Quick question re JTS oil use

[nzoliver]

Aloha all!!

How much oil does everyone's 2.0JTS engines use on a run?

Mine seems to be at the top of Alfa's 1litre /1000km allowance. Hardly uses any around town. I use Agip 10/60 Racing in it FYI.

Anybody else

Thanks

Oliver

[colcol]

Mine uses about 100mlls per 1,000klms....however when you drive around the city and the engine doesn't warm up, then you can get a lot of contaminants in the oil that is not getting burnt off....and you get some blowby in the JTS with its  high pressure fuel injection system, so when you take it for a run in the country or on the freeway, the engine gets hot and burns off all the crap in the sump and it seems like its using lots of oil as the oil level has dropped down, when in reality the oil level is the same but the rubbish has been burnt out.
You could try using a different type of oil, such as Castrol Edge 10 - 60,  Martini 10 - 60, Nulon 10 - 60, or whatever oil you can source and see if it makes any difference.
I used to use AGIP oil a long time ago when you could by it easily at motor supply houses, but haven't seen it for years, Colin.

[alfagtv152]

Hi Oliver,
I have had good success using Penrite oils in modern engines that had previously used their oil,they have a good web site that will recommend an oil for your car and I usually get the fully synthetic that they recommend in their list.
Cheers
Andrew

[colcol]

Penrite do a 15-60 Fully Synthetic engine oil, which is not quite the same as the recommended 10-60 and they do a 10-70 Fully Synthetic engine oil with extra zinc, you would have to be carefull with the zinc content as it may ruin your cat convertor, but it would be good to minimise cam wear problems experienced in the JTS.
I would be happy to use the 15-60 in mine, i also use Mobil 1, Fully Synthetic 5-50 in the winter as its a bit thinner for the cold weather, Colin.

[Barry Edmunds]

Be very, very, very careful with your choice of oil for your precious Alfa. Oil consumption is high in some modern Alfa motors and owners concerned about 'high' oil consumption have been advised to use a heavyweight oil to reduce consumption. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. These motors were designed to use oil and a lightweight one at that. I have been told that the problem with the heavyweight oils is that they are too thick (dense) to flow through the small oil holes and, as a consequence, the oil fails to do its job and before you know it the timing belt tensioner has ceased to tension and you quickly end up with an engine block full of shrapnel, broken internals and a large bill to fix it. The blame is, incorrectly, attributed to a failure of the belt.
Do your research on which oil best suits your motoring needs and your motor but, above all, get into the habit of checking your oil level regularly. Regular checking is free and a whole lot better than the inconvenience of a car of the road for a rebuild.
Barry

[colcol]

The Twin Sparks use 10-40 Fully Synthetic as did the JTS until high consumption was causing engines to seize, due to the lack of oil checking, so Alfa Romeo changed the spec of the oil to 10-60, mine is an early JTS and on the radiator apron it still has the old sticker 10-40 Selenia, but i use 10-60, still very thin oil, when i change it and spill it all over the workshop floor, it is hot and thin as water, not like the mineral oil in the 33, Colin.

[Thevak]

The Twin Sparks use 10-40 Fully Synthetic as did the JTS until high consumption was causing engines to seize, due to the lack of oil checking, so Alfa Romeo changed the spec of the oil to 10-60, mine is an early JTS and on the radiator apron it still has the old sticker 10-40 Selenia, but i use 10-60, still very thin oil, when i change it and spill it all over the workshop floor, it is hot and thin as water, not like the mineral oil in the 33, Colin.

Why do you use mineral oil on an Alfa 33?

[Steve S]

10w60 is an SAE 60 multigrade, i.e. the thickest SAE grade there is. It definitely is not "thin" as far as motor oil is concerned.

I agree with Barry. Oil that is thicker than required will not offer any more protection, but it will cause the oil filter and the oil pump to bypass for a longer period of time, mostly when the engine is warming up, but also sometimes at higher RPM as oil pressure rises. I would rather have a larger volume of filtered oil circulating in my engine than a lower volume, unfiltered.

[colcol]

Thevak, i use mineral oil in the 33, because what Alfa Romeo say to use, and they know more than me.
When i drain the mineral oil out of the 33, it is not as thin as the oil in the 156 JTS, i do the both on the same day as then i only make a mess once!.
To cut down oil consumption issues on the JTS, Alfa Romeo went from 10-40, as used on the twin spark to 10-60, that was quite rare and hard to get back in 2002, it was not a decision that was taken lightly as not all the oil companies contracted to workshops were making a 10-60.
Mobil make a 5-50 Mobil 1, Penrite make a 15-60, having different oil brands in workshops can cause problems such as when the sales rep from the oil company that has exclusive supply to your workshop, spies another brand of oil...sparks can fly!.
When i pour in 10-60 fully synthetic oil in the 156 it flows in like water, when i pour in the mineral oil in the 33, it flows out the bottle noticably slower, Colin.

[Steve S]

The argument of mineral vs synthetic is redundant so long as the oil meets the specifications required, be that just a simple viscosity with API approval, or a stricter approval like Fiat 9.55533.52 for example.