Oilman

Don't flush or use nasty addatives as they are a waste of money and can cause more harm than good. We had some tested a while back and the chemists comments were a good enough warning to stay clear - or at least they were for me! General Remarks on Chlorinated Additives. A number of ‘add-on’ additives intended to improve the performance of commercially available automotive lubricants have been marketed in recent years, under such names as ‘Xxtralube ZX-1’, ‘Metol FX-1’, ‘PPL Anti-Friction’ and ‘Activ-8’.All such products share the following characteristics with ‘X-1R Friction Eliminator’:- 1)They all contain chlorinated paraffin ‘exteme pressure’(EP) compounds first used in the 1930s in heavily-loaded industrial gearboxes, and in some automotive transmission applications, mainly hypoid gears. 2)They all corrode copper-based alloys at moderate temperatures, easily exceeded in all engine, and most transmission applications.This problem was recognised in the 1930s, and chlorinated compounds were never used in transmissions with bronze bearings or gears. No responsible manufacturer ever suggested using them in engines where their increasing activity at high temperatures could lead to piston ring corrosion and bore glazing. (For the same reason, modern ‘hypoid’ additives are not used in engines, even though they are much safer than any chlorinated additive.) 3)X-1R Friction Eliminator and its clones are based upon very outdated technology, which was abandoned by responsible lubricant manufacturers for automotive transmission uses in the 1950s. Chlorinated compounds still find applications in metal working, but their use is on the decline because of health and safety considerations. 4)When burnt, chlorinated paraffins produce corrosive hydrochloric acid, and organo-chlorine compounds including the highly poisonous phosgene gas. Apart from these corrosion and health hazards, with petrol engines the deactivation of exhaust catalysts is also a problem. 5)Unfortunately, these additives give spectacular results in simple EP test machines such as the ‘Falex’. As a marketing ploy, a demonstration of this type looks impressive to those not aquainted with the above facts. Also attractive is the low cost of chlorinated compounds, allowing profits of several thousand percent to be made. Cheers Simon

I can't honestly say there's any logic to that as both these oils are the following viscosities at 100degC RS 0w-40 = 12.90cst M1 0w-40 = 14.30cst In fact at 100degC the RS is thinner than the M1! It could be difference in basestocks or addative packs, I'm not sure. Cheers Simon

John, wow at last, someone who's talking sense! I've found someone who understands the basic principles of oil! Thanks John! Degradation depends mainly on quality so the answer is as long as a piece of string. As far as an sae 40 is concerned, 120degC is about the limit before you need to move to an sae 50. The use of an sae 50 prior to this is simply wasting power and causing additional friction and therefore heat in the engine which long term leads to wear (although no one here believes me on this!). The length of time it takes is more important. A petroleum based oil will lose viscosity (shear) within a thousand miles and at a far more rapid rate, thinning with use. A synthetic oil (proper pao/ester) will last 9000-12000 miles with no shear loss at all due to the thermal stability of the basestock and the need for little or no VI Improvers which are the element that shears. Yes oil temps have a bearing but you should always take into account that a 5w-40 is thicker at 110degC (12cst) than a 15w-50 at 140degC (8cst) so if high temperatures are not experienced the lower viscosity oils are the intellegent choice for the best levels of all round protection. Dry sump I would use a good shear stable fully synthetic 5w-30 or 5w-40 this is plenty thick enough throughout the temperature range to 120degC. Cheers Simon

The difference between a flushing oil and a proper engine oil is that the flushing oil thins much further and more quickly as it has no VI improvers in it to stop it thinning. This is not the case with an engine oil. What's wrong with 5w? A little more understanding of the facts is required here as the message does not seem to be getting through. Here are the figures for viscosity in cst (centistokes) and temperature for different oils. The first numbers are sae numbers for straight 30,40,50 and 60. The second set of numbers is for various multigrades as they are obviously thinner when cold than straight oils due to lighter viscosity basestocks being used. Monogrades DegC...........0.....20......40......60......100......120 Sae 30....1600....315.....95.......39......11........7... Sae 40....2579....473....135.......52......14.......9.... Sae 50....4592....771....205.......75......18.......11.. Sae 60....7865...1218...303.......105.....24.......14.. Multigrades DegC...............0...............10............40..............100 0W/20............329............181...........46...............9.. 5W/40............811............421...........92..............14.. 10W/50..........1039...........539..........117.............18.. 15W/50..........1376...........675..........130.............18.. 20W/50..........2305..........1015..........148.............18.. These two graphs demonstrate the fact that a monograde is the same thickness at 100degC as a multigrade of the same sae number but the distinct benefits that a multigrade brings at lower temperatures. This is obviously benefits cold crank wear as the rate of flow of multigrades is much better at lower temps. There is no temperature where oil suddenly starts to flow better. A 10W/40 for example will flow between -25C and 100C or more, but there is a big difference in the rate of flow (True viscosity at -25C is about 7000 Centistoke(cSt) units, dropping to 14 at 100C. ‘Viscosity’ is just another name for ‘rate of flow’. The question is, at what (sump) temperature is the oil at a viscosity that suits a modern high-RPM engine. Present day designs seem happy on an oil viscosity of 10 to 15 cSt. (But many are OK on less than 10.) 30cSt is too high at high RPM. It can lead to foaming, air entrainment and cavitation. ............Temp. for 30cSt (Deg. C).......Temp. for 15cSt.......Temp. for 10cSt 5W/40..................71...........................90........................117............... 10W/40................70...........................99........................118............... 10W/50................80...........................109.......................130.............. 10W/60................89...........................119.......................142.............. This shows that a 5W/40 or a 10W/40 is perfectly adequate for all engines except those that run an unusually high temperatures. Also, a thick oil can lead to trouble unless properly warmed up before high RPM is used. I hope that these figures at least give some insight to what actually happens to the oil inside your engine at different temperatures. Cheers Simon

Referee! Unfair and not true, I recommend what's best for the car. My margins are the same on all oils that I sell. Nissan, 300 ZX, 300 ZX Turbo (Z31), 1984-1990 Manufacturer: Nissan Motors Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan Drive type: r.w.d. Cilinder capacity: 2960 cc Power output: 230 HP/169 kW at 5200 Rpm Engine VG30ET Petrol, 4-stroke, 6 cilinder, V, 4 valves/cil., Turbo, liquid cooled Cilinder capacity: 2960 cc Capacity: 4 liter Filter capacity: 0.4 liter Use: Normal Change 5000 km/6 months OEM recommendation Above -20 API: SF SAE 15W-50 Above -20 API: SF SAE 10W-30 Above -20 API: SF SAE 10W-40 Above -20 API: SF SAE 10W-50 Below 15 API: SF SAE 5W-30 Nissan, 300 ZX, 300 ZX Twin Turbo (Z32), 1990-1991 Manufacturer: Nissan Motors Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan Drive type: r.w.d. Cilinder capacity: 2960 cc Power output: 282 HP/208 kW at 6400 Rpm Engine VG30DETT Petrol, 4-stroke, 6 cilinder, V, 4 valves/cil., Turbo, liquid cooled Cilinder capacity: 2960 cc Capacity: 3.4 liter Filter capacity: 0.4 liter Use: Normal Change 10000 km/6 months OEM recommendation Above -20 API: SG SAE 10W-30 Above -20 API: SG SAE 10W-40 Above -20 API: SG SAE 10W-50 Above -20 API: SG SAE 15W-40 Above -20 API: SG SAE 15W-50 Below 15 API: SG SAE 5W-30 Below -10 API: SG SAE 5W-20 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 10W-30 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 10W-40 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 10W-50 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 15W-40 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 15W-50 Below 15 CCMC G4 SAE 5W-30 Below -10 CCMC G4 SAE 5W-20 Castrol Website says 300ZX Z32 10w-40, 300ZX Z31 10w-40 Motul Technical Department recommendation says 10w-40 or 10w-50 Silkolene Technical Department says 300ZX Z32 and Z31 10w-40 or 10w-50 OATS technical database says 300ZX Z32 and Z31 10w-30 or 10w-40 Enough said, use what you want, it's your car ;) Cheers Simon

You clearly don't read my posts, I've always sold it, look on my website. I just don't recommend it ;) They're two different things :) Cheers Simon

Oh no please don't start me off again. Must bite my tongue Must bite my tongue Must bite my tongue Nope, refuse to argue, 10w-60's the best and I'm the cheapest ;) Cheers Simon

Take your pick mate, Japshow, GT Battle, JAE, TOTB, TRAX, Rallyday, JCS. Cheers Simon ;)

10w-50 would be my suggestion, best allround grade between good cold start protection, hot end protection and the viscosity gap is such the oil does not have to be filled with viscosity index improver to keep it in grade, making it more stable than larger viscosity gap oils. Cheers Simon.

I read on many forums about 0w and 5w oils being too thin. I will try to explain it without getting over technical and we'll go from there. 0w-40, 5w-40, 10w-40 and 15w-40 are all the same thickness (14cst) at 100degC. Centistokes (cst) is the measure of a fluid's resistance to flow (viscosity). It is calculated in terms of the time required for a standard quantity of fluid at a certain temperature to flow through a standard orifice. The higher the value, the more viscous the fluid. As viscosity varies with temperature, the value is meaningless unless accompanied by the temperature at which it is measured. In the case of oils, viscosity is generally reported in centistokes (cst) and usually measured at 40degC and 100degC. So, all oils that end in 40 (sae 40) are around 14cst thickness at 100degC. This applies to all oils that end in the same number, all oils that end in 50 (sae 50) are around 18.5cst at 100degC and all oils that end in 60 (sae 60) are around 24cst at 100degC. With me so far? Great! Now, ALL oils are thicker when cold. Confused? It's true and here is a table to illustrate this. SAE 40 (straight 40) Temp degC.........................Viscosity (thickness) 0..........................................2579cst 20..........................................473cst 40..........................................135cst 60..........................................52.2cs t 100........................................ 14cst 120.........................................8.8cst As you will see, there is penty of viscosity at 0degC, in fact many times more than at 100degC and this is the problem especially in cold weather, can the oil flow quick enough to protect vital engine parts at start up. Not really! So, given that an sae 40 is 14cst at 100degC which is adequate viscosity to protect the engine, and much thicker when cold, how can a 0w oil be too thin? Well, it can't is the truth. The clever part (thanks to synthetics) is that thin base oils can be used so that start up viscosity (on say a 5w-40 at 0degC) is reduced to around 800cst and this obviously gives much better flow than a monograde sae 40 (2579cst as quoted above). So, how does this happen, well as explained at the beginning, it's all about temperature, yes a thin base oil is still thicker when cold than at 100degC but the clever stuff (due to synthetics again) is that the chemists are able to build these oils out of molecules that do not thin to less than 14cst at 100degC! What are the parameters for our recommendations? Well, we always talk about good cold start protection, by this we mean flow so a 5w will flow better than a 10w and so on. This is why we recommend 5w or 10w as the thickest you want to use except in exceptional circumstances. Flow is critical to protect the engine from wear! We also talk about oil temps, mods and what the car is used for. This is related to the second number xw-(XX) as there may be issues with oil temperatures causing the oil to be too thin and therefore the possibility of metal to metal contact. This is difficult to explain but, if for example your oil temp does not exceed 120degC at any time then a good "shear stable" sae 40 is perfectly capable of giving protection. "Shear stability" is important here because if the oil shears it thins and that's not good! However, if you are seeing temperatures in excess of 120degC due to mods and track use etc then there is a strong argument to using an sae 50 as it will have more viscosity at these excessive temperatures. There are trade offs here. Thicker oils cause more friction and therefore more heat and they waste power and affect fuel consumption so it's always best to use the thinnest oil (i.e. second number) that you can get away with and still maintain oil pressure. There is more but this post is too long already so lets keep it to basics. Cheers Simon

If any one wants a pro's and con's of thick and thin oil then catch up with me on my stand at Japfest and I'd be happy to bore you to death with the technicalities! I'm not a fan of 10w-60 and I've explained my reasons many times so we'll not go into it again. I would have said that a fully syn 10w-40 or 10w-50 would be more suitable and yes, you can use a 5w-40 as long as you get enough oil pressure and no excess oil consumption. Cheers Simon

We'll be there (OPIE OILS) with plenty of oil and the following cars on the stand! EVO 9 Team D:MON Drift 200sx Vortex Supra Come and say Hi! Cheers Simon

Yep, just drop me an email or PM rather than getting into a scrap here. Cheers Simon

Better consumption, longer life and more thermally stable. Cheers Simon

Oh no, please don't ask, you'll likely cause world war III. Just search for "Oil advice and recommendations". Cheers Simon

We will be attending JAPFEST on 21st May 2005 and will be on hand to give advice and recommendations. We have limited space for oil and expect the day to be busy so we are running a pre-order list for those wishing to collect "carriage free" oils on the day. You can either email us, PM us or put your name here should you wish to take advantage of this offer. If you'd like a price list (carriage free) then please email us on sales@opieoils.co.uk. This offer is only open to Clubs that we currently work with. See you there! Cheers Simon

I've posted on this subject before. Take my advice you're wasting your money - Use a decent fully synthetic oil, it's far more beneficial. Cheers Simon

There are such things as fully synthetic ATF's for Autos. Cheers Simon

Forgot to say, the guy at the chipshop used to have a 300ZX about 12 years ago, think he's got a Jag now though. Cheers Simon

They used to supply only Silkolene years ago. I think they still do but probably too expensive for most of the GTI and SRI boys! Cheers Simon

Nope, I work at HQ on the Cardrew Ind Est. I also happen to own the little trade forecourt next to Morrishs' Cheers Simon

I would recommend a 75w-90 that has GL4/GL5 and approved for LSD's or a dedicated 90 LS oil. Try emailing me through my profile, it appears my PM capability has been disabled. If you have problems then contact me through SXOC. Cheers Simon

Just as a note to those who will be attending, we will be attending the following events this year. We will of course be on-hand to give advice and will have plenty of quality oils with us. Japfest (may) GT Battle (June) JAE (July) TOTB (July) We will probably run a pre-order list prior to all these events (about 1 month before) for those interested in collecting oil "carriage free" during the event. We will merely need your name, club and requirement to ensure that your oil is available on the day as we have limited spece. Hope to meet you soon. Cheers Simon

Yep pretty much done to death - especially when I appear. So, what should you be using was your question, here's the answer. To find out what I recommend you'll need to pm or email me as it will probably cause another oil war. Nissan, 300 ZX, 300 ZX Turbo (Z31), 1984-1990 Manufacturer: Nissan Motors Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan Drive type: r.w.d. Cilinder capacity: 2960 cc Power output: 230 HP/169 kW at 5200 Rpm Engine VG30ET Petrol, 4-stroke, 6 cilinder, V, 4 valves/cil., Turbo, liquid cooled Cilinder capacity: 2960 cc Capacity: 4 liter Filter capacity: 0.4 liter Use: Normal Change 5000 km/6 months OEM recommendation Above -20 API: SF SAE 15W-50 Above -20 API: SF SAE 10W-30 Above -20 API: SF SAE 10W-40 Above -20 API: SF SAE 10W-50 Below 15 API: SF SAE 5W-30 SAE 5W-30 oils are recommended for use in extremely cold weather conditions only. Under severe operating conditions: change more frequently. Capacity including oil filter and oil cooler. Differential, rear, (4x2) Capacity: 1.8 liter Use: Normal Check 10000 km/6 months OEM recommendation Below 40 API: GL-5 SAE 80W-90 Below 40 API: GL-5 SAE 75W-90 Below 30 API: GL-5 SAE 80W Below 10 API: GL-5 SAE 75W From -10 to 30 API: GL-5 SAE 85W From 0 to 40 API: GL-5 SAE 90 Above 10 API: GL-5 SAE 140 Transaxle, manual Manual Capacity: 1.9 liter Gears forward: 5 Gears reverse: 1 Use: Normal Check 10000 km/6 months OEM recommendation year-round API: GL-4 SAE 80W-90 Transmission, automatic Automatic Capacity: 7 liter Gears forward: 4 Gears reverse: 1 Use: Normal OEM recommendation year-round Dexron IIE - Power steering Capacity: 0.9 liter Use: Normal OEM recommendation year-round Dexron IIE - Hydraulic brakes system Use: Normal Change 40000 km/24 months OEM recommendation year-round Brake fluid, DOT 3 - Hydraulic clutch system Use: Normal OEM recommendation year-round Brake fluid, DOT 3 - Cooling system Capacity: 11 liter Use: Normal Change 40000 km/24 months OEM recommendation year-round Water with antifreeze (ethylene glycol base) - Nissan, 300 ZX, 300 ZX Twin Turbo (Z32), 1990-1991 Manufacturer: Nissan Motors Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan Drive type: r.w.d. Cilinder capacity: 2960 cc Power output: 282 HP/208 kW at 6400 Rpm Engine VG30DETT Petrol, 4-stroke, 6 cilinder, V, 4 valves/cil., Turbo, liquid cooled Cilinder capacity: 2960 cc Capacity: 3.4 liter Filter capacity: 0.4 liter Use: Normal Change 10000 km/6 months OEM recommendation Above -20 API: SG SAE 10W-30 Above -20 API: SG SAE 10W-40 Above -20 API: SG SAE 10W-50 Above -20 API: SG SAE 15W-40 Above -20 API: SG SAE 15W-50 Below 15 API: SG SAE 5W-30 From -20 to 15 API: SG SAE 10W Below -10 API: SG SAE 5W-20 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 10W-30 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 10W-40 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 10W-50 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 15W-40 Above -20 CCMC G4 SAE 15W-50 Below 15 CCMC G4 SAE 5W-30 From -20 to 15 CCMC G4 SAE 10W Below -10 CCMC G4 SAE 5W-20 SAE 5W-20 is not recommended for sustainded high speed driving. Under severe operating conditions: change every 5000 km or 3 months. Capacity including oil filter and oil cooler. Differential, rear, (4x2) Capacity: 2.1 liter Use: Normal Check 40000 km/24 months OEM recommendation Below 40 API: GL-5 SAE 80W-90 Below 40 API: GL-5 SAE 75W-90 Below 30 API: GL-5 SAE 80W Below 10 API: GL-5 SAE 75W From -10 to 30 API: GL-5 SAE 85W From 0 to 40 API: GL-5 SAE 90 Above 10 API: GL-5 SAE 140 Transmission, automatic Automatic Capacity: 8.7 liter Gears forward: 4 Gears reverse: 1 Use: Normal Check 20000 km/12 months OEM recommendation year-round Dexron IIE - Transmission, manual Manual Capacity: 3.1 liter Gears forward: 5 Gears reverse: 1 Use: Normal Check 40000 km/24 months OEM recommendation year-round API: GL-4 SAE 75W-90 Power steering Capacity: 1.3 liter Use: Normal Check 20000 km/12 months OEM recommendation year-round Dexron IIE - Capacity of models with HICAS: 2 l. Top up only. Hydraulic brakes/clutch system Use: Normal Check 20000 km/12 months Change 40000 km/24 months OEM recommendation year-round Brake fluid, DOT 3 - Grease points/nipples Use: Normal Check 40000 km/24 months OEM recommendation year-round Lithium base multipurpose grease NLGI No. 2 Cooling system Capacity: 10 liter Use: Normal Change 40000 km/24 months OEM recommendation year-round Water with antifreeze (ethylene glycol base) - Hope this helps. Cheers Simon

I would say 10w-50 semi would be fine as long as it's a petroleum oil and it is likely to be this if it's semi. Always get as much as you can out when you change as you are rather defeating the point of switching otherwise. Cheers Simon