Correct oil for R300 duratech

[ackbullchang]

Hi, having previously had TVRs, I decided to jump into the world of Caterham ownership, and bought a R300 Superlight on Thursday! Wow, what an involving car!

Anyway, I'm planning to change the oil, and have been reading through the owners manual which suggests for the 2.0 Duratech, to use either Caterham Motorsport oil 5w-50 or Comma X-Tech 5w-30 semi synthetic, which are both slightly different from previous advice I have received.

There seems to be a bit a variance in what Caterham recommend, therefore any guidance on what is the oil to use to promote engine longevity. Also, what is Caterham Motorsport oil?

Thanks
Chris

[DCL]

I've done quite a lot of testing on this last year and would recommend a good quality 5w50, preferably fully synthetic ester based. Cheaper synthetics, and semi sythetics can shear back quite quickly to a lower grade. If its for road use, then 5w40 also works well. The important number is the 5w, the second number really only comes into play at extremes of temperature and RPM

People will argue that the R300 is a standard engine and can use the Ford recommended 5w30 grade, but the Caterham is far from standard (more RPM/more BHP/shallow sump/longitudinal engine installation etc etc) and it benefits from the added protection of a 5w50 - particularly if you use full throttle and high RPM frequently, or go on track.

On the down side you may lose a few BHP (2-3) and a few miles to gallon over a 5w30, but again it's a Caterham. On more extreme states of tune, 10W-50, or even 10w-60 is a wise choice, but a degree of warm up care is needed.

Edit to add Caterham Motorsport is a Comma oil and is the same as Halfords Motorsport 5w50. But I think these have now all been discontinued although you may still find stock around.

Edited by DCL on Saturday 5th March 12:58

[ackbullchang]

Thanks, the car will mainly be used for road use, although I may be tempted to try some supervised track training. I'll look for a decent 5w40.

Edited by ackbullchang on Saturday 5th March 20:02

[Gregs79]

Have a look at Opie Oil at Fuchs oil, they have 15% off at the moment. :-)

[ackbullchang]

Thanks, I ended up buying Millers CFS 5w40 from Opie Oils in the end.