Oil

Nice and easy what oil do you all use for your landys, my dad swears by the halfords classic car oil as it says it swell up any seals!!! Any mine is ready for it oil change and wonder what your all using.

Cheers

Halfords 20w / 50 Classic in my 2286 diesel. (Comma produce this oil for Halfords).

My landy man suggested that this oil will sludge up my engine but i've also read that the detergents in specific diesel oils on this engine can result in varnish like coating in the bores. (Happened in the Sherpa van engines apparently)

I'm sticking with my choice though for now and change every 1500-2000 miles

rubbish ,detergent oils are good ,thats the point of them to keep engine clean so you can drain the **** out ,to be honest most oils would be fine changed regulary

jamesmartin said:

rubbish ,detergent oils are good ,thats the point of them to keep engine clean so you can drain the **** out ,to be honest most oils would be fine changed regulary

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My Haynes seems to suggest 20w/50 is the correct grade but it's not a detergent oil. I'm not aware that your can aquire this grade oil with detergent in it.
I've read a couple of things in the past where the detergents undergo a chemical change creating a varnish like substance. This was the case in Sherpa engines - references have been made to this particular engine on other automotive sites & marine engine sites. I seem to recall it may have been due to the operating temperature of the engine - cooler perhaps??
Will have to see what I can find again.

I'm always of the belief (rightly opr wrongly!) that correct grade should come before specification (eg detergents) hence my choice of 20w/50.

20w/50 nis just viscosity if you order for diesel engine it will come with detergent ,van /light goods more so

Here's one similar article I came across previously. Might be of little concern to most but caught my interest as I always try to do the right thing when it comes to basic maintenance:

Marine Diesels and other special considerations: -

Inland Marine Diesels (and certain road vehicles under special conditions) can (and do) glaze their bores due the low cylinder wall temperatures causing the oil (and more importantly the additive pack) to undergo a chemical change to a varnish-like substance. The low temperature is caused by operating under light load for long periods.
This is related to engine design, some engines being nearly immune to it and others susceptible. The old Sherpa van diesel engines were notorious for this problem. The "cure" (such as it is) is to use a low API specification oil, such as CC. Certain engine manufacturers/marinisers are now marketing the API CC oil for this purpose under their own name (and at a premium). You'll find some modern engines where its industrial/vehicle manual states API CF and the marinised manual states API CC/CD


Read more: Car Bibles : The Engine Oil Bible

jamesmartin said:

20w/50 nis just viscosity if you order for diesel engine it will come with detergent ,van /light goods more so

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The problem i've had is that I cannot find a supplier who does a 20w/50 for diesels. They all seem to be classic oils detergent free at this grade

look on ebay i just have,sherpa engines didnt suffer varnish on bores ,bore and piston wear yes due to materials used and enhanced by gumming up of rings by not using detergent oil

Yeah, it's difficult to tell the truth 100%. So many factors - operating conditions, frequency of oil change, general engine health etc.

I know little about these things and have no first hand experience of Sherpa engines so can only comment on what I read, but there is usually no smoke without fire as they say.