S2 #378 (Steve) - hopefully only light fixes

[TorqueHorse]

Thanks for the tip on the leads

Isn't that giving you a lead on a lead?

Hope the injectors work for you!

[378S2]

Nice dad joke!

Well, to be fair there's absolutely nothing wrong with the old ones so I am completely wasting my time. I will begin to think of this like the mission I went on to fix the secondary throttle when I convinced myself I was going to get an extra 20BHP out of it.

[Saltire]

I can confirm that I’ve had Kingsborne leads on my car for the last two years and they’ve never missed a beat [TemptingFateMode=OFF]

They were very helpful when I rang and spoke to them too. Just a word of warning, though: they do two sizes (diameters) of lead; IIRC 6mm and 8mm. I did try the 8mm, but found them a pretty tight fit at the plug end, so I swapped for 6mm, and they were fine.

[Fredjohn]

I too have Kingsbourne, for about 8-9yrs.

No problems at all and yes 6mm.

[MPx]

IIRC 6mm and 8mm. I did try the 8mm, but found them a pretty tight fit at the plug end, so I swapped for 6mm, and they were fine.

Interesting. I posted elsewhere that my set of Kingsborne leads lasted about 8 years/8k miles before disintegrating. I would have chosen the 8mm (bigger always better - right? ) and I remember they were very tight to fit. I guess they could have been potentially mishandled when in for services/plug changes which might explain why they were falling apart and a 1cm electrode gap in one...if they were pulled out by the wire. So 6mm the way to go then.

[FunElan]

I have the 8mm in blue and they fit fine on my car. Just changed plugs a few weeks ago and had no issues

[378S2]

Coils and leads swapped, and I’m going to give it 3 placebo points for improved performance. I think I’ve got a smoother idle and less hesitation in acceleration. My old leads had at least one rub where I’d had to add insulation tape, so they needed it and one of the coils looked to be from 1995.

I couldn’t find any leads that were a good swap but I did find some for less than $9 a lead that’ll do until some bespoke ones arrive.

The coils are identical, and very easy to get here since the Commodore V6 is everywhere you look. If anyone needs some let me know and I’ll bring them to the UK in January.

Not perfect, but better.

8mm fitted fine. The ends are wrong but I don't see that it'll matter much. With the old ones I still got water pooling around the plugs when I washed the engine bay that needed blowing out with compressed air.

For the leads I had to 'make a plan' - 30min sorting through the store room at my local shop found some that’ll do for now. They're 8mm and are almost the right length.

Goss C421 (check out the bling gold terminals) and the original OEM unit with the plug numbers on.

I’m adding one bonus placebo point because I now reliably have 0.6bar boost.

[FunElan]

Interesting white face gauges....they look cool!

Oil still cold? That's higher pressure than I see on a warm engine.

[378S2]

Hi FunElan - no that's hot. I'm using 10W-60 Castrol Edge Supercar, and to be fair that was running at full pelt. At idle it drops to ~2bar when hot, ~5bar when cool, and sticks around that limiting value when cold. Sometimes it will be sitting on 5bar while I'm driving, other times it'll be at that value.

Do you (or does anyone else) think I should be using a thinner oil?

[RonR]

Considering the boost gauge is at 0.6 bar I reckon you must have been doing 3000+ revs at the time?
What's the oil pressure at Idle, hot and cold?

[378S2]

Hi Ron. Probably closer to 5k RPM I would guess. At idle it drops to ~2bar when hot, ~5bar when cool, and sticks around that limiting value when cold. Sometimes it will be sitting on 5bar while I'm driving, other times it'll be at that value.

I've been using 10W60 because I read in the manual that was the most preferred, but I also read that 10W30 is preferred too. So I dunno!

[FunElan]

Your climate is similar to mine in Los Angeles...if it were me, I'd switch to 10w30 or 5w40 for your next oil change. Does the motor have high mileage? I use a thick oil in my high mileage BMW so the oil doesn't all spill out of the seals!

At cold startup, I see about 8-9.5 bar. After a minute, cold idle reads 5 bar, and up to 8 bar when revving (low revs).

Warmed up, idle is almost always just under 2 bar, and 5 bar when on the move. If water temp increases, oil pressure decreases on these scales by a bit, naturally. I recall my chemistry classes, PV = nRT

[378S2]

I will give that a go and let you know.

Here's what I don't understand though...

[FunElan]

Interesting...where is that from? The Manual scanned here is different, page 56: https://b64c533c-a9e4-41d4-a41f-7b1948b ... 6c2779.pdf

[378S2]

That is interesting, my photo is from the S2 manual I got with the car, whereas that link is obviously the original. Same engine though, so I remain confused!

I missed one of your questions, reasonably high mileage ~185k km. It runs beautifully though and has good compression / leakage on all 4 and staggering though it is I have no signs of age at all other than the turbo compressor has been sand blasted a little, and the rubber hoses needed to be changed. I have wondered if it's been rebuilt at some point but have not been able to verify it.

[chrism]

I get the feeling that when our cars were launched 'racing' stuff eg RS, Mobil 1, MXV tyres etc were exciting 'necessities' for such a dashing and sporting heritage.

Nowadays we find normal tyres and normal oils (even oat coolant, heaven forbid...) are better v-f-m and just as good, perhaps better.

I think 5or10W/30or40 covers all but the most extreme conditions and gives those 'normal' oil pressure readings. I find 10W/40 eliminates start up rattle, warms up just as quickly and can be bought in 4l packs, reasonably.

(Am I being cynical? Ours is not a racing engine and our turbos aren't made of cheese. Magnatech 10w/40 semi-synth A3/B4 (changed yearly with a new filter) fulfils all my aspirations.)

Yeah, if I went 'tracking' it might encourage me to get racier 'synth' oil, tyres + coolant perhaps - but not for winding my way soberly in between potholes valuing my top-down Elan experience, as many of us do...

[dapinky]

It is important to remember that oil (and every other) technology changed between the time of the SE, and that of the S2 - so with the benefit of the 'newer' stuff, together with the real-world experience of several thousand users, it is unsurprising that the oil recommendations change through time (and possibly even for the market it was sold in).

Nowadays, with things as they are, I use 10w60 Fuchs Titan Supersyn - this gives me pretty similar pressures to the OP using the same viscosity oil, and I have 140K miles on my unit.

I no longer track my car, so I am happy with the numbers, as the turbo lubrication isn't so much of an issue as it would be when running it under maximum load at all times.

Sometimes I look at the oil gauge and think that it is a tad high, but it hasn't changed really over the past 5 years that I've been using this oil..... I always found it to be too low when I was using 5w30 oil previously, and was "best" when using 15w40 (but there doesn't seem to be a big selection of synthetic oils in that viscosity, so used semi-synth.... probably no difference for the mileages I currently do anyway).

My choice for the next change is to either go for semi-synthetic, go for 10w50 synth, or even mix a thinner oil with 10w60 to get something closer to optimum. The great thing about oil viscosities is that they mix in a linear fashion - so 50% 0w30, with 50% 10w60 will give you a result of 5w45........ so if I mix 33% 10w30 with 67% 10w60 I will end up with 10W50

[Tuga2112]

what reading on that dial do you guys consider "normal"

[378S2]

Thanks Dave. I’m due a change soon I think, so I’ll go for this stuff again which is what the previous owner was using. It’s a better price and is what comes up when you ask Penrite what oil the car wants.

[FunElan]

I'm betting that at the end of the day...it doesn't matter much, and whatever oil you use will be fine if you change it often enough. Glad to hear your engine is still healthy at over 100k miles. Mine has 57k and I'm nervous about it all the time!

One of the things that gives me hesitation with high oil pressures are our weak oil cooler lines. I'm aware that the defect is typically the crimps, but for some reason, I get nightmares of high pressure blowing the lines off. But then again, I'm irrational and nervous when it comes to everything breaking