What the best oil for a 's'

[Paul V]

I will be doing a few hundred miles next weekend so want to buy some oil for the car just to be on the safe side. What type is best? I’ve heard mobile 1 has changed and no longer offers as good protection from cold.

[fourwheeldrift]

The runny variety Seriously though I'd stay with Mobile 1 or you might consider Castrol GTX Magnotec (it's the only one I've heard reasonable things about). Edited by fourwheeldrift on Friday 16th March 13:38

[Paul V]

haha Not car club from ASDA then? Only £2 for a gallon So I'll have to see what Halfords have tonight.

[Graham and Rosie]

Paul V What oil do you have in it at the moment? I believe you can get in trouble mixing mineral and synthetic oil, so best find out what you have now and get some more of the same or similar!!! ================ Graham and Rosie

[Paul V]

That’s a problem, I have only recently bought the car it was serviced about 4 moths ago, I could try calling the garage to ask them what oil was used, but it wasn't done at TVR, I think the previous owner got scared as the previous TVR service came to £1380.

[nmilton]

It's perfectly OK to replace a normal mineral oil with synthetic - just make sure you get the engine warm and drain it thoroughly before putting the new stuff in. You can't, however, mix mineral oils with things like Castrol R (which I think is vegetable based), but somehow I doubt many people are running that in TVRs

[TVR Mark]

The Ford Cologne engine was designed to run on mineral oil 15/50. Most synthetic oils are a lot thinner therefore should not be used. I think Mobile 1 is 0/40 which is too thin The V8S is a different story Mark Edited by TVR Mark on Friday 16th March 19:28

[Rob350]

At the risk of sounding a smart arse, Mobil 1 will not be too thin for a Cologne engine. The '0-40' number indicates that it stays thin at low temperature, it's still likely to be thicker than a conventional multigrade would be at higher temperature. Thin is good in cold weather, much less work for the engine to be turned over, much quicker oil circulation to far parts of the engine. What is important is the level of adhesion the oil provides, and full synthetics are the dogs danglies on that, and are very good if you use the vehicle relatively infrequently as they also don't break down as readily. However, whether you need to run Mobil 1 in a Cologne V6 is another matter. With a standard tune engine used normally I'd recommend a standard multigrade and change it and the filter more often, especially if you have plenty of miles on the motor already. With a new engine I'd suggest normal oil for the first 1,000 then fully synthetic all the way.

[mhibbins]

quote:At the risk of sounding a smart arse, Mobil 1 will not be too thin for a Cologne engine. The '0-40' number indicates that it stays thin at low temperature, it's still likely to be thicker than a conventional multigrade would be at higher temperature. Thin is good in cold weather, much less work for the engine to be turned over, much quicker oil circulation to far parts of the engine.

If the car in question has hydraulic tappets (cat equipped 2.9s) then the viscosity of the oil will affect the operation of the tappets I would have thought. Probably best in this case to stick to standard multigrade. -- Mark

[Paul V]

Wow! Now I’m really confused. The car is a standard 2.9 non-cat model, with 31000 miles. The handbook for the car recommends using Mobil 1 so maybe I’ll try this one first, but the price! I read somewhere in sprint that you can get Mobil 1 in France a lot cheaper, is that true? If so I may have a day trip to France, it would be worth going over just for that! Plus cheap beer! Does anyone know how much?

[nmilton]

Why not use Mobil 1 Motorsport - 15W50 if I recall correctly.

[cockers]

Mobil 1 is indeed a lot cheaper in France, but its specification is different: 5W 50 (like it used to be here in the UK a few years back). Nothing wrong with 5W 50, but you shouldn't mix oils, so you'd need to get rid of the existing stuff first.