Oil Brand recomendations?

[Stezie]

Well folks
An oil change is due soon and I was wondering what oil you use or recommend.

semi or fully synthetic??


eannie - meannie - meinie - MOE!

[michaeli]

Do an oil flush then put Mobil 1 0W 40 in, you won't get noise from your lash adjusters and it's what Porsche remomend for their engines..

However, if your engine is V.High mileage, then go for something a little thicker...

[Kieran]

....However, if your engine is V.High mileage, then go for something a little thicker...

With around 95,000 miles on the clock, I use Miller's XFS Fully synthetic 5w/40. Keeps everything peachy!

/EDIT - Just noticed your engine is a 2.0..... In my GLS, I used Miller's XSS Smei synthetic 10w/40.

[DUNLY]

yeah def use semi synth 10/40w. wot i done was, emptied the old oil out, put in a cheap oil, tescos own does nicely, ran it for about 15/20 mins, put in a flush, then run it for another 15 mins, then empty that oil out again. Then put in good quality oil, think i used DXThree then put in wynns hydraulic valve Lifter Treatment in, this quietens the lashers down.
and now my engine purrs away, when its sitting, dont even know its running, quiet as a mouse.

hope this helps, theres loads of info on here about oil changes etc.
good luck

oh i, a changed the filter before i put the good oil in. and i think for oil brands, a lot of people use different ones on here, think its more what your happy with, and price wise to. it can range from £10/12 to £25 for litres of oil.

[I-S]

*ahem*AMSOIL*ahem*

[KEENY]

im using magnatech, not sure if its having the right effect yet cos i have only had the car two weeks and im not sure what the other guy was using.

[psbarham]

*ahem*AMSOIL*ahem*

i was just thinking that as i read through this , a mod should delete it before Don sees it

[venomboy]

i was just thinking that as i read through this , a mod should delete it before Don sees it

Sorry, I don't understand this comment?
My fault for not keeping up, could you explain?
(I'm very intersted in oil related matters at the moment)
VB

[pezza]

Am on my third change of silkolene pro race 5/40 and its superb.. I, unintentionally, ran the car to 4800 (due to a long motorway trip) and there was still no lash adjuster ticking when I eventually changed it last week....

[AllBeItMine]

dont use 0-x in a turbo car - its too thin. best oil for a turbo car is 5-40 fully senthetic.

for non turbo, low hp car, use something thicker again. semi-senthetic 10 or 15w-50.

i've used several different branded 5-40's in my vr4 and it doesn't seem to make *much* difference. i would recommend Elf out of the bunch i have used so far however as it just felt good.

[Kieran]

dont use 0-x in a turbo car - its too thin. best oil for a turbo car is 5-40 fully senthetic.

Explain?! I'm just about to put Amsoil 0w-30 in my car and this is one of the recommendations in the manual.... Thought the '0' just refered to it's cold viscosity?

I'm still going ahead anyway- so we'll see what effect it has!

[I-S]

Venomboy - Don (username Amsoil) is the UK amsoil distributor, who posts here and might have the same suggestion as me...

Dunno if Stezie is still following this thread, but the GLS manual is pretty clear in its suggestion of 10W40 for UK temperatures. I've just ordered my GLS some Amsoil AMO 10W40.

[amsoil]

All oils are not equal.
Performance Oils used to sell Redline/ Torco etc but awhile ago took the 'value judgment' to only sell the very best. That’s simply Amsoil. We will always go along with what a manufacturer recommends; they have after all designed the oil system for a particular viscosity of oil. How can a retailer know better than a manufacturer? There are of course some exceptions,
Amsoil produce a very special 0w-30 that is superior in film strength to a 40 weight oil. This oil is exceptional and there is no other oil available that can get close to it, be it 20 30 or 40 weight. It does however come at a premium price. The 0w first bit is the cold viscosity this means it will flow very well on startup and get to your bearings / turbo faster. You may consider this desirable. It also resists breaking down to such a degree that Amsoil advertise that it is good for upto 35K miles.
Now I too was once a disbeliever that such could be the case. I do however have a little car with a stressed and expensive engine as some of you may know. Being of an older design it was filled with the thicker and equally special Amsoil 20w-50 oil. I had planned on changing the oil after every other race (at about £200 a go ) but was given an oil test kit (£15 to you sir) which I used to see what the engine condition was like after the 2 races. The results showed that the engine was in good condition and also that the oil was fine and within spec. I therefore didn't change the oil and did 2 more races (2 races over the course of a weekend you understand) Had to buy the test kit this time and the results came back the same as before, all was fine. This went on all season and the next season. After 2 years of running a 45K engine without an oil change I no longer believed the results so I imported some special clevelitte 77 bearings and dropped the dry sump pan. After removing about 1/3 of the bearing caps it was clear that changing the bearings was a waste of time and that the danger was in me disturbing something. It all went back together and I did another year with the very same oil. This unintentional experiment only ended when a journalist put my car into the wall at Silverstone smashing the oil rads (and the rest). I believe in this product, no only do I believe my engine had the best money could buy but it saved me a fortune! It saved me from 8 oil changes a year for over 3 years at over £200 a go. The maths are easy; it is very rare to come across something this good that saves you this much.
So yes both Kieran and Isaac have the very best oil for their cars

[amsoil]

Looking back through this tread I see that the use of oil additives still occurs. Please don't do it. In the US the likes of Slick 50 STP etc etc have all been either closed down or had to pay huge sums into court. Should be easy enough for people to find out about but if my falable memory is correct it cost Slick50 0.8 million and STP 5 million or so. Any oil worth its salt can do without any additives. If an oil has broken down to such a point that an additive appears to work you should be asking yourself other questions. It would appear that about 1/3 of well known oils can break down to the extent that they fall out of index within 30 stokes of a test engine!!!! Thats quicker than you can start and get into gear!

[I-S]

I will hold you to this Don.

The problem I've currently got is that the oil in my engine has turned into tar (or it's going that way...). However, I don't drive the car hard, and it's still not reached the manufacturer's recommended oil change period (1 year/9000 miles), but it's sounding like a bag of spanners on start-up.

Thus, to me, the test will be whether the engine starts sounding like that again this time next year, or whether the oil has lasted the course. We shall see.

[Kieran]

And to blow Amsoil's trumpet a bit more (oo-er!! ), one of todays jobs was a ultra-super-ninja engine flush and refill, as I was about 800 miles beyond my (self-imposed) 3,000 mile oil change limit. In went some amsoil Series 2000 0w-30. You can tell this ain't no ordinary oil by the way it looks and pours. I look forward to seeing how it performs in a daily driver. Hell, even the Amsoil engine flush is something new - it doesn't look like oil with a dash of white spirit in it for a start!

The Amsoil ATF goes in to the car tomorrow, along with the Severe Gear EP lubricant in the rear diff and transfer box.

Yes, it's expensive, but I think it is worth the investment. And most other Amsoil users on here would agree with me I think.

[amsoil]

I will hold you to this Don.

The problem I've currently got is that the oil in my engine has turned into tar (or it's going that way...). However, I don't drive the car hard, and it's still not reached the manufacturer's recommended oil change period (1 year/9000 miles), but it's sounding like a bag of spanners on start-up.

Thus, to me, the test will be whether the engine starts sounding like that again this time next year, or whether the oil has lasted the course. We shall see.

Might be worth while in this case to run an engine flush first. Your new oil is mearly good for 1 year/ 25K miles just cross my fingers that your big ends are.

[Opie Oils]

If we are talking brands, I rate and sell Mobil, Silkolene, Motul, Fuchs, Castrol and Amsoil and each has it's advantages. Price vs quality, price vs performance and out and out performance for extreme applications.

Pick a decent 0w-40 or 5w-40 proper pao/ester based synthetic for uk climate and it can be used all year round in most the cars on this forum. Unless oil temps are extreme there is no need to use an sae 50 or sae 60.

For track addicts a decent "race" 5w-40 or 10w-40 will handle bulk oil temps up to 120degC, after that a 10w-50 or 15-50 will give more headroom.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Simon
http://www.opieoils.co.uk