New product for Castrol...Magnatec Motor Oil. your thoughts much appreciated as this sounds like a great idea. Magnetized molecular oil that clings to engine parts and provides lubrication at start up.....I called Castrol and asked if it is compatible with my Castrol 20-50 part-synthetic oil. They stated different formulation but did not say it was incompatible with the 20-50. A case of don't know or fear of comittment to comment????I thinks its a great idea for engine startup.......your comments please gentlemen....any thoughts on how to test compatibility??, etc. Best, JW



Where do you find the edit function to correct mis-spellings, etc. on this system...after hitting the preview function?

 

Magnatec has been out for years and I wouldn't use anything else in my XJS V12 and the one I use is Magnatec 10/40 Semi Synthetic.

It was in my XJS that hadn't been Started for 14 years and that Car started first time on the button.

Although it may have done so with any other Oil but I'd like to think it helped to protect the engine when it Started.

Why do you want to mix it anyway.

Why not just not do a complete Oil Change/New Filter etc.

 

Agree,

Been around forever down here.

Once called GTX, then GTX2 and I think a 3 slotted in there somewhere.

Found the advert:
Mine has been on it since the rebuild, 10W40.
Mineral, Semi Syn, Full Syn oils will mix without any drama's.

Think about all that oil left in any engine when the oil is dropped. Ya never get it all out, not in your wildest dreams, and the new oil mixes just fine.

Then add our "fantastic' memories, what did we use last time??, oh, thats too hard, this is on special, or whatever, and the engine lives on.

 

I am sure that
1) that oil is ok quality and will mix with other oils.
2) the magnetic stuff is marketing copy and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Finally important to be aware that Castrol sell oil under same or similar branding but with different formulation in different continents .

Posters on here from UK, USA, Australia , France and other countries.

My beliefs, and other people have different opinions , is although our engine were designed and built before modern synthetic oils were available the engine can benefit from potentially better lubrication in the sense that good quality synthetic oil will degrade less rapidly with time, mileage and high temperatures than older mineral oil or semi synthetic blends.

Your motor, your money, your choice.

 

I'd truly like to agree with you but there's no real, credible data indicating that modern oils actually make any tangible difference.

 

How? There are tons of wear tests between different oils and additives. There is no reason to throw tons of money away on stuff like royal purple, but moder oils are part of the equation that require modern engines to need rebuilds at 200k miles compared to 60k miles back in the 1960s. Also why intervals have changed from 3k to as much as 15k.

People definitely get their panties too wadded up over types and brands, you are better off not worrying and simply doing regular changes, especially if "your brand" makes you put off changing the oil if it costs an arm and a leg.

 

There is some truth to the extension of oil change intervals- ex. S-types on regular oil have 10K mile interval vs. 15K with the same engine in the XF if synthetic is used, but the OP did not ask about extended intervals. I hope you're not suggesting that caution be thrown to the wind for his XJS.

The long life of engines in modern cars where 200-300K miles between overhauls is common has little to do with the type of oil and everything to do with modern materials, design and manufacturing. The elimination lead from the fuel and introduction of ultra precision fuel metering plays a huge role also.

If an old school engine (small block Chev) went 100K miles on regular oil, there's no evidence it would go any further on synthetic. I've been looking for about 40 years for evidence proving otherwise but all I find are lab tests and marketing hype.

YMMV.

 

Here's the rub, IMHO....

Even if we all agree that there will be some benefit, will the benefit be meaningful? Will it be tangible, or even measureable? If it can't be felt or measured then what are we left with? We're left with faith that something worthwhile is actually happening and the 'feel good' sensation of choosing a specific product.

I make 'feel good' choices often so I'm not disparaging them at all....so long as they are correctly identified as such.



There's something we can all agree on

Cheers
DD

 

+1 ... but some people are not disposed to contradicting their
own past theories and are thus stuck with defending a position
which grows more tenous with every passing day.

 

When multiple manufacturers back spec oil changes to synthetic
because of varnish problems, *and* owners experience the
benefit in real life it becomes very hard to argue that there
is no material benefit.

Saab, VW/Audi are amongst those who chose to back spec
to synthetic due to warranty claims resulting in replaced
engines.

 

I thought this was the XJS section, (1975-1996) where the discussion was potential benefits of using new tech oil in old tech engines.......

 

Why, do you have an XJS?

 

No, but the OP does and is the one that's asking for advice.

 

All owners, or just some, under certain conditions? How it is felt, seen, measured, confirmed, realized? Is it something significant and meaningful to a typical owner over the typical life of the car?

Perhaps more to the point, is there a measurable, meaningful benefit to owners of old hobby Jags who put 5,000 miles/year on their cars?



How long would it take to typically realize the material benefit? If xxx- motor oil meant an engine could last 150K miles before overhaul versus 100k miles, I'd say that's a meaningful benefit for a typical owner. If it's the difference of needing an overhaul at 300k miles versus 250k miles, I'd say it isn't a meaningful benefit for most owners.

It might be meaningful to a guy owning a fleet of taxi cabs or shuttle buses, yes.


Interesting and perhaps significant.... for SAAB and VW/Audi, at least. They obviously felt the change would benefit *them* in some way and, after all, changing recommendation costs them nothing. However, I'm not sure it proves a *meaningful*, real world benefit to typical owners.

Cheers
DD

 

Being as I am down here, and do heaps of miles, just because.

Sir Arthur (S2 V12 in my Garage on here) is over 500000kms now, and leaks oil, whoopee. He gets Valvoline mineral oil that is usually on special somewhere. $25 per 5ltrs.

The Red HE gets Magnatec, and always has, since the rebuild.

The other HE I care for gets Penrite HPR10 Synthetic, and its owner likes that oil.

When I stripped the Red HE engine, chasing an oil leak, the internals were CLEAN. It had 140000kms on it, and I have no idea what oil it drank prior to my ownership, but definately NOT top shelf stuff. The PO was not a car fenatic.

ALL the Jag engines I have rebuilt for various reasons over the years, have never shown bottom end wear, or sludge. Camshaft and cam bearing wear was also minimal over many engines.

The AJ16 had terrible hard sludge build up in the timing cover when I did the lower chain/guides, but I already knew that it had been using very basic oil and not very good oil change practice. The new owner runs Nulon 15W40 Mineral, and 3 month oil change periods. I know coz I look after it.

I have run a 3 month oil/filter change on all my Jags for as long as I can remember, and Synthetics simply were not around for most of the ownership times of most of them.

I have always used a quality oil, and changed it regularly, and that gives ME the warm and fuzzies, and that is all I really care about, and NONE of the Jags has EVER let me down, or blown up.

The 2 S Types I now own are fitting into that period just nicely, BUT, they both run 5W30 Full Synthetic as specified.

 

Interestingly, and I realise this is a bit extreme as an example, the ETCC racing XJSs had huge oil use and oil temp control problems and in his book Allan Scott, the TWR engine building guru, said that once they started using the fully synthetic oil of their sponsor Motul - which he said was the first and only synthetic oil available at that time - high oil temps were far less dangerous to the motor and they were an important aspect to its reliability and race longevity.
Greg

 

I suspect the consensus on this thread is moving closer to we'RE going to have to agree to disagree to a certain extent.

I will try to clarify my beliefs:

I believe that a significant amount of engine wear occurs at or just after start up, if this belief is accurate then it would seem to follow that XJS owners whose usage is composed of shorter journeys would be more susceptible to 'startup period' wear than those who have typically longer journeys.

One article I found to be informative on subject of motor oil is

This Motor Oil 101 - Bob is the Oil Guy

 

The long and the short is.....it's an oil thread. We all know where they go. Leapers anyone?

 

A car that is driven 100 miles in one event is obviously gonna have less start-up wear than one covering 100 miles in five separate trips and thus requiring five start-up events.

I think that's something we can all agree on!

For most owners I suspect the most tangible, real-world, meaningful result 5x more frequent start-ups will be more wear on the battery and starter, a higher probability of failure of same, and thus higher probability of being late for work, or having to be hauled home on a flat-bed, or having to spend a greasy dirty day under the car changing a starter.

A little extra money spent on a high grade battery and heavy duty starter will probably give them much more real-world, meaningful benefit than switch to synthetic oil

Cheers
DD

 

Huh? Oil threads go off the rails? Who knew?

There hasn't been an ethanol or nitrogen battle for a several days- what's going on?