many car owners unwittingly change the OEM oil recommendation by modding their car or using it on track. These factors influence firstly the quality of oil you use and in extreme situations where cars have been heavily modded (generating more heat within the engine) sometimes the viscosity required.

I have a lot of articles on this stuff, some written bu me and some by chemists and technical bods that I have day to day dealings with.

I will post these up over the coming days as questions arise but here is one that will be of interest.

Cheers
Simon

i just done an oil change and used castrol edge sport 0w 40 as it says its the ultimate protection for the 1.6 saxo engine

[oilman]

Originally Posted by DAZ1985

What is best for 98bhp VTR with Viper, Manifold, Full s/s ??????????

Driven hard on a daily basis and i also get shit mpg

Your help needed! THANKS

The quality route is for a 5w-40 full synthetic, the cost option a 10w-40 semi synthetic changed twice as often.

Brand wise, we rate Silkolene and Motul as tops.

Cheers

Guy.

[oilman]

Originally Posted by daveg_vtr

vtr black top 87000miles
285 cam,manifold,system,enclosed induction,piggybak ecu
mostly normal driving sometimes driven hard.

Same as above mate.

Cheers

Guy.

[DAZ1985]

Originally Posted by oilman

The quality route is for a 5w-40 full synthetic, the cost option a 10w-40 semi synthetic changed twice as often.

Brand wise, we rate Silkolene and Motul as tops.

Cheers

Guy.

Thanks for the reply

I've already got 10w-40 semi-synth magnatec in. Not the best but not bad for the money I think. I change my oil every 6months at least without fail.

Another question >>

I've been told everytime I oil change its sometimes best to use engine flush 1st to remove the old stuff completely out of this system. Is this correct and should I need to do it when i change my oil ???
I've also been told that adding some oil additives can protect you engine and also make them annoying tappets a little less noisy. Would this be true ???

Thanks again for your help