Post your oil brand

[SaffronC70]

Hi guys

I know this question has been asked a million times, but I want to try something different.

Post just the grade an make of oil you run - with a short comment.

Just want to see what is most popular . . .

I'll start:

5w-40 Fully synthetic (not sure what brand yet)

Chris :haha:

[Al115]

Likewise :)


Alastair

[p fandango]

Shell Helix 10-40 (believe its semi-synth)

[dave]

0w-40 Fully synthetic, mobil 1, not cheap!

dave

[splatt]

0w-40, 5w-40, 10w-40 and 15w-40 are all the same thickness (14cst) at 100degC.

Centistokes (cst) is the measure of a fluid's resistance to flow (viscosity). It is calculated in terms of the time required for a standard quantity of fluid at a certain temperature to flow through a standard orifice. The higher the value, the more viscous the fluid.

As viscosity varies with temperature, the value is meaningless unless accompanied by the temperature at which it is measured. In the case of oils, viscosity is generally reported in centistokes (cst) and usually measured at 40degC and 100degC.

So, all oils that end in 40 (sae 40) are around 14cst thickness at 100degC.

This applies to all oils that end in the same number, all oils that end in 50 (sae 50) are around 18.5cst at 100degC and all oils that end in 60 (sae 60) are around 24cst at 100degC.

With me so far?

Great!

Now, ALL oils are thicker when cold. Confused? It's true and here is a table to illustrate this.

SAE 40 (straight 40)

Temp degC.........................Viscosity (thickness)


0..........................................2579cst
20..........................................473cst
40..........................................135cst
60..........................................52.2cs t
100........................................ 14cst
120.........................................8.8cst

As you will see, there is penty of viscosity at 0degC, in fact many times more than at 100degC and this is the problem especially in cold weather, can the oil flow quick enough to protect vital engine parts at start up. Not really!

So, given that an sae 40 is 14cst at 100degC which is adequate viscosity to protect the engine, and much thicker when cold, how can a 0w oil be too thin?

Well, it can't is the truth.

The clever part (thanks to synthetics) is that thin base oils can be used so that start up viscosity (on say a 5w-40 at 0degC) is reduced to around 800cst and this obviously gives much better flow than a monograde sae 40 (2579cst as quoted above).

So, how does this happen, well as explained at the beginning, it's all about temperature, yes a thin base oil is still thicker when cold than at 100degC but the clever stuff (due to synthetics again) is that the chemists are able to build these oils out of molecules that do not thin to less than 14cst at 100degC!

What are the parameters for our recommendations?

Well, we always talk about good cold start protection, by this we mean flow so a 5w will flow better than a 10w and so on. This is why we recommend 5w or 10w as the thickest you want to use except in exceptional circumstances. Flow is critical to protect the engine from wear!

We also talk about oil temps, mods and what the car is used for. This is related to the second number xw-(XX) as there may be issues with oil temperatures causing the oil to be too thin and therefore the possibility of metal to metal contact.

This is difficult to explain but, if for example your oil temp does not exceed 120degC at any time then a good "shear stable" sae 40 is perfectly capable of giving protection.

"Shear stability" is important here because if the oil shears it thins and that's not good!

However, if you are seeing temperatures in excess of 120degC due to mods and track use etc then there is a strong argument to using an sae 50 as it will have more viscosity at these excessive temperatures.

There are trade offs here. Thicker oils cause more friction and therefore more heat and they waste power and affect fuel consumption so it's always best to use the thinnest oil (i.e. second number) that you can get away with and still maintain oil pressure.

[k690bpp]

i've just given halford 5w-40 synthetic a go and you know what i'm sure the engine is running smoother and quieter.

[pault5]

yep, halfords synthetic.

[pzorb]

Valvoline Maxlife 10-40W (put in by VT)

Was running millersoil XFS 5w40 fuly synth, meant to be the best, but seemingly too good for my old 850 - the pump couldn't reliably detect its flow hence oil lights and possible circulation issues at high rpm. Was in for 2k when VT drained it, described it as "pissy", said it looked like it had been in there for ages - hamish said he wouldn't put it in his racecar!

Martin

[M44K TS]

i have no idea, it was changed when my turbo was replaced, it must be good because it runs smoother or could that be because the last lot of oil was like treacle? any ideas?

[JUDGENINJA]

Halfords is a recommended oil from quite a few of us....especially the two for one offer....
I'm not really sure about the performance gains, but Bracer almost swears by it......

[procee]

castrol magnatec 10W/40, think it's semi...

Use 10W/40 castrol GPS semi in the bike (14K redline) an it works perfectly..

[SAMXPJ]

Castrol Magnatec semi - no one's talking about the additives ! which castrol have developed for cold starting over the years.

[volvotuning]

Hi guys

I know this question has been asked a million times, but I want to try something different.

Post just the grade an make of oil you run - with a short comment.



In my frying pan, I run Tesco's finest Olive oil. :)

Adam.

[wide-eyed-boy]

Is that extra-virgin Adam? Because IMHO that's OTT for frying. Bog standard Olive is good enough.

[Vikingxl]

castrol magnatec 10W/40

[lance]

Castrol magnatec 10-40w in V70, and Shell helix in the 854.

[siamblue]

Halfords 5/40 Doesn't use any oil now and is quiter, But when i was using Mobil1 it used some oil and was noisy as hell,

Gary

[Richard Brandt]

Lately Miller xfs 5/40
Oil change every 5000 mls

[nikgallagher]

Halfords 5w-40. Had no problems so far. Doing over a hundred miles a day and changing every 5k miles, the 2-for-1 offer is warmly welcomed!

[Martinr]

Valvoline Maxlife 10-40W (also put in by VT). Put in when rear crank oil seal was changed.


In for approx 2000 miles and used nothing.

[Justin]

Valvoline Maxlife 10-40W

[TEAMWAYSIDE21]

valvoline 20/50!

this is racing oil,that we have in my race car,
some people might say it's kebab oil,but don't knock it till you have tried it.

the good thing about this oil is it's so good on high temperatures,obviously thats why it's used on racing cars.

price is about 16.99 per 5 litres and you can only get it from certain places.

[mraldonnelly]

In my frying pan, I run Tesco's finest Olive oil. :)

Adam.

Greek or Italian?

[swordy21]

Valvoline Maxlife 10-40W

Due a change in 2 weeks, starting to get a bit tappitty now.

[rs_andy]

shell Helix 10-40, the helix ultra was getting pricey.

[Ivan]

0-40w

[pyrotechnictigger]

Shell full synth. National Tyres 25 fitted. Bought 5 ltrs of Chevron full synth from Cosco to top up. In 18 months, NEVER needed to top up:)

[GATHY]

unipart 10-40W semi
as found in most repair centres/garages.
trade gear must be good :haha:
goes in audi tts to rubber duckies
20 million garages cannot be wrong can they ?

[TangoDeltaSierra3]

Yeah i run it on Chevron 5W-40 at £11.79 for 4litres from Costco Wholesale, it's made by Texaco i think but Daimler Chryser approved etc... Incidentaly Magnatec is £14 and Mobil 1 approx £17 at Costco too.

[NugentS]

Silkolene Pro-S
5/40 I think

Sean

[mraldonnelly]

Shell full synth. National Tyres 25 fitted. Bought 5 ltrs of Chevron full synth from Cosco to top up. In 18 months, NEVER needed to top up:)

Please tell me it's been changed within the last 18 months though?

[v6en]

Mobil 1 0W 40, fully synth. EVERY time i go into the garage after 5k to get it changed they slag me off with the same lines "mumble mumble chip pan oil mumble", "offers no protection mumble". but at the end of the day although it's painful on the purse the car was designed to use it and never needs topped up, even after hard driving. when it starts to lose it i'll consider a change ;)

jacq.

[TangoDeltaSierra3]

Mobil 1 0W 40, fully synth. EVERY time i go into the garage after 5k to get it changed they slag me off with the same lines "mumble mumble chip pan oil mumble", "offers no protection mumble". but at the end of the day although it's painful on the purse the car was designed to use it and never needs topped up, even after hard driving. when it starts to lose it i'll consider a change ;)

jacq.
I feel it's too watery myself.

[phil]

shell helix ultra and change evry 6K or so

[meffs]

Shell helix plus 10w-40, only coz i bought it for the last volvo before i killed it, no idea what is in it at the moment but going to do a stage O in the next few weeks 4,000miles.

[gillespie]

Millers Oils XSS 10/40 every 5k, I work in a garage and its free :haha:

[gazjacko]

I used to use Mobil 1 which is fully synth and had terrible oil consumption which is no joke if you use Mobil as it comes in at around £30+ for 5 litres
I switched to one from Asda (don't laugh) which was a Penzoil ? semi synthetic, I'd never heard of it but looked it up on the world wide information super highway thingy and it seemed quite highly thought of. I think it was economies of scale because Wal-Mart could buy it and knock it out at about £15 per 5 litres, trouble was no one recognised the brand so they stopped selling it. I've since switched to Magnatec, again a semi synthetic but oil consumption is minimal and the car seems OK.