Lawsy

Stick with the 10w-40, its already thinner than most 10w's anyway, but not quite a 5ws... I still believe 0w oils in the Ford I6 is a waste of money (since, on average, 0w oils are more expensive than 5w or 10w). We're getting to a point with oils where the difference between the very good and truly great oils is becoming less apparent. Just don't be stupid about it. Only buy full synthetic oils, from the best brands that these fella's recommend, in the right viscosity range (5w or 10w to 30 40 or 50 depending on your conditions). Until you start buying engines from SPIKO you shouldn't be to concerned about engine life, and the half watt of power you'll gain from changing your Motul to Royal Purple just isn't worth it.

I want to see someone do a custom projector mould for the Falcon. In the states, you see custom moulded housings in Corvettes and what not and it doesn't look that hard. Its literally just a mould into the current shaped assembly with a high quality pair of projector housings mounted in the mould... IE, you would make a dummy mould with a dummy set of optics in the mould and then cut it to fit the real deal, allowing for minor focal adjustments at the same time. With a quality set of optics in the projectors you could make it look fairly sweet, as well as overcome a lot of the "apparent" legalities around HID's... Put it this way, if you have projectors, most cops haven't the slightest clue about self levelling... And if they're (your lights) focussed correctly then they (cops) won't even look at you twice. I honestly haven't a clue why no one has done this yet, it really isn't that hard, and as long as you purchase a quality set of optics, you'll have a projected image (the shape and cuttoff sharpness) comparable to a Libery or an Accord Euro... And that, in a Falcon, would be sweet.... PS, I have projectors in my old BG 323 with 55w HID's, but because I'm a perfectionist (its bloody anoying) the focus of my lights does not dazzle anyone, unlike standard Accord Euro's which are set to 0° from the factory (utter morons I swear... You'd think they would have noticed). Always set HID's to around -2° or even -3° below the horizontal, standard halogens should be around -1.5° depending on the distance to the ground from the center of the projection lense (the higher your headlights are off the ground, the more angle you can use for the safety of others, without reducing your beam length too much)....

For anyone else, try using the nulon diff and gearbox treatment. If it works towards a 30% service life increase in a 100 tonne dump truck, it sure as hell will help with near on 600 Newton meters being thrown at it through a differential...

That's fair enough Santo, you're not alone there that's for sure mate. Oils is a pain in the ass until you get to the bottom of the barrel and work your way up from there, so to speak... Here's the trick with oils though mate, by its very nature you're not going to really notice a "problem" as such. You never will, really, unless you've got it completely wrong (which you haven't, you've stuck with the right viscosity, which is the most important thing and you've got it spot on, so 10 points there). Its the hidden benefit that you're missing out on though... In your case, you're motor has run from new (I assume) on magnatec. Now there's nothing wrong with that, it is a good oil, I just personally don't like it because of the ridiculous marketing that goes with it. That being said, you should notice a slight improvement in smoothness and a slight drop in your fuel economy if you were to switch to the Nulon oil. Put it this way, you have two choices. Protection wise, the 10w-40 is going to exceed the current protection performance you're motor is getting with the magnatec. You'll simply be losing less power due to pumping loss, therefor gaining in the economy area. So that's an improvement in economy and performance as well as a slight improvement in protection. The second option you have is the 15w-50. Now, for all intents and purposes, due to having a greater reduction in friction and being on the thinner side of things for a 15w-50, the engine will have to work just as hard as it does now to pump the oil around. So your engine will be none the wiser as such. But you'll significantly gain in the protection area, just not in the performance or economy area, as the difference will be negligible. And as to your fully synthetic question, no, it can not hurt going to a fully synthetic, you can only benefit from the higher sheer strength, a more stable viscosity and detergent package as well as a higher resistance to oxidisation. There are no negatives other than price, but you gain more in the protection/economy stakes to more than compensate for the price difference. Now I know you love doing your oil changes every 5-7 thou, but if you switch to the Nulon, try and make it an even 8 or 10... You're simply wasting money here (assuming you don't thrash the pants off it on a daily basis). If you do thrash it dailing, then fine, every 5 thou, but even then, there isnt much point. If you service at a consistant 8 thousand, you'll be a happy camper in the pocket and your engine will be a happy camper as well. Also note, supercheap sell the 10w-40 in a 6L bottle for almost the same price as the 5L bottle, which is one of the reasons I recommend so much, you get more oil and more a better performing oil for your money.... Hope that clears it up.

Not a lot of info on the Fuchs out there, and its hard to find these days, though supercheap can order it if you speak to the right people. I'd still stay away from the 5w oils though, its simply of no benefit for this application; you simply do not have the need for it! I've had a quick look regarding the magnatec and what I've found pretty much backs up everything I said in my previous post. Magnatec is simply a mineral oil with a very small percentage of ester based synthetic mixed in to give the oil a weak electrostatic charge. I still think that with the right viscosity, this sort of effect isn't really required. If you look after your engine, make sure you've got some heat into the oil before WOT runs, then your engine will suffer little damage anyways. But you must run the correct viscosity to stay protected. If an oil is too thin, the residual layer the oil will leave on all lubricated surfaces will not have sufficient shear strength to prevent metal to metal contact, no matter how good the oil is. Having the correct viscosity oil means that the residual layer of oil on critical surfaces is capable of preventing most of this contact until the oil pressure is up and the oils molecules have a chance to stretch out, providing greater protection at a reduced viscosity.... That last point is where about 99.9% of everyone glides over without having any idea that they just read the very thing that makes modern oils do what they do. These molecules that stretch out are in an oil to combat the viscosity reduction oils go through when subjected to heat and pressure. lol I just though of a really stupid analogy for this... Say you have a doorway that is 1m wide, and you're short distance away. You have a small period of time to get to the door and keep it open. So you send in a really fat bloke, who is a little more than 1m wide. He gets up to speed and runs to the door as fast as he can and just gets stuck. That's what a cheap thick oil at running temp is like (or a good oil in very cold temperatures). He still keeps the door open, but he's just being a wedge which is taking its toll on him (he's taking a beating for it). Clearly this isn't the most efficient way of doing things because it took a whole lot of energy to get up to speed and the poor bloke is stopping the door from closing by just being in the way, so he's getting all squished the poor bastard.... Why not just get a really fit, strong bloke to run into the same door with his arms stretched out... He'll still get stuck in the doorway and his strength is much higher, thus he can keep the door open using strength, rather than size, for longer. He took a whole lot less energy to get there and he got there a whole lot faster as well. that's what a quality oil of the correct viscosity is doing at full operational temperature... The stretched out arms are the key here, the oil is still thin enough to be easily pumped around (or get up to speed in my example), but the molecules (arms) are stretched out, preventing the oil from just getting out of the way when heat and pressure is applied. The oil will attempt to hold its ground and resist being squashed. Ok, that's the most retarded analogy I think I've ever thought up, but it does the trick.... So I'm going to leave now before I get anymore stupid idea's....

Esters are electrostaticly charged so they have a tendancy to cling to metals. If you read one of my first posts I mention how oils have a tendancy to creep through small gaps when under pressure or exposed to a force (ie, gravity), but there is a point where if the gap is small enough, or the oil is thick enough, then you can almost prevent creep all together. If the oil also has an attractive force towards the surface, obviously this is going to greatly reduce the oils creep by a significant amount, which allows a thinner oil to have the same creep properties as a thicker one, which obviously helps leave more residual lubrication on critical parts. This is how ester based synthetic oils get such high cold start performance figures, as more of the oil is lubricating the engine when cold due to less of the oil creeping while the engine isn't on. As far as I'm aware, Magnatec is only like 5%-10% synthetic (most semi synthetics have a fairly low synthetic percentage).... But I'm just guestimating here, if anyone can be bothered to check then please give me the right numbers. Heres the catch though. Its semi synthetic, with a low proportion of ester. Only the ester base of the oil can cling, so you have to ask yourself: Is the ester part of the oil seperating itself to cling to the metal (this woud be catastrophic if it were true)? or, Is the already low in amplitude force being spread out over a larger area? Which would be effectively decreasing the force to 1/20 (5%) of a fully ester based oil since the ester base is so diluted throughout the oil. In other words, the film left behind after a night out in the cold would be similar (ever so slightly thicker) as a regular non ester based oil. Considering the film is already going to be quite thin and easily breakable (the film is only residual oil left behind due to surface tension) a slight increase in surface tension is going to make very little difference, even if we consider the fact that even a slight increase in surface tension would reduce the oils propensity to creep, it's just not enough to write home about... The short of it is that there are far more important properties to an oils overall performance than increasing its ability to cling by an insignificant amount, which is like going from having almost no lubrication at start up, to having slightly more than almost no lubrication at start up... I'll be back in a few hours and freshen up on some research then I'll let you know after that what other crap you should be more worries about... Hope this helps a tad

That's a nice way to waste money and kill your oil pump. Yes yes.... He's back. Hi. I'm going to make this so easy that if you get it wrong from now on then you must hate your car. If you're stock, use a 5w/10w/15w - 40/50. You're retarded if you use anything outside of this range in a stock/mild motor... If you run lots of grunt, stick with the 50. What NOT to use... Anything with a 0w or 20w Anything with a 70 in it. I was about to say anything that's a 60, and I'd like to infact, but a 60 grade does have its place; on the track.. And since FPV (sigh) recommend it, then I can't say they're complete morons now can I (I'd like to though, an index of 60 is just rediculous for this engine, but whatever...). There you go, I got on here and found something interesting again, got to sound smart (and arrogant) again and type something in pink (my fiancee loves pink... She'll be proud of me). My recommended oil list Nulon 10w-40 (for most intents and purposes; you're a bit silly if this isn't your first choice). Nulon 15w-50 (if you have more grunt), Royal Purple 10w-40 (its just very good oil), Penrite sin 15w-40 (same again, very good), Penright HPR10 10w-50 (bargain hunters choice if you wanna save a 10er, fantastic semi synthetic (best I know of infact)), Mobile 1 5w-50 (very good oil, but warm it up a bit first, its my least recommended, recommended oil, for no other reason than its a 5w...). that's all I can think of right now.... And I probably wont add to this list because I'll forget to post here again for another year or so... So just follow the above rules.... The sweetspot, in my opinion, is any quality fully or semi synthetic oil in the 10w range that thins to a 40 or 50... I can not make this any easier for you, if you somehow get it wrong from this point on, then you should smack yourself.

Everyone BUT HUSTLER says yes, so you decide.

Oh and it can't hurt to run an engine flush now and then through the motor, just don't leave it in there too long, and add it while the engine is already warm. Only leave it for about 6 or 7 minutes, which should be plenty enough time to circulate. Also when draining your oil, when its nearly empty, poor in 400ml of fresh oil in while its still draining to make sure you get out any of the flush that could be in the sump. This almost always works for getting that last bit of crap oil out of the sump that just didn't quite wanna come out on its own.

I got shut down by some fellow forum members with downs syndrome some time back (won't be mentioning any names but they were fairly moronic to say the least) for trying to help others by mentioning the multiple uses for this product. Think of it like this, if I came onto this forum and said "oh there is this brand I heard about, called Ford, do they make any good cars?" Everyone would be happy to answer and what not. You do the same with anything else, and you're a "stooge". The reality is, they don't know what they're missing out on. People with no education might try and tell you it doesn't work (they certainly had none, if you can find the thread read it and see for yourself), but provide you with zero evidense of this. In general, engineers with multiple degree's can not only explain why it works, but Nulon themselves had engineers from the competition test some of there new formula's, and still came up with the goods. This product happens to be one of them. You can use it as an upper cylinder lube (prepare for some smoke though), double treat to help get rid of carbon deposits through bearings, rings and turbo's, you can put the stuff in old engines to help quiet them down a little (ie, my 354,000km astina, still going strong, still being thrashed, still refusing to die), and things like that. It may also increase your fuel efficiency, but you may not be able to tell all that much, as it may only be 2%. /rant ---------------------------------- As for the articles posted above, it was quite interesting to see that the high end Royal Purple stuff was fantastic, and so was the penrite gear (even the HPR, being a cheaper oil had a much higher shear strength, even though the results were the same when this was broken, at least it has a much higher chance of staying below the shear point). I've been saying to customers lately how good the penrite stuff is, this is just another bit of proof to add to the list. It all starts with the base stock, use a quality base, and work from there. Its a shame the nulon stuff isn't in this test, since in similar tests it had results near the pointy end of the field. I think the viscosity and temperature may not be ideal for this particular testing method, though. Something just doesn't add up with some of the results (ie, the Mobil1 results, I smell a bit of dead cow). Mobil 1 is one of the few pure, ester based synthetic oils where they can actually say 'fully synthetic' and not lie to you. I find this results VERY hard to believe. This post may not make huge sense and may be poorly typed out, look at the time, I jumped on to check ebay and ended up on here =/ Go figure.

Nah I think you're fine. 140F is about 60°C, most oils perform quite well from anywhere between 60-110. Obviously, you want your oil to be above 60 if you plan on giving it a good hard run, so I suggest that when you notice the temp going below the 140F mark, drop a gear. The extra rev's without much more load should easily bring the temp up a little, then slow down, and load the motor up on 50% throttle, back off and repeat until you read a solid 170. You're now ready to race . This temp is not some magical figure, its just a guide based on the fact that 140F is a tad below where an oil starts to get anywhere near its high temp viscosity, but at around 75°C (170F) the oil starts to reduce its exponential as all of the synthetic viscosity modifiers have done there thing, and now the oil is acting like, well, oil! Esters are electrostaticaly attracted to metals, so obviously they are good, but also expensive. I'm looking in Mobil 1's direction here (yes, it actually is a bloody good oil). Nulon oils are also ester blinded ZDTP + MoDTC, detergent/dispersant oils. Which don't cost as much as pure ester oils, but have a lower friction, which under more circumstances performs better than pure esters. So cost + performance, its hard to go past. Also, if an oil company tries to tell you its got only MoDTC or only ZDTP withou a proper detergent package, STAY AWAY. Only with the three packages blended together do the properties and long lasting nature of such an oil become apparent. This is very important, and why the Nulon oil has been so successfull in the engineering world. But the reality is, a shear stable, correct viscosity oil is more important than anything else. Correct viscosity people! CORRECT VISCOSITY!!@$! Get the basics right, and work from there 10w40. 15w40. 10w50, where for whataver reason (power/timing/climate) higher oil temps occure. My crap list are all 0w-anything oils, you're a bit of a gronk if you run a 0w in the T6 (bit of tough love right there) and anything below a 40 vicosity. Anything above a 50 (edge 10w60 I feel is too thick unless you experience very high oil temps all the time) is probably just wasting energy for no benefit. Think of it like this: If a shear stable 10w-40, under almost all normal conditions, provides a true, full anti wear film on all surfacse on a fairly stock/slightly modified T6, what benefit is there to running a 50? This is why Ford recommend a 10/15w-40 for even hard outback driving (and that does get fairly extreme). If for some reason oil temps are being measured higher than standard under most conditions, then the 40 index oil might start to thin. This is where the 50 becomes the weapon of choice. For the 50 to thin down to a 40, it needs nearly 130°C. Higher than your oil should be getting. So where does the 60 come in into the picture? For most of you, it doesn't. If you plan in going for a very hard track session on a warm day (middle of winter shouldn't be too bad either), then yeah, 10w-60, go for gold. For drag racing, don't bother. Track work is much harder, as the engine doesn't lose heat in deceleration (compression braking) and the engine buids up heat in acceleration. So temps remain constantly higher, much higher.

Haha, you cheeky bugger; got me laughing.

ZF are considered by, well basically the entire engineering community, to be the best automatic transmission manufacturer in the world. Put it this way, no one can say "We are the second best auto manufacturer in the world" Because everyone else pales in comparison. Being second is the same as being first on the list of losers. ZF for world domination.

Yes, and that time has never again been repeated. Infact, have any standard SS Commodores managed a 13.3 down the strip (I'm not sure, which is why I'm asking)?. I don't know why Motor quote the 13.3 run in the car stats. Anyone (ie, only the most ignorant of Late model camira drivers) who still wont admit that the car in question was warmed up needs a sledgehammer sized reality check. I can't remember the exact quote but they said a few times that no other SS/SS-v, or even the previous model R8, felt as strong as that press car. Ie, to slash 0.5 seconds off a quarter mile time at the MPH that this press SS car achieved, assuming it has a similar torque curve profile, would require nearly dead on 300kw. On another topic: Does anyone have any theory's on what the deal is with the GT making more Grunt than the HSV, but being so slow on the road? The in gear acceleration should tell the full story, but it doesn't. For having that much more grunt, it should EASILY be faster from 80-120 in any gear, especially 5th and 6th, since wind resistance is no longer negligible at these speeds, and would offset the power to weight difference (in fact, it would easily do so). Yet the GT doesn't perform. What the hell? It simply does not make sense to me, assuming Wheels aren't completely useless and the dyno results are accurate enough (for comparisons sake there should be absolutely no reason for discrepancy). I'm fairly stumped.

nah nah nah, you're still way off... Add guns, lots of violence, atomic bombs and heavy metal to that movie and you're getting about 10% of the way there... No other T I've ever heard sounds as good, and sadly, I don't think one will (simply because it was at just the 'right' state of tune, everything was built for that amount of power, so everything was working in harmony. Thus, a 6 piece orchestra was born ).

Haha, I just went away for a minute, came back and looked at my graph; good luck to anyone else trying to read it, lol... I'll declutter it all and put only a couple per graph next time. But you ge the idea for now.

Ok I've just done a bunch of graphing and put them all into the one graph, its messy, and I'll seperate them another time. Please note, I've been VERY liberal with my upper and lower limit lines. If I wanted to make them strictly to within the standard, things look significantly worse for the 10w-60 and the 0w-40's... Anyways, here goes, its only a rough effort, and I couldn't be bothered sexing it up for you all... Oh, I might add, check out what the 5w-50 does... That's fairly interesting. And also, the 10w's converge if I plot them back to around -35, so what you see here is not the actual rated pour point viscosity, its a little more reaslistic (it gave us no more information.....). PS, Royal Purple 10w-40 on a graph looks almost identicle to the Nulon, but is thinner slightly everywhere (its 3.5% thinner at 40°C).

Hehe, you're good value mate. Like I said earlier, I've been trying to puzzle this out for ages, but didn't properly sit down and get all the data sheets myself, only some results. So I don't blame you, its a bugger of a topic, and as you can see, my first stab in the dark with the Mobil 1 wasn't perfect (close enough isn't really good enough if it costs you a motor now, is it...), so we'll come up with a new spin on things when I graph it all :D When I eventually get around to it, I'll be able to get my own results for various oils tailored to our temperatures and engines. I have some sexy graph in my head and I just hope it turns out the way I'd like (that is to say, easy to read and gives a lot of information without being confusing). I really hope that amongst my jibber jabber someone found help/information that put there mind at ease/made a decision easier. Peace out

It should still be faster than that though. A terminal speed of 180-182 would have made me believe it actually has 310kw's. I just hope they absolutely suck, more than they ever have, at running the 400m, and that this complete lack of motoring ability is the reason for such a slow time. Because this car should be doing 13 flat, all day, every day. 13.3 should be with 3 people in the car. Fat people.

No, I never thought you were attacking me. By your post, I infered that you thought I was attacking the 0w-40 oil and saying it was bad, I wasn't. It just isn't suitable. The Nulon and Royal Purple oils actually meet the exact specification, which seems to be a 10w-40 or a 15w-40. The Mobil 1 DOESN'T. Let me repeat once more, what the most important property of an engine oil is. Viscosity I've just found a viscosity graphing tool. I'm going to make up a bunch of graphs from the oil companies own data sheets and show them to you soon (ie, when I get around to it in the next few weeks), but right now, I'm going to bed. (I had a lot typed up, massive post was here, so be thankful I found this graphing tool when I did). Just quickly on my first results I graphed though (and take this as the very tired, over exagerated midnight rant that it is):- 0w-40 (any brand) is going to send your 4l I6 turbo motor to hell. It can not provide the cold start protection this engine needs; my initial assumptions were wrong. Mobil 1 0w-40 does not hold its low temp viscosity for as long as I thought (its still bloody good though!), and thus does infact act less viscous than a 5w (even though they are based on the same stock) up until around 20°C (20°C after I initially thought (I was in the ball park at least)), and later than your average cold start temps. So there. Basically, from my first graphs, 0w-40 really should not be used in the Ford inline 6; the oil companies own data sheets are 100% backing that recommendation up. 10w or 15w people, you need to run 10w or 15w oils to get the best overall performance/economy/engine wear/service life out of your motor.

Exactly, and no one here has said that the 0w-40 was a bad oil (your post seems to indicate that I was attacking that particular oil, when I wasn't). I certainly haven't said it was bad, I also know it isn't the best, but it most definately is not the worst, not by a long shot... It's just that (like I've said many times now) in our climate a 0w grade oil is not required, since in our climate the situation in which a 0w grade oil can show its benefit never eventuates (which is at sub zero temperatures). So why does the GT need it? Well a 5w-40 would probably have sufficed, but in the end, the castrol oil obviously has some property, some detergent or friction coefficient that made the engine run to their liking. It does not actually mean that the 5.4 needs the 0w rating, which is because 0w oils are specifically designed for sub zero temperature operation with a viscosity as close to a 5w oil as possible. Does this mean that the 0w-40 is the best oil on the market? Definately not! Is it good? Yes! Should you use it in your XR6T? No, since it is not actually recommended for this motor, by all but one oil company, Mobil 1, and this is because they have a hole in their product range. Does this make mobil 1 bad? Definately not! They simply lack the exact viscosity rating to suit this motor. But, again, since in our climate the oil generaly wont be anywhere near sub zero temperatures, the oils properties tend to converge closer to what is recommended anyway, therefore they can recommend it, but this does not mean that it is the best choice for your vehicle, and they know it! Infact, this is possibly the only case where I wouldn't buy mobil 1, if money wasn't an issue, because I know that the most important thing about an oil is its viscosity. If it isn't in the sweet spot, then it isn't in the sweet spot, no matter how good the other properties are (this is where I think a lot of people get confused, they sacrifice the right viscosity for an apparent property that they aren't even sure exists). Oils is just a really confusing topic, that's all, with so many little loopholes and variables that you have to dig deep to find the right answer, and then dig even deeper in order to explain why there seems to be so many contradictions. If we dig deeper again and make some educated judgement calls, we then find out that there really weren't any, but each seemingly odd recommendation has a plausable explanation that holds true to the real world experiences most people have had. I've been trying to puzzle out oils for nearly a year now, and I feel like I'm still only scratching the surface...

Shear breaks an oil and its viscosity index modifiers, oxidation and impurities from the combustion process reduce the effect of the detergent package. The turbo itself does neither of these things on an oil when compared with the stress an oil feels within the engine itself. What it does do, though, is create a lot of heat. This is where having a 40 or 50 grade oil vs a 30 (for the NA) becomes critical. [EDIT] I guess I can throw another spanner in the works. If you run an oil cooler, you would want to select an oil based on the fact that your oil is going to be cooler, and therefor thicker at running temp. Hmmm...

Mate, you are 100% right, I just now checked the Castrol website to confirm this. And this makes perfect sense as well; the 5.4 is highly strung, and the tolerances are as tight as FPV could manage... Well done Ad's, you just made this a whole lot easier. Also, the Edge 10w-60 is the only 10w fully synthetic oil that Castrol has, keep that in mind when deciding. I think I know what is going on with this edge stuff now...It would have to just have a low enough friction to bring the strain on the oil pump down to equivalent 50 grade levels, and being a fully synthetic it must have a low enough high shear viscosity as well. This would then qualify the use of a 60 grade oil, but only if it is able to perform like a lower grade oil under stress, while still maintaining the benefit of the higher film strength... (insert epiphany face). See what I mean though? These oil engineers, bloody rocket scientists!