Oilman

See you soon then Cheers

Anyone for a recommendation? Cheers Guy.

:)

See you then :)

Yes mate, virtually next door, can see them from here. Cheers Guy.

The better oil is always the right thing to do if you intend to keep the car, lower wear in the long term. Cheers

Magnatec is a semi-synthetic and I would recommend a fully synthetic if heavily modified. I would look for a 5w-40 synthetic unless you see oil temps above 120degC in which case a 10w-50 or 15w-50 would be preferable. http://www.opieoils.co.uk/c-647-engine-oils.aspx Cheers Guy

Good points here although I think there are many tests showing the durability of synthetics over the long term and therefore higher levels of protection for longer in the engine. The reasons for their durability and the benefits are well explained here I think. The basic benefits are as follows: Extended oil drain periods Better wear protection and therefore extended engine life Most synthetics give better MPG They flow better when cold and are more thermally stable when hot Esters are surface-active meaning a thin layer of oil on the surfaces at all times Stable Basestocks Synthetic oils are designed from pure, uniform synthetic basestocks, they contain no contaminants or unstable molecules which are prone to thermal and oxidative break down. Because of their uniform molecular structure, synthetic lubricants operate with less internal and external friction than petroleum oils which have a non-uniform molecular structure. The result is better heat control, and less heat means less stress to the lubricant. Higher Percentage of Basestock Synthetic oils contain a higher percentage of lubricant basestock than petroleum oils do. This is because multi-viscosity oils need a great deal of pour point depressant and viscosity improvers to operate as a multigrade. The basestocks actually do most of the lubricating. More basestocks mean a longer oil life. Additives Used Up More Slowly Petroleum basestocks are much more prone to oxidation than synthetic oils. Oxidation inhibitors are needed in greater quantities in petroleum oils as they are used up more quickly. Synthetic oils do oxidize, but at a much slower rate therefore, oxidation inhibiting additives are used up more slowly. Synthetic oils provide for better ring seal than petroleum oils do. This minimizes blow-by and reduces contamination by combustion by-products. As a result, corrosion inhibiting additives have less work to do and will last much longer in a synthetic oil. Excellent Heat Tolerance Synthetics are simply more tolerant to extreme heat than petroleum oils are. When heat builds up within an engine, petroleum oils quickly begin to burn off. They are more volatile. The lighter molecules within petroleum oils turn to gas and what's left are the large molecules that are harder to pump. Synthetics have far more resistance as they are more thermally stable to begin with and can take higher temperatures for longer periods without losing viscosity. Heat Reduction One of the major factors affecting engine life is component wear and/or failure, which is often the result of high temperature operation. The uniformly smooth molecular structure of synthetic oils gives them a much lower coefficient friction (they slip more easily over one another causing less friction) than petroleum oils. Less friction means less heat and heat is a major contributor to engine component wear and failure, synthetic oils significantly reduce these two detrimental effects. Since each molecule in a synthetic oil is of uniform size, each is equally likely to touch a component surface at any given time, thus moving a certain amount of heat into the oil stream and away from the component. This makes synthetic oils far superior heat transfer agents than conventional petroleum oils. Greater Film Strength Petroleum motor oils have very low film strength in comparison to synthetics. The film strength of a lubricant refers to it's ability to maintain a film of lubricant between two objects when extreme pressure and heat are applied. Synthetic oils will typically have a film strength of 5 to 10 times higher than petroleum oils of comparable viscosity. Even though heavier weight oils typically have higher film strength than lighter weight oils, an sae 30 or 40 synthetic will typically have a higher film strength than an sae 50 or sae 60 petroleum oil. A lighter grade synthetic can still maintain proper lubricity and reduce the chance of metal to metal contact. This means that you can use oils that provide far better fuel efficiency and cold weather protection without sacrificing engine protection under high temperature, high load conditions. Obviously, this is a big plus, because you can greatly reduce both cold temperature start-up wear and high temperature/high load engine wear using a low viscosity oil. Engine Deposit Reduction Petroleum oils tend to leave sludge, varnish and deposits behind after thermal and oxidative break down. They're better than they used to be, but it still occurs. Deposit build-up leads to a significant reduction in engine performance and engine life as well as increasing the chance of costly repairs. Synthetic oils have far superior thermal and oxidative stability and they leave engines virtually varnish, deposit and sludge-free. Better Cold Temperature Fluidity Synthetic oils do not contain the paraffins or other waxes which dramatically thicken petroleum oils during cold weather. As a result, they tend to flow much better during cold temperature starts and begin lubricating an engine almost immediately. This leads to significant engine wear reduction, and, therefore, longer engine life. Improved Fuel Economy Because of their uniform molecular structure, synthetic oils are tremendous friction reducers. Less friction leads to increased fuel economy and improved engine performance. This means that more energy released from the combustion process can be transferred directly to the wheels due to the lower friction. Acceleration is more responsive and more powerful, using less fuel in the process. In a petroleum oil, lighter molecules tend to boil off easily, leaving behind much heavier molecules which are difficult to pump. The engine loses more energy pumping these heavy molecules than if it were pumping lighter ones. Since synthetic oils have more uniform molecules, fewer of these molecules tend to boil off and when they do, the molecules which are left are of the same size and pumpability is not affected. Synthetics are better and in many ways, they are basically better by design as they are created by chemists in laboratories for a specific purpose. Cheers Simon

Firstly they are incredibly hard to get hold of as many manufacurers have stopped making them. Secondly they are rarely very stable due to the viscosity gap between 5 and 50 which requires buckets of VI improver to make them work. I'm not saying that they would cause trouble, just not an obvious choice when it's easier to get other grades Cheers

Give us a shout when you need some oil, we will sort you out. Cheers Guy.

Ok, Silkolene Pro S and Pro R, Motul 300v. Amsoil, Redline, Mobil 1 0w-40, Mobil 1 15w-50, Castrol 0w-40, Castrol Edge 10w-60, they are all true synthetics. Also any oil with a 0w is a true synthetic, its the only way they can get that viscosity rating. All halfords stuff, All shell helix and ultra, Mobil 1 Synt S 5w-40, Fuchs Titan Supersyn 5w-40, Comma, Halvoline, Chevron, Castrol Magnatec all, GTX all hydrocracked of one form or an other. The list really does go on. All semi synthetics are 100% mineral base. Words like "technosynthese" "synthetic engineering" "liquid engineering" "syntech" all fancy ways of saying "I am modified mineral". Hope this helps. Cheers Guy.

Not from the labels no, price is usually a good indicator. They dont really want you to know what your buying. Cheers Guy.

SYNTHETIC? What is it and what does it really mean? The Oxford Dictionary says: “made by synthesis; manufactured as opposed to produced naturally” When it comes to oil we think of synthetics as the best that we can buy and that all synthetics are the same but, it’s not so simple. Synthetic oils are not all the same, some are manmade in laboratories with uniform sized molecules and represent the finest quality that money can buy; others are merely highly refined mineral oils also known as hydrocracked oils. So, some synthetics are not really synthetics at all in the true sense of the word and certainly not from a chemists point of view. Granted, these highly refined mineral oils have some advantages over less refined mineral oils but they do cost more. Why are highly refined mineral oils called synthetic and is this legal when they are not really synthetic in the true sense of the word? A legal battle took place in the USA some years ago and the final ruling was that certain mineral fractions that had undergone extra chemical treatments could be called “synthetic”. The Marketing Executives were delighted as they realised that “synthetic” could be printed on a can of cheap oil provided that the contents included this specially processed mineral oil which cost a fraction of the price to produce than real synthetics. The profit implications where fairly exciting too! So how does this affect the average motorist with a standard road going car or bike? Very little other than you may be paying for something that is not quite what you think it is. Quality-wise it will still be better than that old 20w-50 dino oil in the back of the garage that cost next to nothing. The economics are pretty simple too. If you like the look of well-marketed can with “synthetic” printed on it that does not cost you a lot, you now know why this is the case. But, if you have a high performance, modified or track car/bike and you want to keep it in the best condition then you need the real thing as it offers the highest levels of protection. It will cost you more but then it’s still cheap against the cost of an engine failure! Cheers The Opie Oils Team.

Just found this old thread. If you have any oily questions, please post them here. Cheers Guy.

At which temperature does an oil flow better? 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 some difference in the rate of flow! (True viscosity at -25C is about 7000 Centistoke(cSt) units, dropping to 14 at 100C. ‘Viscosity’ is really just another name for ‘rate of flow’.) The correct question is at what (sump) temperature is an oil at a viscosity that suits a modern high-RPM engine? Present day designs are 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 (DegC)..........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 As you will see from the above table a 5W/40 or a 10W/40 is perfectly adequate for all engines except those that run unusually high temperatures (120degC plus) Cheers The Opie Oils Team

To kick off Opie Oils new 12 part series of interesting oil facts we thought that we would address the statement “My oil has turned to water!” Let’s be objective and look at the actual figures involved here, emotional expressions such as ‘turned to water’ just will not do. Engineering is supposed to be a science afterall! So! Almost all modern jet engines run on 5cst at 100degC synthetic ester oil. Needless to say, some bearings will actually be running at a temperature of perhaps 200degC; so the true oil viscosity in these situations is in fact 1.5cst. This is really thin, much thinner than any car or bike engine oil even in a race engine. But is it as thin as water? NO! At 20degC water has a viscosity of 1.0cst and at 50degC it drops to 0.55cst. Just for comparison, a 0w-20 oil will have an approximate viscosity of 107cst at 20degC, 32cst at 50degC, 8.9cst at 100degC and 2.3cst at 200degC. So there you go, it may look like water but it certainly isn’t! Cheers. Guy & The Opieoils.co.uk Team Note: 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.

10w-40, what does it mean? We have answered thousands of oil questions in the last 4 years but the most frequently asked one is “What do the numbers mean?” In short, if you see an expression such as 10W-40, the oil is a multigrade which simply means that the oil falls into 2 viscosity grades, in this case 10W and 40. This is made possible by the inclusion of a polymer, a component which slows down the rate of thinning as the oil warms up and slows down the rate of thickening as the oil cools down. Multigrades were first developed some 50 years ago to avoid the routine of using a thinner oil in winter and a thicker oil in summer. For a 10w-40 to attain the specification target a 10W (W = Winter please note!) the oil must have a certain maximum viscosity at low temperature. The actual viscosity and the temperature vary with the viscosity grade but in all cases the lower the number, the thinner the oil. For example a 5W oil is thinner than a 10W oil at temperatures encountered in UK winter conditions. This is important because a thinner oil will circulate faster on cold start, affording better engine protection and therefore lower long term wear! For a 10w-40 to attain the other specification target a “40” oil must fall within certain limits at 100 degC. In this case the temperature target does not vary with the viscosity grade, if there is no "W" the measuring temperature is always 100degC. Again the lower the number the thinner the oil, a “30” oil is thinner than a “40” oil at 100 degC, which is typical of maximum bulk oil temperatures in an operating engine. Engine makers are, of course, very well aware of this and specify oils according to engine design features, oil pump capacities, manufacturing tolerances, ambient temperature conditions etc. It is important to follow these guidelines, they are important and are stipulated for good reasons. Finally, if the engine has been modified or is used in stressed conditions, the operating conditions may well be outside the original design envelope. The stress on the oil caused by increased maximum revs, power output and temperature may require that an oil of a different type and viscosity grade would be required. These examples show viscosities at different temperatures: Grade................0degC............10degC...............40degC...............100degC 0w-40...............665cst.............354cst..................82cst................14cst 5w-40...............842cst............ 430cst..................91cst................14cst 10w-40.............874cst.............440cst .................91cst................14cst 15w-40...........1260cst.............595cst.................107cst................14cst In a nutshell, that’s what a multigrade is all about! Cheers Guy.

Due to a catastrophic failure of our mail server last night, we have lost a load of emails sent over the last 48 hours. If you mailed us in the last 48 hours, please resend to sales@opieoils.co.uk Sorry for any inconvenience :( Cheers The Opie Oils Team

Hi All, Thanks for the huge response for our Opie Oils Stickers that you can get for free once placing an order with us on our new website. This is just a reminder to let you all know what to do once you’ve taken a picture of your car modeling our Opie Oils Sticker. To get a picture of your pride and joy in our Online Street Gallery all you have to do is send your pictures in with some information about yourselves to Tom at sales@opieoils.co.uk And who know’s YOU might even be our Car Of The Month!!! Regards Andrew Opieoils.co.uk Team

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our Customers and the Members of this club Seasons Greetings and a prosperous 2008 From All At The Opieoils.co.uk Team

Hi All, Just a quick update for you, first we would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who’s sent in a picture of their car modeling our Opieoils logo so far for the new Street Gallery on our Brand New Website (coming soon!!). They’re all looking great!!! If you have sent me a sticker request and still haven’t received a sticker drop me a P.M or An E-mail to: sales@opieoils.co.uk with your name address and which colour you would like, Black or White and I’ll get them sent out as soon as possible. If you have an Opie Oils sticker on your vehicle or know someone who has send it to us at: sales@opieoils.co.uk with your full name, where in the world you’re from and some info on your pride and joy so you can be featured in our ‘Street Gallery!!! Looking forward to hearing from you. Regards Andrew Opieoils.co.uk Team

Dear all, As a special treat we thought we'd give you a sneak preview of the new Opie Oils website!! Check out our new improved website by clicking the link below; http://www.jumpmedia.co.uk/opieteaser/teaser.htm With the new website you can find a product specifically for your car or bike, see our sponsored cars section and check out your own vehicle on the Street Team Gallery. Please note: in the next couple of weeks our members will be sent an email prompting them to set up a new password on our website - this will ensure your details are kept on our database so please keep an eye out for this in the next couple of weeks. The NEW OpieOils.co.uk goes live at the end of November - we look forward hearing your feedback! Best regards, The Opie Oils Team.

***REMINDER*** If you have an Opie Oils sticker on your vehicle or know someone who has send it to sales@opieoils.co.uk or if you want an Opie Oils sticker so you can be featured in our ‘Street Gallery’ send me an e-mail with your full address and which colour you would like, we’ve got either Black or White. Looking forward to hearing from you. Regards Andrew Opieoils.co.uk Team

Myths about oil, never ;) Cheers

Hello all, As a follow on from our last post on questions and answers from John Rowland we now have part 2 for those that crave more “oily knowledge”. As before some of these topics have been covered but we feel worth the read. Some oil companies have run advertising campaigns that imply their products have special, unique qualities. Can these adverts be taken seriously? Yes and no! Generally adverts in magazines are honest, with marketing-speak terms such as ‘Magnatec’ and ‘Electrosyntec’ really being code words for esters, which are particularly beneficial in performance engine oils. No manufacturer has any unique ‘secret’, so it’s all down to providing the best possible blend for the job at the right price, and making it clear that you get what you pay for. I personally think that the importance of shear stability or ‘stay in grade’ is not stressed enough when quality is talked about. What is dodgy though is claiming that a mineral based oil with a few percent of modified mineral (‘hydrocracked’) synthetic is the DB’s and suitable for racing, etc. when it clearly isn’t. Also, there is endless semantic manoeuvring and lawyer-speak around The Magic Word ’synthetic’. For instance, a ‘synthetic’ oil is invariably semi-synthetic (’Ah! We didn’t say it was all synthetic did we?), and, if low priced, invariably the modified mineral type synthetic. It is a sad fact that you get what you pay for, but even so, stick to the reputable UK/European brands, and remember that shipping an oil half way around the world doesn’t automatically make it better than one made in your home town. As for TV advertising…well, does anybody believe it? Due to its huge cost, a TV advertising campaign can significantly raise the cost of specialist items such as oil. Everybody assumes it’s just a few pence per gallon, but it can be pounds per gallon.) Please can you explain the grading system? What is meant by the weight of an oil? What does 10W/40 mean for example? Weight means viscosity, or resistance to flow. Water and paraffin flow very easily, so they are low or light viscosity. Golden syrup or 140 gear oil do not come out of the can so easily, so they are high or heavy viscosity. Especially with oils, temperature is very, very important. An oil which looks ‘heavy’ at 20C will be very ‘light’ at 100C. People sometimes say, ‘I drained the oil when the engine was hot and it ran out like water…’ so I say, ‘Good! It’s supposed to be like that!’ The American Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) ratings cover cold starts and ‘up and running’ viscosities. There are two sets of standards, the ‘Winter’ (W) ratings, and the 100C standard ratings. (‘W’ does not, repeat not, mean ‘weight’!) So a 10W/40 oil has to pass a 10W cold viscosity test at -25C, and a SAE 40 test at 100C. In an oil lab there will be a refrigerated viscosity measuring device for the ‘W’ tests and another at 100C for the standard SAE tests. There are 6 ‘W’ ratings from the difficult 0W at -35C to the dead easy 25W at -10C, occasionally used in India for example! The whole point of these Winter ratings is to assist cold starts, to get the oil circulating quickly, and to avoid power and fuel wasting drag as the engine warms up. Once it is warmed up, the 100C ratings count. There are 5 of these, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 although why anybody bothers with 60 in the 21st Century is a mystery to me! Sorry folks, but I’ve got to get technical. Viscosity is measured in standard units called ‘Centistokes’, names after a Victorian engineer, Sir George Stokes, who used to time ball bearings as they sank through oil. SAE 30 for example is from 9.3 to 12.5 Centistokes, and SAE 40 follows on at 12.5 to 16.3, although most SAE 40 oils are in the middle at about 14. Now this is something most don’t realise: engines do not know what grade of oil they’re running on. They’re not clever enough! So an engine filled with 10W/40 will be running on a viscosity of 14 at 100C, but with a sump temperature of 90C its seeing a viscosity of 18, so as far as the engine is concerned it’s running on SAE 50. Likewise, at 110C, it’s down to 11 Centistokes so it ‘thinks’ it’s on a SAE 30! (Which is preferable.) The lesson is, do not use power and fuel-wasting thick oils in cool climates. A decent 10W/40 or even thinner is perfectly OK unless you’re running a classic with wide clearances and a slow oil pump. Radical race cars use 1300 Suzuki Hyabusas and work them very hard. (Didn’t one take the old Nurburgring absolute record at one point?). They use our high-ester 15W/50, but that’s OK because they see oil temps around 130C! (No problem for the oil or the engine, but they do fit special oil seals.) At 130C the true viscosity is 10cSt, so the engine thinks its on a thin SAE 30, which keeps it happy. What is the best type of oil to use in a road car for general use? Is fully synthetic a waste of money? Personally I’d go for a shear-stable part ester synthetic, SAE 10W/40 or 5W/40. The ‘shear-stable’ bit (ie, a decent quality multigrade polymer) is actually more important than the ‘synthetic’ part! If strapped, I’d go for a shear-stable mineral based oil rather than a ‘synthetic’ of dubious stability that’s probably based on modified mineral oil anyway. Unless you’re covering a huge annual mileage, genuine 100% synthetics are probably an extravagance. High mileage long-distance fans can use a light full synthetic and save on fuel and oil changes, and cut overhaul costs if things get to that stage, but more later….. What are the main differences between 2 and 4-stroke oil? Why does 2-stroke oil have to be mixed with fuel? 2-stroke oil has a very short working life, straight in and out, and it gets burnt. The 2-stroke engine doesn’t have a sump full of oil and the bearings are all rollers, so there’s hardly any oil drag, hence no need for multigrades. Long term stability is obviously not a problem! But, 2-stroke must burn off without leaving any plug-fouling or detonation-initiating deposits. The detergent and anti-wear additives used in 4-stroke oil leave hard white ash behind when they burn, just what you do not need in a 2-stroke. So 2-stroke oils use low-ash detergents and dispersants, and the better types use ester synthetics to act as anti-wear compounds. With current environmental concerns, smoke is a sensitive issue, so most ‘road’ 2-stroke oils are now low smoke, which requires yet another type of synthetic base designed to burn off invisibly. For some rather basic but very high-revving air-cooled racing 2-strokes there’s still some sense in using blends with that marvellous anti-seize liquid, castor oil! Due to crankcase induction and compression, the classical 2-stroke obviously cannot have an oil-filled sump, so the only way to keep an oil film on anything was to add oil to the fuel, or inject oil into the crankcase space where it could mix with the fuel vapour. There are now some engines where the fuel and oil are injected separately, but the oil is still burnt. How important is it to change oil regularly? What are the implications of failing to do so? It is only really important to change oil regularly if the engine covers a low annual mileage made up of slow, short runs. This is being cruel to the oil and the engine! The oil, regardless of its quality, gets full of fuel and water vapour, and never gets the chance to evaporate it all off with a long fast run. The consequences are corrosion, ring and bore wear. It is essential to do a change at least once a year, even if the recommended mileage hasn’t been covered. On the other hand, if you eat up the miles on long blasts the engine and its oil will love it, so with a top-quality oil it is OK to cheat a little on oil drain periods. Do some types of oil (i.e. fully-synthetic) ‘wear out’ quicker than others? How important are timely oil changes? Can you rely on the frequency suggested by your User Manual? The type of oil that is likely to give trouble after low mileage is a light viscosity type with poor shear stability, either mineral or modified mineral based. (Such as one of the USA ‘fuel economy’ oils for lazy car engines that pushed the Japanese OEMs to bring in their own oil spec.) The important thing is the shear stability; the much hyped ‘synthetic or mineral’ nonsense is a red herring. The oils that will last the longest are the relatively rare 100% genuine synthetic shear stable types, which will easily stand twice the recommended drain period in a high-mileage high performance engine. (So in the long run they aren’t really so expensive.) Just the thing for those touring fiends who pack up and set of for the Transylvanian Alps as soon as the clocks go forward! Of course, User Manual drain recommendations are based on a back-covering ‘worst case’ scenario of low annual mileage on poor quality oil, so they can be regarded as a very safe minimum mileage. In the past, there used to be trouble with heavy carbon deposits and sludge around the engine with early low-detergent oils, but these days almost any oil with a good API specification will keep everything clean for 10 to 15,000 miles, so that’s the least of your worries. Does oil have to be warm to do its job properly? Is it important to warm up your engine before using at speed? Yes, it does have to be at least warm, and preferably hot. Most people except the sort with white finger syndrome find metal at 60C too hot to touch, yet 60C is too cold for oil in an engine that’s going flat-out. The best approach is to use a good 5W/40 or even a 10W/40, and take it easy for the first couple of miles, especially in very cold weather. For racing, a really good warm-up is essential, except perhaps with special 0W/20 low-drag race oils. The trouble is, oil pumps are very good at pushing oil out at 60PSI, but unfortunately there is only 14PSI (atmospheric pressure) pushing it in! (Even less in Katmandhu.) So it’s easy for an oil pump to pull voids or pockets of vacuum in the oil if it doesn’t flow fast enough into to uptake. This ‘cavitation’ obviously reduces the amount of oil the pump can deliver. Also, in high-speed bearings the oil can be too thick to keep up with the high rubbing speeds reached in modern engines so the ‘wedge’ or hydrodynamic’ effect breaks down. I know it goes against common sense (whatever that is) but the faster a bearing is turning the thinner the oil should be. (A 4cm. diameter main bearing is rubbing its shells at 56 MPH at 12,000RPM! To avoid cavitation the oil need to be less 10cSt or less, which is SAE 30 if the oil happens to be at 100C, or SAE 40 if its at 110C.)) What is the difference between road and racing oils? The days of incense-like ‘R’ oils for racing only are past, except for classics. At least as far as 4-strokes are concerned, the best synthetic types are ideal for both race and road use. With ultra-precise components, high-pressure pumps and high engine RPM there has been a move to special synthetic low cavitation/low drag oils to release more power with no reliability loss. These can be (and are!) used in road cars, but 0W/20 is not mentioned in the user handbooks, so there is always some warranty risk. Honda is perhaps the only exception! How does a high-performance oil allow the motor to produce more power? An engine wastes fuel energy in several ways, and most of them are due to the laws of thermodynamics, which is another way of saying you can’t do much about it. But up to 6% of engine output is lost due to oil drag, made up of pumping losses and viscous drag between moving components. The transmission is included in this. Provided wear and friction are kept down, there are real gains to be made by using a ‘tough’ but low viscosity oil. Surprisingly, frictional losses are low, down at 3% or less even with conventional oils, so there are few gains to be made here. I have actually seen this extra power output on the dyno! A very experienced operator in Peterborough who does a lot of test work for Lord Emap used his own year-old Honda Blackbird, with the first run on his favourite 15W/50 high-ester synthetic. 128BHP. Then we changed to a 5W40 high ester synthetic. (So it wasn’t an unfair comparison with B & Q 15W/50!) This time we saw 131.6BHP with a corresponding torque increase. Finally we went to a new (at that time) 0W/20 special synthetic and 134.4BHP appeared! Even the boss was impressed! Later trials in different race and road engines showed this level of improvement was no fluke, so it really does work; and, with the right chemistry to look after the engine and transmission internals, there’s no down side of increased wear. Why do some engines consume oil? Is this a problem? Large air-cooled engines or classics with wide piston clearances, or very highly stressed liquid-cooled engines which flex under load, or which use ultra-light pistons with the minimum number of rings are likely to be oil users. There is little that can be done about it. Unfortunately, burnt oil tends to leave hard deposits in the combustion chambers which can initiate pre-ignition, so more frequent top overhauls are usually necessary. Occasionally, touring engines will use oil for no apparent reason. This is often due to the oil level rising in the crankcase due to air retention, leading to oil loss through the breather. The answer is to move to a lighter grade of oil to improve air release. If you need to top up your engine oil, how important is it to use exactly the same brand and type? Not very important at all. Unfortunately, due to ‘arse covering’ reasons we cannot print this advice on the can! Although officially all manufacturers advise against mixing different makes and grades, in fact there is very little chance of any harm being done, even if one is a mineral 20W/50 and the other is a 5W/30 synthetic. Obviously, avoid this if you can, but do not panic if there’s no other alternative. Just don’t mix 2 stroke and 4-stroke oil! There are all sorts of additives available which are supposed to improve ordinary oil and reduce friction, improve power output etc. Are they worth a try? Oil is already a very advanced and deeply researched fluid which does not need any ‘enhancement’. There is no secret formula out in the backwoods that the mainstream lubricant chemists do not know about; but there are plenty of half-baked ideas and gullible people out there! These wonder additives are usually 1930s chlorinated paraffins, long obsolete gear oil additives which should have disappeared in the 1950s, but they keep turning up as ‘Xxtrasuperlube ZX3’ with a mark-up of several thousand percent. They actually corrode engine and transmission internals, so they do far more harm than good. Others depend upon the total myth that PTFE powder coats engine internals and reduces friction. It doesn’t do anything or the sort. It just blocks the oil filter. The AA tested one of these overpriced PTFE concoctions (‘Quick 60’ or something) very thoroughly back in the 80s. They stated: ‘This is an expensive way of coating your oil filter’. So there we have it, would just like to thank once again John Rowland (R&D Chemist) for taking the time to provide these answers to questions that we are frequently asked. If you have any further questions, please ask. Cheers Guy and the opieoils.co.uk team. PS. All New Opie Oils website coming soon!