Engine Oil Summary.

[DeeAitch]

xxx

[RayD]

All oils are tested when new; you would be horrified to find out how quickly some that pass can drop out of grade or loose their properties.

Quality oil is called Amsoil, Castrol Edge Motul etc with Mobil 1 realisticly being the minimum standard anyone should consider.

Don't skimp on the oil filter either A quality one is not made by Fram or Halfrauds as far as Im aware.

Amsoil, (sorry I don’t know your name)

Is it possible to list the oils which lose their properties?

Is it possible to identify which oils are quality ones? Apart from being almost alphabetic - which doesn’t say a lot for Valvoline – an ordinary person would be no wiser for reading your list. How does Mobil become a minimum standard, and which oils are above and below it?

I hadn’t heard of Amsoil until this week, and I’ve only vaguely heard of Motul

And filters – how do we start to classify them? Halfords filters are made by Fram.

Was there some confusion earlier with the SAE 60 and multigrade, or do you think it would be crazy to put 0W-60 in a M100?

Thank you
Ray

In the absence of an answer…

I understand - most of the major oil companies get their crude oil from whoever is supplying it at the cheapest price – apart from Q8 that is, they get theirs from Q8 – so presumably there will be times when Amsoil, Castrol, Motul and Mobil would get it from the same place.

There are only 3 companies who make the additives – I assume Mobil aren’t one of them so they must be getting theirs from the same place as the others.

How they come to be producing 'border line' oil is a mystery. They would have to be doing it on purpose.

Ray

[Specky]

How they come to be producing 'border line' oil is a mystery. They would have to be doing it on purpose.

IMHO...yep...

It's back to quality... fit for purpose at minamal cost...

No one to my knowledge is using the aeroshell range... but at upto 60 quid a litre you can ram it...

The wiki makes intresting reading... (our engines run on anything....)

TTFN

[amsoil]

Fit for purpose is an interesting subject; Filled for life in an auto box generally means 100,000 miles. If I had a car for 100,000 miles and looked after it with regular servicing etc I'd be ****** upset if it rolled over at 100,000 miles. Some people would be delighted with spending the minimum and having a car that just made it over whatever the percieved finishing line was before dying. Some want a car performing at its peak all the time..... This all means that there is room in the market place for oils and other components that just pass the minimum standards , right the way upto the oils etc that you might consider overkill in a normal road car. Bottom line is that the majority of customers want cheap and don't think about the 'real' cost. 95% for Mobil's sales are mineral oil, its simply supply and demand. Not even Mobil 1 is a full real synthetic these days in the UK. You will have to push them very hard to admit that though!

[Specky]

Fit for purpose is an interesting subject; Filled for life in an auto box generally means 100,000 miles. If I had a car for 100,000 miles and looked after it with regular servicing etc I'd be ****** upset if it rolled over at 100,000 miles. Some people would be delighted with spending the minimum and having a car that just made it over whatever the percieved finishing line was before dying. Some want a car performing at its peak all the time..... This all means that there is room in the market place for oils and other components that just pass the minimum standards , right the way upto the oils etc that you might consider overkill in a normal road car. Bottom line is that the majority of customers want cheap and don't think about the 'real' cost. 95% for Mobil's sales are mineral oil, its simply supply and demand. Not even Mobil 1 is a full real synthetic these days in the UK. You will have to push them very hard to admit that though!

Like I said... it depends on your definition of quality...


TTFN

[rip]

Amsoil, you seem to be knocking Mobil 1 with a large proportion of your postings.

Why has it got such a good reputation if it is not justified, and what alternative would you recommend?

[Elanlover]

Why has it got such a good reputation if it is not justified, and what alternative would you recommend?

Amsoil of course!


I use it and its quite good actually. (need a commission check smilie)

[RayD]

I use it and its quite good actually

When you say it's quite good, what do you mean, it's quite oily?

Ray

[amsoil]

Knocking Mobil? Not really although I so wish that Mobil 1 was actually the same quality product in the UK that it is in the USA. Very much like Castrols Magnatec is some ways; in Castrols case just one of the Magnatec range is a synthetic and all the rest are mineral. Guess which one features in all their advertising and gives everyone the idea that Magnatec is synthetic? Its these type of things I dislike. Having said that Castrol do make a top product in Castrol Edge, whereas IMHO Mobil 1 in the UK is the minimum standard of oil any caring driver should use. Having said this you have got to take off your hat to these big boys in how they do their marketing even if not appreciating the morals of it.

[rip]

Why has it got such a good reputation if it is not justified, and what alternative would you recommend?

Amsoil of course!


I use it and its quite good actually. (need a commission check smilie)

Or on Amsoil's www link for those in the UK.

Looks like you are really getting the most from it if you use long oil change intervals which is not what most of us want for our Elans, especially those of us with (& use ) turbos where carbon contamination is a major issue.

in Castrols case just one of the Magnatec range is a synthetic and all the rest are mineral. Guess which one features in all their advertising and gives everyone the idea that Magnatec is synthetic?

They are a bit crafty with that. You have to look hard to find whether it is synthetic/mineral, then find it is semi. I have read that semi offers very little advantage over mineral oils.

[Elanlover]

Looks like you are really getting the most from it if you use long oil change intervals which is not what most of us want for our Elans, especially those of us with (& use ) turbos where carbon contamination is a major issue.

Well, just because you "can" leave it in there for 15,000 km doesn't mean you have to. I'm changing mine once a year right after the winter thaw and before I start taking the car out on the road regularly. Works out to about every 3K miles/6k Km. I'm planning to replace the Ea filter once every 2 years.

[Costas]

I am using AMSoil and the engine works SMOOTH with NO PROBLEMS AT ALL for 3 years now since I ve highly tuned it, and allow me to say that I am treating it hard on daily basis (no spanking included ) So outta my experience AMSoil is perfect especially for tuned engines. Now I can easily push the car as long as I want and yet the temperature never rises to "red limits".

[Elanlover]

I'm using the Euro spec 5w-40. It can get a bit cooler here.

[mikeydude]

All I know is that when I swopped to mobil 1 I noticed two things that made me go for a thicker oil.....

1. I started to loose oil..in fact it seemed to be burning more and peeing it out of every orifice!

2. my top end rattled for alot longer after starting from cold.

I think older cars need a bit thicker oil.

[mikeydude]

All I know is that when I swopped to mobil 1 I noticed two things that made me go for a thicker oil.....

1. I started to loose oil..in fact it seemed to be burning more and peeing it out of every orifice!

2. my top end rattled for alot longer after starting from cold.

I think older cars need a bit thicker oil.

[RayD]

I think older cars need a bit thicker oil.

Mike,

and especially if they have more than a few miles on the clock.

Ray

[Monty]

All I know is that when I swopped to mobil 1 I noticed two things that made me go for a thicker oil.....

1. I started to loose oil..in fact it seemed to be burning more and peeing it out of every orifice!

2. my top end rattled for alot longer after starting from cold.

I think older cars need a bit thicker oil.

Infact you need thinner oil when starting from cold.

0w/40 is the same thickness as say 15w/40 at normal temp but the 0w/40 is thinner at cold so protects the engine better.

If you want thicker you need to jump to the 50`s ie 5w/50 or 10w/50

[amsoil]

Be a bit careful with oils that have a gap between the 2 numbers of 40 or even more. (ie 0w-40 5w-50 etc) These are generally 'weak' oils that have additives (VI's) viscocity improvers to stretch the difference between cold and hot thickness. The VI's resist the thinning effects of heat so the 5w-50 is actually a 5 grade oil that with the added VI's doesnt thin down like it should and when new can maintain a 50 grade hot. The VI's are long molecule chains and as such are litterally chopped up and broken by the piston rings and engine heat. They then cannot stop the natural thinning and the oil that you thought was thick is now no longer. You are better off with a quality 20w-50 unless you wish to change the oil often.

[RayD]

Thank you for that Amsoil,

It has been added to the Wiki

Ray

[rip]

Looks like you are really getting the most from it if you use long oil change intervals which is not what most of us want for our Elans, especially those of us with (& use ) turbos where carbon contamination is a major issue.

Well, just because you "can" leave it in there for 15,000 km doesn't mean you have to. I'm changing mine once a year right after the winter thaw and before I start taking the car out on the road regularly. Works out to about every 3K miles/6k Km. I'm planning to replace the Ea filter once every 2 years.

We appear to agree that better oils take longer to break down. My point is that if the cheaper oil is as good when new but starts to break down after 5000 miles and you change it before then anyway, surely it is just as suitable for the task required?

If you want to extend your oil change intervals, then that is another matter.