Engine Oil

[Kenshin X]

umm, what was ur viscosity of your oil angel and wombat? im currenty using 10W40 mobil super 3000 semi syn...

my is car getting abit old... going 7 yrs and on 85,000kms.

should i go full syn or just stick to the semi syn?

if i do change the viscosity, shoud i give the engine an engine oil flush?

cheers

Edited February 22, 2010 by Kenshin X

[Rocketeer1]

Stick with the one you are using, unless you are keen on changing brands. No need for a flush when changing viscosities, in a reasonably fresh petrol engine which has been looked after and been using quality lubricants, flushing is fairly redundant.

[Kenshin X]

yeah, i'm not sure how the previous 2 owners looked after it... but the oil change me and my uncle did last time, it was almost black. He said that if you do it properly, it should be gold coloured... Both his hondas were bought brand new and hes been servicing it ever since and showed me the used oil in there...

:o

The only reason why i kept using the same oil was that I thought just changing the oil would get rid of the noise, but it hasnt so i'm planning to go with penrite next time... i think with the australian climate it can get pretty hot so i plan to use 10W40 or 10W50. Only thing is i was told that i shouldnt go from semi syn to syn because engine ran on semi syn already from new....

[Rocketeer1]

Penrite is a very good oil, high load carrying ability. The thicker the oil, generally the more successful at removing noises.

If the last change was black, sure consider a flush. Have a look under your oil filler cap. Have a look down and see if the alloy looks reasonably clean, tan coloured, or caked black. If its tan (which most are) then you can get away safely with a flush. This could be where some of your noise comes from- I dont know the engine well at all, but deposits can form in hydraulic lifters for example. Every second commodore has at least one worn lifter because of their poor oiling systems. Caked black is not good. Flushing when in this condition CAN do more damage than good.

At risk of sounding like a broken record consider the brand I keep saying- PM- very high load carrying ability, and very thermally stable, with high detergency. And not particularly expensive either, backed up by their support- they are directly contactable. Its always iffy as to whether the noises will be improved immediately (high detergency will slowly remove deposits). They also do a flush re-useable several times over- the colour of it when it comes out is black as the ace of spades...done diesels with it and the amount of crap that comes out at once is incredible at times.

[Mecha-wombat]

Sounds correct my friend :)

Though I'd say its more the oil grade than the brand that did the magic ;)

Yep the 10-50W is much thicker and would of course fixed the issue

but oils aint oils

Rocket you got a linky for PM oils ???

The 380 I have has not quieten down with a thicker oil grade though its was on Castrol edge 5-30W (BTW I do not agree that EDGE is as good as they say in any weight)

The Shell helix ultra 10-40w has a high detergent concentration and I am using it for the next 5000kms to give the 380 internals a clean

its been a week and it has already removed sludge and varnish just by the colour of the oil and the economy has increased as well

But it is going to mitsi to see WTF is going on with the engine noise

If your oil is discoloured it is doing its job properly it should discolour over time as it removes varnish and dirt which is than (hopefully) trapped by your oil filter

When you do an oil change oil should come out dark but if you look closer it aint black but a dark brown

if it comes out like honey it aint doing its job properly or it does not have detergents to remove deposits which just like heart disease can clog the channels and then BOOM bye bye engine

Best advice is to learn how to do oil changes yourself and get the best oil you can afford

We put the best fuel in so same should go for oils

Oils cool, and lube an engine (PROTECTION)

Lifted off AMC from a highly regard engineer

It is very hard to get true facts but if you carefully read the advertising drivel they sometimes give the game away. For example Penrite say on their Sin 15 & 25 spec sheet "Even our own SIN 0, 5 and 10 will suffer some shear due to viscosity modifier shear". That tells me Penright's other "synthetics" contain VI improvers so are Gp III based oils, and probably have Gp II base as well.

The other thing is to look at the oil grade and oil volatility (evaporation rate) and price. It is very difficult to make a 0W-40 from a Gp III base. Such an oil could be mainly Gp III but would have some PAO base Gp IV added or di-ester base Gp V added to get down to the 0W rating.

Gp IV PAO oils have very little evaporation. A good Noack number is down around 6-8%. If the evaporation is above 10% then there is a good possibility that there is very little PAO base oil in it. One reason I don't like Mobil 1 0W-40 for road use is its poor Noack of 10.5%. This means it will thicken more as it ages. Mobil 1 0W-40 has PAO Gp IV base fluid but a lot more di-ester and polyol ester Gp V fluids than other Mobil 1 grades. When I say poor that is relative to other Mobil 1 and Amsoil. Many oils have Noack numbers around 14% so thicken much worse as they get used.

As for pricing remember that Mobil have many patents on the process for making PAO(Gulf/Chevron hold some too), and they are the major producers of it. 70% of jet turbine oil is Mobil Jet II and they supply much of the other 30% jet base oil to other blenders. Mobil 1 is over 60% of the synthetic petrol/diesel oil market and Castrol Edge/Syntec and Shell Helix(Pennzoil & Quaker State) have about 20% with fake synthetic. That only leaves about 17-18% for all the rest producing synthetics/Gp III " fake synthetics". Some of those would use PAO from Mobil, Chevron, BP, Hatco, Neste' etc and others would use Gp III base from Shell, Chevron, Neste' and new independents in China and Indonesia. Basically Mobil have a monopoly and control prices. So any oil that's substantially cheaper than Mobil 1 will not be a Gp IV PAO based oil for sure. But also some higher priced oils may not be either.

BTW if you want cheap MOBIL 1 go to Big W $65 always compared to $80+ at SC or ripco

[Rocketeer1]

www.pmlubricants.com.au

not a whole lot of tech info there, best off calling them- 3711 5822.

[Modena]

Im using Mobil1 5w-30... changing it every 5-7 K...

[Kenshin X]

Penrite is a very good oil, high load carrying ability. The thicker the oil, generally the more successful at removing noises.

If the last change was black, sure consider a flush. Have a look under your oil filler cap. Have a look down and see if the alloy looks reasonably clean, tan coloured, or caked black. If its tan (which most are) then you can get away safely with a flush. This could be where some of your noise comes from- I dont know the engine well at all, but deposits can form in hydraulic lifters for example. Every second commodore has at least one worn lifter because of their poor oiling systems. Caked black is not good. Flushing when in this condition CAN do more damage than good.

At risk of sounding like a broken record consider the brand I keep saying- PM- very high load carrying ability, and very thermally stable, with high detergency. And not particularly expensive either, backed up by their support- they are directly contactable. Its always iffy as to whether the noises will be improved immediately (high detergency will slowly remove deposits). They also do a flush re-useable several times over- the colour of it when it comes out is black as the ace of spades...done diesels with it and the amount of crap that comes out at once is incredible at times.

sorry for being such a noob but when u mean looking at the alloy whether its dirty or not or looking at the oil thats sitting on top of it

Becuz the alloy is very clean, but the oil (i have travelled 2500km since last change) is a brownish colour... i tried to shine my torch further down but i couldnt properly see the oil inside the engine... i checked with my oil checker and the oil is more or less the same with little black deposits... or were they bubbles? :P

I thought the thicker oil wouldnt matter for these hydrolic lifters esp on new cars becuz they adjust on thier own. I rememebered manually doing my dad's carby cuz the lifters were hydrolics...

[Rocketeer1]

for those changing every 5,000 odd k's, consider investing in oil analasys. $36, and you get a result which indicates whether the oil needs to be changed. When your paying $10 per litre or above + $15 or more for a filter, doesnt take long to make savings IF the oil doesnt need to be changed, and whether the oil is likely to be serviceable for longer in future. I have used the same analasys to safely extend oil drains far beyond these points in cars and bikes. There are other advantages, which I will discuss in a separate thread at a later date.

[Mecha-wombat]

Im using Mobil1 5w-30... changing it every 5-7 K...

If it is full syn Mobil 1 you are wasting your money

I will happily take it off your hands as it will be good up til 10k IF its MOBIL 1 and not there new 3000 gear

[and1]

Anyone using Motul Turbolight 4100 10w-40? Is it any good?