Engine oils and oils changes techniques.

[czaja74]

I found this info on other forums. This is copy and paste. All credit goes to Steve (450 kW Adventra)

***************************************************************************

The question was asked the other day about how to flush when changing oil. If you use the following will guide you when changing oil, you can add many years life to your vehicle.

Motor

With the Engine at operating temperature drain your sump oil, when the oil stops running out of the sump, refit you sump bung.

Refill the Engine with at least 5 Litres of Flushing Oil. (5 is enough to do the job in all our cars even if they take more)

Use Mainlube 245 Flushing Oil, the extreme detergency package in Mainlube 245 cleans very well or if this is a little expensive I think Repco has one, (or used to) or any other flush, you need a good detergent package to clean quickly (in about 15 to 30 minutes of flushing) I flush my own Engine from 1 to 2 hours to ensure cleanliness.

If you can’t get flushing flushing oil, then use flushing additive and mix it with cheap supermarket oil, this would be better than not flushing or even just cheap supermarket oil on its own is better than not flushing at all.

Kerosene and Diesel are NOT to be used as these products are abrasive and also strip oil if it’s lubricating qualities, you will do more harm than good with these 2 fuels mixed with oil as a flush.

Flush your Engine for 15 to 30 minutes, bringing the revs up to say ….2000 rpm for 5 to 10 seconds every 5 minutes to achieve the dish washer affect.

Drain the flushing oil (you will notice the flushing oil comes out black) once drained refit the sump plug (you would be surprised how many people forget this part) replace the oil filter with a new one, wiping a little clean Engine oil around the new oil filter’s rubber seal to ensure ease of removal next oil change and refill with new oil to the full mark.

Start you Engine and make sure your oil light goes out and check the sump plug and oil filter for leaks. Now the oil filter is full with oil, top the oil up, waiting a couple of minutes for the oil to drain down before you check the level, you should be able to achieve the oil level on the full mark.

Under now circumstances are you to drive your car with flushing oil in the engine, flushing is to be done under NO load.

Gearbox T56

With the Gearbox at operating temperature drain your Gearbox oil, if an oil sample is required the gather this half way through the draining process. When the oil stops running out of the Gearbox, refit you sump bung.

Refill the Gearbox with at least 4 Litres of Flushing Oil (4 is enough to do the job in all our cars).

Flush your Gearbox for 15 minutes, bringing the revs up to say ….2000 rpm for 5 to 10 seconds every 5 minutes to achieve the dish washer affect.

Drain the flushing oil, once drained refit the plug.

Now repeat the flushing process again, you need to flush the T56 twice to achieve a clean enough environment for new oil.

Fill your T56 with Mainlube 154 Synthetic Solid Boundary E P Gear Oil SAE 75w90 if you wish to quiten and extend the life if your Gearbox or fill with Transmax if you don’t mind it being noisy.

Fill to slightly above the bottom of the filler bung, this way when you wish to take an oil sample you can simply ease the filler bung (within 5 minutes of running) and allow the excess to flow into your sample jar and quickly refit the filler bung.

Auto

To change and flush your auto oil perfectly you should go to your mechanic and have the auto flushed with a flushing machine, then have the pan dropped and change the filter and oil topped up again.

However, if this to too costly, I can show you a much cheaper way that will be for better than just not changing or changing oil without flushing.

With the auto warm, remove the bottom hose in to the radiator and fit a plastic tube on to the bottom hose to the radiator, put the other end or the hose in to a 20 Litre bucket in front of the car.

Start the engine and the auto’s oil pump will pump all the old ATF fluid in to the 20 Litre bucket, flick through the gears until the vehicle doesn’t try and move, now you have most of the oil from the auto in the 20 Litre bucket.

Only idle the car to do this.

Refill your auto with new oil and repeat the process about 3 times or until the oil comes out of the auto clean, or the same colour as it’s going in.

You just flushed your auto without jacking the car up.

Diff

With the Diff at operating temperature, jack your vehicle up and put on axle stands making sure the vehicle is stable. Then drain your Diff oil, when the oil stops running out of the Diff, refit you sump bung.

Refill the Diff with Flushing Oil. Run you vehicle in say 2nd to 3rd gear at about 1500 rpm and flush your Diff for 15 minutes.

Drain the flushing oil, once drained refit the plug.

Fill your Diff with Mainlube 154 Synthetic Solid Boundary E P Gear Oil SAE 75w140 E P Gear Oil if you wish to and extend the life if your Diff or fill with an approved spec. Synthetic LSD E P Gear Oil SAE 75w140.

Fill to slightly above the bottom of the filler bung, this way when you wish to take an oil sample you can simply ease the filler bung (within 5 minutes of running) and allow the excess to flow into your sample jar and quickly refit the filler bung.

Power Steering

With the Power Steering at operating temperature, remove the Power Steering reservoir cap and using a large syringe (like the one you filled the in the T56 and diff with) and suck all the oil from the Power Steering reservoir.

Refill the reservoir with Transmax Z ATF fluid and turn the steering from lock to lock once, then suck the oil from the reservoir again.

Repeat this process until the oil you are removing from the reservoir is the same colour as the oil going in, then fill to the correct level.

Auto and Power Steering fluid should be changed as soon as it starts to noticeably darken.

Now you are doing the best you can when changing oils.

***************************************************************************

I appreciate the fact that you guys have spoken to many shops however, as an advanced trade automotive engineer my self I can tell you there is jack training about oils in an apprenticeship, you have to learn most of this **** yourself.

I have been fortunate enough to play in this field for 30 years. (apart from owning an oil company and advising how to run some of the largest and most powerful machinery in the world)

The key factor here is film strength, this is what keeps your load bearing surfaces from touching. The higher the viscosity the better the film strength the less the wear.

Now there is a extremely small trade off with resistance to flow however, its barley measurable, also a good high tech Synthetic will reduce any drag from a higher viscosity with a superior slippery additive package when combined with higher viscosity it isn't hard to double the machines life.

Now just to squash a few myths about oil like 10w60 being too thick, see the facts below.

And by the way, you asked what is the best, without a doubt, Mainlube is, its just bloody expensive. (funny that!)

10w60 MUST give better protection than 10w40 provided the additive packages and base oils are similar. Synthetics will give better protection as their base oils naturally have a higher V.I. (viscosity Index) additives can also be added to boost the V.I. The higher the V.I. the less the oil thins when heated the better film strength and hence less wear.

Everyone puts so much attention on the viscosity @ 40C (quoted on the packaging) have a look at viscosity @ 100C, (from the spec) this is the temperature your oil is at 99.5% of the time.

0w30 is around ISO 10 @ 100C (SAE 3) approx. (very much like penetrating oil)

15w40 is around ISO 14 @ 100C (SAE 4) approx.

20w50 is around ISO 18 @ 100C (SAE 6) approx.

10w60 is around ISO 22 @ 100C (SAE 8) approx.

Sowing machine oil is around SAE 7 @ 40C to give you some comparison on just how thin your engine oil is @ 100C.

So as you can see, there's not much difference @ 100C (running temp) between the oils.

The thicker the oil @ 100C the better film strength (layer of oil keeping the load bearing surfaces apart, reducing noise and wear)

And of course any kind of noise (other than combustion knock) has to and must be different stages of very slight metal to metal contact. (hence different stages of wear)

Within 30 seconds from a cold start up your engine oil would've warmed up at least 10 to 20C above it's starting temperature so the oil is not at the starting temp for very long.

So change your oil at 1000klms from new (don't forget to flush) then change straight to a Synthetic 10w60 and do the best for your engine.

To do better run 1 or even 2 FilterMags on your oil filter, 2 will ensure all oil going into your engine passes over a rare earth magnet, this will remove ferrous metal that can be small enough to fit through your paper element oil filter yet still be large enough to damage load bearing surfaces as they're forced through by the oil flow. This can cause even more damage if your engine is modified applying extra load.

[D35]

Great Details

Thanks for the heads up!

although i have seem this topic covered indirectly on this forum before

But does hurt to post it out clear again imo.

Cheers

D35