Oils Aint Oils <Merged Thread>

[Hazy]

hey ppl,

Trying to figure out an oil to use for my 03TUTE for the rest of its life until its sold an upgraded. It has Torco 15w40 in @ the moment but is not stocked where I live. I've seen a few ppl say the Nulon is good and im gunna go with it I think. gunna go for the 100%syn 10w40, anyone had any problems with using oil or anything? Me ute has just clocked over 110K, gunna fully drain the sump until no drops to save contamination. I know I'll still get some but anywho.

Cheers,

Hazyco

[Lawsy]

I just did a oil change and I used sin 10Penrite witch is 10w 70

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.

[arjey]

Lawsy,

On the weekend I will be changing my oil to Royal Purple 10w-40. My engine cops a hiding pretty much every second I'm in it. If anything breaks I will be coming to you! lol

[aiboart]

Lawsy,

Can you please comment on the ester technology and start up protection claims made by Castrol for their Magnatec range, specifically the semi-synthetic 10W40?

Are the Castol esters in any way special, or do all esters tend to exhibit the behaviors that Castrol trades on in the Magnatec marketing?

Regards,

aa

[Lawsy]

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

[Bad Apples]

Lawsy,

love reading your stuff.... If you could indulge me a little, I have a question.

What is your opinion of the Fuchs engine oil range? http://www.fuchs.com.au/categories.asp?cID=9

Specifically the supersyn 5w40? (that's what I chose)

Superficially I can tell you that the oil pressure is Very high at startup, which makes me think that a 0w might be okay... Also at hot perhaps a little pressure might be okay, and at low revs (in traffic ect).

Thanks,

Chris.

[Lawsy]

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....

Edited 12/08/09 05:34 AM by Lawsy

[tab]

Always a good read. Thanks Lawsy

[GMH8R]

Yeah good read lawsy, Do you have recommendations on how often to change diff and gearbox oil's? I have nearly25k in my fg xr6t and was thinkin of getting my diff and gearbox oil's done. As it will be getting some work done in the next few weeks? Cooler kit, injectors and hi-flowcat.

[jaymen]

I use Nulon Street & Track 15w-50 in my 2007 BF XR6T I notice the motor sounds more quite & smoother now since switching from Mobil to Nulon oil.