Engine oil??

[karlo]

Hi all.......

Can anyone recommend a good engine oil that i can use for 81 GTV? Needs a top up.....

I just wanna make sure Im using the right stuff....as these days walking into autobahn or super crap auto and asking for a oil can be dangerous business...Even if someone can recommend a oil there using at the moment that's  they thinks is worth getting...

Hope ur all well...

Karlo..

[Barry Edmunds]

Karlo
I have used Penrite HPR40 in the past in my various Alfettas and Giuliettas and found it very good. When motors go a bit tired I upped to HPR50 to hold oil pressure.
Currently using Martini in my Super and very happy with that.
Barry

[Anthony Miller]

Hi Karlo, if you're only topping up and not changing it your self, I'd ask who ever serviced it  what oil they used and can you buy a couple of litres from them. Depending on how many Klm the engine has done will determine what oil viscosity, on a high use motor my recommendation is for Penrite HPR 50.

[Typhoon90]

You really can't go past good old Castrol GTX for older design engines. It has the viscosity they need and the older classification, which means more anti scuff additives for these cam and follower style engines.

Regards, Andrew.

[MD]

Sorry to say Andrew but I think karlo should go right past Castrol GTX and score some Penrite Product like others have said. Been using it for years. Alfa engines love it.

[Typhoon90]

You obviously haven't heard some of the disaster stories about Penrite that I have!

Regards, Andrew.

[MD]

Likewise.

[Typhoon90]

Fair enough, I guess any product can have a few problems if it's made in sufficient volume. You often wonder when you hear these things  if there were other circumstances involved.
Oils aint oils!

Regards, Andrew.

[MD]

Mate on a less adversarial note, my experience with Castrol has been hit and miss. The last episode with Castrol Edge fully synthetic 10w60 used in my race TS engine did some weird things to a brand new set of main bearings. This is an oil especially claimed to be for race engines. I know it's not GTX but its my most recent experience with Castrol.

Never had the any dramas from Penrite.At the end of the day you just have to call it as you see it and I recognise that is what you are saying too.

[Typhoon90]

I haven't run any of the new Castrol products, I just use the GTX because it meets an older specification that includes lots of the additives earlier design engines need.
I'm always extremely wary of oils that claim such a wide viscosity rating, like the 10w60 you mention. To get such a wide rating, they have to blend in lots of interesting stuff and many tests have shown that engine oils with wide cold/hot ratings tend to break down very rapidly, often losing 10w off each end of their rating scale within 1000kms or so, especially of the hot rating. The long chain molecules they add to get that hot rating whilst maintaining the cold rating are very prone to breaking down under shear.
I also don't see a need for "racing" oils, a high quality synthetic diesel oil has everything and more that the racing oils claim to have, but is manufactured in large volumes, so it's far, far cheaper. Of course, that assumes you can use the viscosity ratings diesel oils are available in. I once cooked a 7MGTE engine in a Supra REALLY badly (the spark plug boots melted to the spark plugs). Once that engine cooled down, it started right up and settled into a glass smooth idle. The oil was Shell Rimula X.

Regards, Andrew.

[Darryl]

Interesting.
I think its easy to find the "right" oil for either a drive to the shops or a race car. Also not a big concern for something a bit worn but driven rarely. Harder for what a lot of us do with our cars though...

Because I have a long in the tooth (220000km) twinspark that gets used for a fair few short trips, and some short runs around the track, and some mildly spirited driving when there is a nice bit of road to use it on, I wanted something that didn't thin out or break down when things a bit hot, but that would work well when things didn't get hot (ie on startup and short trips). Hence I have put Penrite SIN 10 in it...

This gives me *very* consistent oil pressure regardless of how hot/cold the engine is. HPR 15 was giving worryingly low pressure at idle when hot on the street and wasn't something I wanted to run for a sprint. Conversely I didn't want to accelerate engine wear on startup by going to a higher cold viscosity oil.

The SIN 10 is SAE 10W-70. Its also horribly expensive.... I did think about going to HPR 40 which is SAE 25W-70. If it was using oil I certainly wouldn't want to be pouring the SIN $ down it every week.....

The hot viscosity specs (as you would expect from the SAE numbers) really are almost identical between the 2, it is just that the glowing description of the suitability of the SIN oil for short term high load use made me think it was better to be safe than sorry and that it *might* last better be less damaged by such use/abuse while also offering better protection at startup.

Andrew - do you think I'm doing the wrong thing here? I am not seeing any change in hot or cold oil pressure between oil changes that would suggest a viscosity change. I get next to no oil use (I did briefly when the oil pressure switch failed and started leaking onto the exhaust - now fixed). MD, not sure if that leak would explain the smoke you could see on the Watts Bridge run or if it really was puffing out the exhaust in the hilly bits once warmed up?

By the way (OT) - the 220kkm alfa engine is way less scary oil wise than the otherwise very nice Subi flat 6 with 70kkm on it - that likes to lull me into a false sense of security by using very little oil (relatively speaking - still more than the 75) for weeks/months and then suddenly dropping from the max mark to min in a week every now and again.... Not sure what to put that one down to and I'm scared to lift viscosity on it given fancy variable lift cams + mfg says synthetic rqd.... Did I mention the thing doesn't have an oil pressure gauge.....

Darryl.

[MD]

Hi Darryl,

Got to compliment you on driving the 75. You do it with plenty of confidence from what I could see. As for the emissions that I saw following you combined with the age of the car and the hilly terrain, my money is on valve guides and seals. Of the two, i summise the hardening and some wear of the seals as being the main contributor. Couple that with a light oil and it may your minor problem.

The injected Alfa engines last  sometimes more than 3 time their carb cousins. A TS can be in the same condition at 450,000 as a Nord at 160,000 km. Your engine is having a mid life crisis .

Trying a dose of HPR30 on your engine for a couple of oil changes is about all I can suggest that is a simple approach to start with. As for you, I prescribe two aspirins and a lie down if you are still troubled

BTW Are you doing the regularity on Novemeber the 14th ? See you there if you are.

[Darryl]

BTW Are you doing the regularity on Novemeber the 14th ? See you there if you are.

Can't make it. Was looking fwd to it too...