Hi, you'll probably be hearing a bit from me in the coming months but I thought it would be of interest to post this item.

 

 

A word of caution – You get what you pay for!

 

Below is an article written by John Rowland, Silkolene/Fuchs Chief R & D Chemist for 40 years.

 

Quote:

 

Costs of synthetics vary considerably. The most expensive are the “Ester” types originally only used in jet engines. These cost 6 to 10 times more than high quality mineral oils. The cheapest synthetics are not really synthetic at all, from a chemists point of view. These are in fact specially refined light viscosity mineral oils known as “hydrocracked”. These have some advantages over equivalent mineral oils, particularly in lower viscosity motor oils such as 5w-30 or other oils with a low “W” rating such as 5w-50 etc and they cost about 1.5 times more than good quality mineral fractions. We use several different grades of this base oil, where appropriate. This is the “synthetic” which is always used in cheap oils that are labelled “synthetic”. Yes it’s a cruel world, you get what you pay for!

 

Now, you may ask, why are these special mineral oils called “synthetic”? Well, it was all sorted in a legal battle that took place in the USA about ten years ago. Sound reasons (including evidence from a Nobel Prize winning chemist) were disregarded and the final ruling was that certain mineral bases that had undergone extra chemical treatments could be called “synthetic”. Needless to say, the marketing executives wet their knickers with pure delight! They realised that this meant, and still does, that the critical buzz-word “synthetic” could be printed on a can of cheap oil provided that the contents included a few percent of “hydrocracked” mineral oil, at a cost of quite literally a few pence.

 

So, the chemistry of “synthetics” is complex and so is the politics!

 

The economics are very simple. If you like the look of a smart well-marketed can with “synthetic” printed on it, fair enough, it will not cost you a lot; and now you know why this is the case. But, if you drive a high performance car, and you intend to keep it for several years, and maybe do the odd “track day”, then you need a genuine Ester/PAO (Poly Alpha Olefin) synthetic oil, such as PRO S or PRO R. This oil costs more money to buy, because it costs us a lot of money to make, very simply, you always get what you pay for!

 

UNQUOTE:

 

This article is something that all car owners should read and understand before buying oil and I’ve posted this with Johns permission.

 

Cheers,

Simon Barnard.

OPIE OILS

WHY ARE ESTERS SO GOOD?

 

They assist the additive pack in a motor oil formulation because they are surface-active (electrostatically attracted to metal surfaces), so they help to reduce wear and friction.

 

They are fluid at very low temperatures and at high temperatures they are very chemically stable and have low volatility (don’t evaporate away).

 

They also help to prevent hardening and cracking of oil seals at high temperatures.

 

Cheers

Simon

WHY ARE ESTERS SO GOOD?

 

They assist the additive pack in a motor oil formulation because they are surface-active (electrostatically attracted to metal surfaces), so they help to reduce wear and friction.

 

They are fluid at very low temperatures and at high temperatures they are very chemically stable and have low volatility (don’t evaporate away).

 

They also help to prevent hardening and cracking of oil seals at high temperatures.

 

Cheers

Simon

Because you get Chocolate Eggs :dance: :dance: :dance:

Because you get Chocolate Eggs :dance: :dance: :dance:

 

:tongue:

OK im intregued anyway. I have a slightly modded car that I love to bits, but my wallet hates. So what Oil should we be using.

 

I have magnatec and slick 50 in mine.

Well i dont know what my oil contains all i know is that its fooking good.

 

I prefere to feed my zed a diet of castrol RS10/60 with activ8 friction reducer, and the results are ive done 25k in 2 years and its not blown up yet!!!

 

......off to find a peice of wood to touch!!!

Please excuse me for sounding cynical here, but this sounds like some free advertising to a NON-SUBSCRIBED TRADER to me :rolleyes:

 

I thought we had a rule about this?

 

It's probably very good advise though, but I wasn't born yesterday and this is blatent advertising!! Oh look, he's in the trade :rolleyes: Go figure!

 

One rule for one, one rule for all, please.

 

PS - And incase anyone comes back with 'it's there to help members', I run a sports car, as do a lot of us. I think I've got the nounce to pick a quality oil for my Zed without someone having to tell me. Afterall i don't even put cheap crap in my Escort either, let alone in the Zed

Please excuse me for sounding cynical here, but this sounds like some free advertising to a NON-SUBSCRIBED TRADER to me :rolleyes:

 

I thought we had a rule about this?

 

It's probably very good advise though, but I wasn't born yesterday and this is blatent advertising!! Oh look, he's in the trade :rolleyes: Go figure!

 

One rule for one, one rule for all, please.

 

PS - And incase anyone comes back with 'it's there to help members', I run a sports car, as do a lot of us. I think I've got the nounce to pick a quality oil for my Zed without someone having to tell me. Afterall i don't even put cheap crap in my Escort either, let alone in the Zed

 

Opie oils ARE in our club affiliated links section though.

 

i shall pass this over to Macca to decide whats acceptable for someone in this section

Opie oils ARE in our club affiliated links section though.

 

i shall pass this over to Macca to decide whats acceptable for someone in this section

 

OK, well I'll slap myself around the head for not checking the Affiliated section :slap: Although I did check the traders section, just in case.

This wasnt meant as an attack on Mr Barnard or Opie Oils, or even the Mods, and no offense was intended.

A WORD OF CAUTION ON ADDITIVES!

 

This is the transcript of an AA article published in Motor May 10th 1986.

 

The widely-advertised oil additive Slick 50 has been soundly slammed by the AA’s Technical Services.

The AA claim that their tests show Slick 50 provides no fuel savings when it is added to a cars engine oil – and there is no evidence of any other benefits under normal operating conditions.

The AA have made no press or public announcement of their report, but have produced a leaflet for the benefit of any paid-up members who apply for one. An AA member on Motor’s staff applied for a report in the normal way.

The report states that whilst there is no evidence the product will do harm to the engine, one good point is that most of it will be very rapidly removed by the oil filter. “At about £12 per treatment”, say the AA, “it is a very expensive way of coating your oil filter element”.

The AA performed tests by taking three identical cars and carefully running them in, splitting the driving equally among their test drivers. Oils were changed at 1500 miles, the cars were run a further 500 miles to stabilise the oils’ viscosity, the cars’ tuning was carefully checked and steady speed fuel consumptions and power outputs were measured.

The report says: “The procedure is so sensitive that, for instance, leaving the headlamps of the car switched on will make a nonsense of the results due to the extra drag of the charging system”.

Engineers added Slick 50 to two of the cars in the recommended way at 3000 miles.

After a further 2000 miles, further dynamometer tests were carried out. “One car should show the sort of gradual change expected of a car in good condition” says the report, “whereas two should show a noticeable improvement . Here came the big disappointment. After our several months of careful testwork, we could not distinguish any difference between the three cars.”

The AA claimed that all cars were performing well, but performance was remarkably consistent , within a few percent.

The AA say that a detailed examination of the claims made for the product will explain what happens when Slick 50 is added to an engine. Of one gallon of petrol burnt in an engine, says the report, some 60 percent of the energy will be lost as heat from the exhaust and cooling system. That leaves 40 percent and some 25 percent is used to drive the car and its accessories. The remaining 15 percent goes to losses such as pumping air into the engine (6 percent) and some 9 percent is lost as engine friction. Of that 9 percent, 6 percent is lost in churning the oil and only 3 percent of the total input goes into the sort of “boundary” friction that a solid lubricant could affect. “If tests of Slick 50 did show a 16 percent decrease in this friction, as claimed in current advertisements”, says the report, “it would only affect the car’s overall consumption by a half of one percent”.

The AA also claim that their tests show there is no evidence that Slick 50 produces a surface layer on the engine wearing surfaces, let alone one that could last for 100,000 miles.

 

On questioning John Rowland, Silkolene/Fuchs Chief R&D Chemist for 40 years about additives, I received the following reply.

 

Quote:

 

The AA report encapsulates my opinion of Slick 50, it is an expensive way of blocking your oil filter, Believe me, it does precisely nothing beneficial. It has been proven time and time again that it just blocks oil filters and oilways.

 

For all other “magic” additives, most are based on 1930’s technology corrosive chlorinated paraffins. (synthetic anti-seize compounds originally made 70 years ago. They are cheap, toxic and corrosive. We use them in certain types of cutting oil!) Do not touch them with somebody else’s bargepole!

 

UCL’s on the other hand can be useful. After all, 2-strokes in effect run entirely on UCL. So……the best UCL’s are 2-stroke oils! I always tell people to use a decent 2-stroke at 0.5% or 1%, because they are superior to the UCL’s sold as UCL’s if you get my drift. A litre of Super 2 Injector or Comp-2 will be better than a cupful of cheap mineral oil dyed red (no prizes for guessing the name) any day.

 

Vee engines (twins, to V8’s) benefit from UCL’s because the upper walls of the RH cylinder bank, looking from the front, always run dry. Think about it!

 

Unquote:

 

So, there you have it.

 

Cheers,

Simon Barnard

Whats a UCL?

Ok, I would like to put some facts straight here.

 

I'm not here (in this topic) to advertise my Company and will be publishing no prices here on the General Forum, I'll leave them in the Traders Section or whatever (once I find my way around the site).

 

I'm here to answer questions, give advice and recommendations to the Members of this Club. I accept that everyone knows everything there is to know about oil and the best oils to use in their cars so it may fall on deaf ears but most Clubs find my services and prices a benefit to their Members.

 

Hopefully I can at least expose some of the myths and give sound "technical" advice.

 

I would like to point out that, I sell Castrol, Mobil, Silkolene, Fuchs and Total Oils and have no particular loyalty to one brand (Customers buy what they are comfortable with) however, I normally recommend oils based on the following criteria:

 

1) Technical Specifications

2) Quality compared to others of the same performance

3) Price comparisons (VFM)

 

Naturally, I have my favorites but this is based on quality and performance and whether I would use them myself in my cars.

 

Many of the oils I sell are not available in the shops or the sheds, they are specialist oils only available through Authorised Distributors like myself (eg I don't sell Magnatec as it's a "shed" grade but I do to supply the superior Castrol Performance 10w-40 semi-syn not available in the shops).

 

On a public forum there are drawbacks, especially if the product is made by a supplier of mine so I may "duck" some questions and reply to you personally by PM.

 

My opinions are frank but based on facts so I'll apolgise in advance if I upset anyone but I will ALWAYS give you the "best advice", you don't have to take it.

 

Finally, oil for the 300zx is an interesting one as the recommendations I have had are based around the Manufacturers which is 10w-40 Semi-syn however, depending on driving conditions, the following grades can be considered 10w-40 semi-syn,10w-50 Fully-syn, 5w-40 fully syn and 15w-50 fully syn.

 

These all have different advantages to the performance of the car depending on how you use the car. Short journeys, long journeys, track days etc....

 

At the end of the day, it's your car and you must use what you're happy with but I will attempt to compare different oils based on their technical data and give you my honest opinion on whats best.

 

You may wish to look at the technical data for yourself which can be downloaded in PDF format here: http://www.opieoils.co.uk/lubricants.htm

 

Thanks,

Simon Barnard.

UCL = Upper Cylinder Lubricant.

 

Cheers

Simon

What's ZX1 additive like ?

I was thinking about getting some for my Z

Never mind ;)

Just talked to simon today, he is a top fella, put me straight on a few oil myths and so called big brand prices!!

 

From now on I will be using sylkoline fully synthetic 10-50 !

Does he have special discount for vegetable oil as im currently running low! :D

 

Fas

Mate I am always will to take on advice. However, being a scientist, all be it not a good one and not chemical, I have run a v8 on slick 50 for 400 miles with no oil preasure and it didnt over heat. Maybe other oils could do that, I dont know.

 

I am however willing to put the very best oil in my car for logevety as I love it but dont like the repair bills.

 

So how about sugesting something for a zx with minor mods, running approx 10psi boost that is a daily driver and normaly does short trips and only rarely gets booted. And I do mean rarely here.

Just do a search for slick 50 on the forum, I think it will show how pants it is!

 

BTW you probably have no oil pressure on your zed, because the sender has packed up, a common fault on the zed, so your bearings aren't knacked! But they could well be if you carry on using slick 50, because all the crap they put in it blocks your oil filter!!

not on my zed, was a rover P5B.

Ok, the driving is important here.

 

Firstly bear in mind that the car was designed to run on 10w-40 which is the manufacturers recommended oil but as just about all 10w-40's that I know of except for one are semi-synthetics I would go for fully synthetic as it has a higher resistance to thinning down with temperature (a good one that is, not just an excuse for a synthetic with a pretty label) as they stay in grade longer.

 

So, 10w-40 is supposedly ideal but you need something which affords better protection at the bottom end (cold) and top end (hot) if you want to "step-up" as I already know many of you have.

 

To put it simply it works as follows:

 

For short journeys and lots of cold starts, you need an oil that circulates quickly as this is where 70+ percent of the engine wear occurs so rather than using a 10w consider a 5w, its thinner and circulates more easily. 0w is even quicker but may be too thin and you could end up with oil seal leaks.

 

For faster longer journeys where the engine is operating a high temperatures (hard driving) I would consider a 10w-50 or 10w-60 to give more protection at the top end but you want an oil that has a high resistance to thinning down and "stays in grade" longer. Ester is the best for this (see note below).

 

For racing and track days, you need an oil that will give more protection still and I would consider a 15w-50 which is a recognised motorsport and racing oil which will protect you almost entirely at the top end.

 

* Contrary to popular belief, 0w oils are rarely used for racing for the reasons given above.

 

I am fully aware that many of you use Castrol 10w-60 and don't read me wrongly here, if you're happy with it it's available in 1 and 4 litre sizes but it isn't an "Ester" synthetic and there for doesn't have the same advantages as an Ester synthetic.

 

Esters are surface-active (electrostatically attracted to metal surfaces) so they help reduce wear and friction but don't confuse this with magnatec. The proper description is "Electrosyntec" patented by Silkolene through their longstanding involvement with motorcycle racing and highly stressed bike engines.

They are very fluid at low temperatures and extremely chemically stable at high temperatures (stay in grade and don't evaporate).

Waxing lyrical maybe but for a good reason, they are the best!

 

At the end of the day, it's your car and your decision, just some facts to help you on your way.

 

Cheers

Simon

hi Simon. interesting reading!

 

im in the trade & run a MB workshop (for my sins! :D)

 

we have been told we have to upgrade from Mobil Super S (10W40) to Mobil Synt S (5W40 i believe) which is a grade higher than the Super S. any info on this oil?? i have always used Super S & have always been happy with it.

 

we also use Mobil 1 - how do you rate that??

 

cheerz

Paul

Hey asda now sell mobil 1 motorsport rally formula. Its a 5 to 50w. £37. How does that sound people?

Hey asda now sell mobil 1 motorsport rally formula. Its a 5 to 50w. £37. How does that sound people?

 

 

expensive!

Just do a search for slick 50 on the forum, I think it will show how pants it is!

 

it this a FACT?.. all the posts i remember seeing on here seem to point to some experiment to an american uni which doesnt appear to rate any so called friction reducers. Has anyone on here actually had and proven that their engines has dies because of slick 50, its all hearsay!!!!.

 

Who funds these old tests on the engine additives, is it maybe the oil companied them selves as a back door way to discredit manufacturers of friction reducers. Ive used various ones in my trucks in the past, although none in the zed yet, and i can report no engine faults in any of the cars.. would I have had problems if id not used the friction reducers,, who knows, maybe maybe not!

 

That aa report that the oil man is referring to is from 1986, sorry to make us feel old but thats 18 years ago, surely a company which flogs stuff that is soooo damaging to our engines, blocks our oil ways and filters, would still not be in business!!!!! or would have been had by the trading standards or somebody along those lines as they should have been inundated with requests, but no , slick 50 is still going strong!!!

I am not sure if my memory serves me right here, but I thought dupont the manufacturer of PTFE tried to take slick50 to court, wanting to stop them from claiming beneifts from them using it as an engine lubricant!