Hi All, Just taking a poll. My '99 XK8 has 52k on the odo. Purchased within the past 5 months. the first task was to change the engine oil. I understand the service manual, however I am a firm believer of synthetic oil. I used Mobil One- 10w-30. I know some of the later versions Xk's recommend a lighter synthetic. I live in NY, moderate summer, cold winters. What do you think. Thanks Rich

 

Just run whatever decent oil makes you happy. Conventional is just fine. So is synthetic, just more costly. Decent oil with a decent oil filter and a reasonable change interval will take excellent care of 99.95% of all engines on the road these days....

 

Follow the viscosity recommendations in the owners manual and you'll be fine.

 

I prefer Amsoil 5-30 for my 2000XK8.

 

These are DOHC monsters,with small oil passages.

5W30 is the way to go, summer or winter, or fall or spring.

These engines are also sludge boxes, get a oil that fights sludge deposits over time.

 

The place where I get the oil changed in the Honda Crosstour does the following with this logic. He uses 5-30 Kendall GT-1, the synthetic blend. His reasoning is this: Its half the price of the synthetic. Your oil gets dirty no matter what's in the engine. Therefore, go with the less expensive and then get back to changing oil not more than 3,500 miles. He has suggested the same for my newly obtained 1999 XK8 with 82,000 on it. A high quality synthetic blend and changed more often. Now, any thoughts on those oils, Kendall included, that make claims they are especially for "high mileage" cars?

 

An oil change interval of 3500 miles is about 1/3 of that recommended by Jag. Is your acquaintance possibly in the business of selling oil?

 

Very good question, but I don't think his primary income source is selling the oil. There is still a segment of the auto repair "community" lets call it, that has never bought into the concept of modern engines are not in the need of oil changes as often as in the past. Its not so much the engines, but of changes in the oil chemistry and the fuel. But, there are still those who are very suspicious of going up to 10,000 between changes. For me, I don't know. Maybe no as big a deal if you change the oil yourself, which I'll probably do.

 

10K oil changes are nothing new, adventurous or restricted to high end cars. We have an aging Honda Civic that has a factory recommended 10K interval and that's all it's ever gotten or will get. Some newer cars, primarily accompanied by a requirement for synthetic oils, have a 15 or 20K interval.

The days of 3.5K changes are long gone.

 

I believe a 3,500-mile change interval is quite wasteful. A 10,000-mile change interval is a bit too long for my taste. I compromise and do the oil & filter change at 6,000 miles. I always buy my oil when it is on sale for about half-price (with mail-in rebate) at Pep Boys, Advance Auto Parts, or Autozone. This strategy has worked for me for more than 30 years....

 

I use Mobil 1 5w-30w high mileage full synthetic, changed every year which works out to about 6k-8k intervals. Easier to remember a date (when the inspection sticker is due) for oil, filter, air filter, etc. than it is to keep up with an odometer reading.

I would agree the full synthetic is possibly overkill, but $50-$60 a year for a clean engine is cheap insurance.

 

I also use Mobil 1 5w-30 full synthetic with OEM oil filter, and do the same on my other cars. I change the oil in all my cars once a year, which is less than 10k miles for each. I buy the oil at Walmart, and the filters on Ebay.

Got some oil change stickers off Ebay for cheap to help me keep track of when to change. The XK8 is the easiest to do of them all!

 

"The XK8 is the easiest to do of them all!"

With all the PIA jobs on this car the oil almost changes itself. If I park in the right spot in the drive, it doesn't even need to be jacked.

 

I use mobil 1 0W-40 and change once a year with a Wix filter. My owner's manual has several viscosities listed but the center of the 0W-40 print is closest to the average ambient temperature I drive in here in Alabama (85F)

 

The reason I suggest to do oil changes every 3,000 miles on these cars, are

1.Jaguar is a flat out story teller.Consider this a diaper change on a baby, your baby.

2. After your car is shut off, the fuel injectors dump raw unburned fuel(cylinder wash) directly into your engine oil,the same when you turn the key before starting,experimentation shows the ecm was told to do that by a trusty engineer P

3.The top of our engines get very hot, the oil return passages are small.This is why, when you remove your valve cover, you discover all that power robbing,oil pump and bearing destroying gunk!
This comes from overheated,long mileage serviced DIRTY OIL. Semi-synthetic resist heat , so use it.
I have torn down several 4.0's,4.2's why should you be the next victim?

**Lucas oil treatment, helps prolong the life of the tensioner guides big time,by keeping them wet at all times.So if you have high miles and already did the top tensioners,but don't want to do the one's deeper in the engine, use this every oil change.

 

Bear in mind that the large oil capacity of the Jaguar V8 helps to keep contaminants in suspension. The large oil capacity also reduces heat. Both factors reduce the need for frequent oil changes.

Of course, this is offset somewhat by the relatively small oil filter.

All of the previous owners did oil changes at about 6K miles and the engine was deposit free on the top end when it was open for the upper tensioners.

Lucas oil treatment is effectively an oil thickener. If I want thicker oil, I'll buy thicker oil.

The local Lucas distributor paid for a new power steering pump on another vehicle without question after their powersteering additive caused an over pressure on a cold start. I stay away from Lucas products.

 

What do you guys think of Shell Rotella T6? It's an extreme temperature 5W-40 Heavy Duty full syn. Diesel Oil. I use it in my air cooled motorcycle for years and love it. Wonder if this would be a good oil for my XK8 2003. Live on Maui so no cool temperature to deal with.

 

and pick up a dirt-cheap supermagnet at harbor freight, and slap it on the filter...

 

It's an excellent choice for flat tappet engines but probably overkill for engines with 'roller' everything.

 

The Jaguar V8 does use flat tappet lifters. I don't have any experience with diesel oils though. I would be worried that they use a different detergent formulation.