Trewey
Cockernee, Pasty munchin bastid.
The words of the legendary CharlesY...
People get all excited about oil grades, so they get ripped off by the oil sellers who make BIG BUCKS selling ridiculously expensive potions in fancy plastic bottles.
My oil comes in a big steel barrel, 210 litres at a time. No messing!
Engine oil is engine oil. Start there.
Next, is it a petrol engine or a diesel?
Petrol engines get the crappy puny left-overs oils because they work under a lot less strain, and don't get polluted with carbon black.
Diesel engines get tougher grades of oil because these engines work harder all the time and there's a lot more carbon black gets into it down past the piston rings.
So diesel engine oils are far better oils, for ALL engines, petrol or diesel.
The grades to use hardly matters at all as long as it is an ENGINE oil. You will probably destroy your engine if you fill the sump with EP140 axle oil for example, but any engine oil with more or less any combination of SAE grades from 5 to 50 with or without a W is going to be just dandy,
In really REALLY cold weather a LOW grade number will make starting slightly easier especially if is has a W too, such as 10W-40 or even thinner, 5W-30 for instance.
In the summer, maybe a 20-50 would be good, with or without the W.
But, DO NOT GET NEUROTIC and DO NOT GET RIPPED OFF!
Choose a good basic grade of oil such as any of the tractor universals with a grade of about 15W/40 and off you go knowing you are using the best there is and not getting robbed.
When you think of the abuse farmers give their diesel engines, you can be sure the oil people supply the best of stuff!
Just repeat after me - "Fully synthetic oils are NOT better lubricants. They just cost ten times as much and last up to twice as long".
The maths isn't that difficult to work out.
So ... why do the User Manuals specify all those grades and BRANDS of oils? Easy - because the oil companies pay them BIG BUCKS to do that! An incredible amount of money is spent on oil advertising. They used to say that Castrol spent more money advertising GTX than they spent making the oil! In those days Castrol didn't tell you the grade and the oil was a pathetic blend almost a monograde. The only clever thing about it was the incredible HYPE. Smart people used Duckhams 20-50, but that didn't last after BP bought Duckhams. Things have changed since hopefully. But remember, advertising costs are factored in to the cost of the oil, so guess who pays for every penny of it at the end of the day.
Buy quality oils, buy in bulk, do not buy "trendy" or "synthetic" oils and use the good value to change the oil and filter every 5-6,000 miles.
Changing the oil (that is, draining it right out) is BY FAR the most effective way of removing all the crap, acids, water, carbon black, metal fragments and so on. Using synthetic oils for twice as long means all that bad stuff stays in the engine much longer, eating away at your bearing rings and pistons all the time.
DIY oil and filter changes are so easy, and so cheap, we should do it often. It costs me under £10 to change the oil and filter in my Disco TD5. That's a tad less than a LR main dealer would charge!
People get all excited about oil grades, so they get ripped off by the oil sellers who make BIG BUCKS selling ridiculously expensive potions in fancy plastic bottles.
My oil comes in a big steel barrel, 210 litres at a time. No messing!
Engine oil is engine oil. Start there.
Next, is it a petrol engine or a diesel?
Petrol engines get the crappy puny left-overs oils because they work under a lot less strain, and don't get polluted with carbon black.
Diesel engines get tougher grades of oil because these engines work harder all the time and there's a lot more carbon black gets into it down past the piston rings.
So diesel engine oils are far better oils, for ALL engines, petrol or diesel.
The grades to use hardly matters at all as long as it is an ENGINE oil. You will probably destroy your engine if you fill the sump with EP140 axle oil for example, but any engine oil with more or less any combination of SAE grades from 5 to 50 with or without a W is going to be just dandy,
In really REALLY cold weather a LOW grade number will make starting slightly easier especially if is has a W too, such as 10W-40 or even thinner, 5W-30 for instance.
In the summer, maybe a 20-50 would be good, with or without the W.
But, DO NOT GET NEUROTIC and DO NOT GET RIPPED OFF!
Choose a good basic grade of oil such as any of the tractor universals with a grade of about 15W/40 and off you go knowing you are using the best there is and not getting robbed.
When you think of the abuse farmers give their diesel engines, you can be sure the oil people supply the best of stuff!
Just repeat after me - "Fully synthetic oils are NOT better lubricants. They just cost ten times as much and last up to twice as long".
The maths isn't that difficult to work out.
So ... why do the User Manuals specify all those grades and BRANDS of oils? Easy - because the oil companies pay them BIG BUCKS to do that! An incredible amount of money is spent on oil advertising. They used to say that Castrol spent more money advertising GTX than they spent making the oil! In those days Castrol didn't tell you the grade and the oil was a pathetic blend almost a monograde. The only clever thing about it was the incredible HYPE. Smart people used Duckhams 20-50, but that didn't last after BP bought Duckhams. Things have changed since hopefully. But remember, advertising costs are factored in to the cost of the oil, so guess who pays for every penny of it at the end of the day.
Buy quality oils, buy in bulk, do not buy "trendy" or "synthetic" oils and use the good value to change the oil and filter every 5-6,000 miles.
Changing the oil (that is, draining it right out) is BY FAR the most effective way of removing all the crap, acids, water, carbon black, metal fragments and so on. Using synthetic oils for twice as long means all that bad stuff stays in the engine much longer, eating away at your bearing rings and pistons all the time.
DIY oil and filter changes are so easy, and so cheap, we should do it often. It costs me under £10 to change the oil and filter in my Disco TD5. That's a tad less than a LR main dealer would charge!
fett
Well-Known Member
I found that comma did do a very nice 15w50 enhanced mineral oil which the 72 RRC just loves with those wondefull old british tolerances 
They stopped doing it but as it was only £10.13+vat for 5 litres I bought 8 cans, that should keep the old girl going untill I get my mega motor built/fitted for it.
They stopped doing it but as it was only £10.13+vat for 5 litres I bought 8 cans, that should keep the old girl going untill I get my mega motor built/fitted for it.
paulkelly50
Active Member
quite right,
i dont even worry to much about syn... or not. my motto is "it'll go further on the wrong oil than on no oil" i use either oil fot lorries, delivered in bulk, or when that source dried up, oil from the local farm suppily place, 5 gallon jars, last stuff was castrol though...
Irishrover
Well-Known Member
norseman
Well-Known Member
I found that comma did do a very nice 15w50 enhanced mineral oil which the 72 RRC just loves with those wondefull old british tolerances
They stopped doing it but as it was only £10.13+vat for 5 litres I bought 8 cans, that should keep the old girl going untill I get my mega motor built/fitted for it.
With you there Fett, I use Comma 15/40 in my '87 & change it annually despite last year's total of only 1200m. At around £14 for 5 litres & say £6 for a genuine filter it's a no-brainer! Also I'll never do short (round the block) journeys, if it's unavoidable then I'll give the car a run at the same time & cover at least 15miles before I park up. Obviously the RRC is not my daily driver!
