Found this to be interesting so I thought I would share, this is not meant to stir up a big discussion it is just information from Bob the oil guy. ENJOY


Motor Oil 101 - Bob is the Oil Guy - Bob is the Oil Guy

Used Oil Analysis - Bob is the Oil Guy - Bob is the Oil Guy

Bob's final statement:

If you have absorbed and digested the information here you should be
able to pick out the proper operating oil grade for your car, be it a
30, 40, 50 or even 20 grade oil. I have always used oils that were a
grade thinner than recommended even though many use a grade thicker than
recommended. I showed evidence that the starting grade should always be
0 or 5 (0W-XX or 5W-XX for thicker oils). If you want the best
protection and highest output from your motor use a synthetic based oil.
The actual brand is not as critical as the viscosity. The rating must be
the SL or SM rating. Change your oil every 3 – 5,000 miles and at least
every spring.

 

Should be lite not light reading.

 

Isn't lite just light lite?

 

no light going off for me

 

With overhead cam engines oil viscosity becomes a bigger issue. You really don't want to go with a greater viscosity. But it isn't 100% cut and dry. But for a stock low mile engine with overhead cams...Stick with factory spec weight oil which and use a synthetic. On a race engine with greater clearances or an older higher mile motor...Well then Id consider a viscosity upgrade. I always run a 20/50 in my pushrod high performance built engines for instance. On a higher mile jag engine Id consider going with a slightly higher weight oil but haven't done so yet. I wouldn't go with a lighter weight oil unless I lived in Alaska or something like that. Also Id likely not use a higher weight oil in such an extreme. Same goes the other way. But Bobs the oil guy although an engineer...I don't deal with oil:O)...I do run Amsoil in everything though. It honestly tends to hold up better then others I've tried...An dive tried everything

 

Ya right. Providing a link to the Bitog site for some of his 'religion' is pretty much like waving a very large red flag in front of an angry bull.

 

Only for those people who, for some bizarre reason, become irate and antagonistic when anyone else dares to use a different brand, viscosity and oil change frequency than they themselves use.

 

More because the promoters of such change cannot come up with any evidence that their theories carry any advantage in the real world.

If the OEM recommended type, viscosity and change interval sees the engine through to the end of it's useful life at reasonable cost and convenience vs. some out-of-left-field theory with no substantiation- what's the point?

The 3-5K mile change interval is a hoot. It's been demonstrated for more than 20 years that this is excessively conservative. Even the 10K intervals of 10 years ago are now seen as being very conservative.

 

I think this thread will degenerate pretty quickly. Too bad - this could be an opportunity to help us all find alternatives to buying oil at the dealer. Right now, on the s/c 5.0 that is the only option.

My personal experience is that different brands even meeting the same standards and in the same viscosity will perform differently. I want what is best for my car, especially under hard use. The way I drive, a 5,000 mile oil change is appropriate, no matter that the manual says the car can go 15,000 miles. That is sales hype, not advice that will help my car live 10 years and 200,000 miles.

I agree Amsoil is superior to most. More importantly it is reasonably available. Redline and Motul have also performed well for me. All three of those brands hold up longer in terms of maintaining oil pressure under sustained full throttle use, especially Amsoil.

Redline seems slipperier, to the point of creating higher idle speeds on my carbureted motorcycles. Their gear oil also helps smooth manual transmission shifting dramatically.

It will be nice when the alternative oils are more widely available. I spent an hour trying to buy a case of Motul Specific 925B last night. It is available in U.K. and the continent but not in the U.S. from what I can see.

 

This is the XK8/R forum so the S/C 5.0 is not relevant here.

I buy my oil from Walmart using the recommended specs, I do have a preferred brand but that is simply personal preference if they went out of business tomorrow I'd happily use another.

 

I have preferred oils and filters, but that said, there'd be a lot less wrecked engines out there if everyone:

-Made sure they don't run low or out of oil in the sump!
-Changed their oil on a periodic basis
-Ran a weight that meets the operating nature of the vehicle

It doesn't matter if it's walmart cheap oil or AMSOIL/Mobil/Whatever, the worst engines I've worked on were from lack of changes and running out of oil (not fixing a leak or consumption combined with not checking oil). Changing oil is easier than repairing a spun main bearing.

A lot of my friends know I'm a car girl, and they often have had minimal if any basic training on cars. My best advice to them is when you pump gas, check fluids! If your car needs 10-15 gallons, in the time to pump, you can check oil, brake fluid, see the condition of the belts, check tire pressure and if you can check the ATF level and color do that after pumping and you've restarted your car. That simple routine being executed weekly means that you're likely to catch a lot of issues before they go from bad to worse.

Cars come with a manual that specifies recommended intervals for services. If you follow all of that, you may pay a little extra and replace things a little more often, but you often get good reliability and longevity. I tend to go a little overboard and surpass even factory intervals for some items, but I drive my cars a little hard, and just maintain them harder!

 

Keep in mind that checking fluids while pumping gas is NOT the ideal time to do so. The engine and tires are hot, the fluids have expanded and circulated, and the various checking devices (dipsticks, tire pressure gauges, etc.) will all read high. Check your fluids and tire pressures first thing in the morning before you drive anywhere. Accuracy will be much better....

 

Jon, this is true with our Jags. but not true with every make out there. We have a turbocharged Mazda that says to check the oil after reaching operating temp. and waiting for 5 minutes for the oil to return to the pan. This is the first car in our stable that stated this method in the owners manual. Back in the early 1970's working in a gas station and checking oil for a customer I always showed the dip stick to the customer which always showed below the full mark because there was at least 1/2 qt. still up in the engine. It was funny because some folks would argue with me and insist on adding a qt. My boss always told me the customer is always right. I'll be honest I don't know why Mazda requires this method of checking the oil but that's why they have owners manuals in hope that the person actually reads it.

 

Some of these are people I've had to explain why you change oil. While the reading is high, it's better to have something than nothing. I check all my stuff pretty regularly in the garage at home.

 

Good advice.

Even if the oil is dirty, the engine will be fairly happy as long as it has lots of it.

 

A novice has to start somewhere, so those pages are good in that
way. But, his proscriptive statement is wrong headed in that it does
not allow for deviation.

There are those on the site's forums itself that would take issue
with such a blanket statement.

There are also some who are far more knowledgable in the subject
area than the original site owner, both on and off the site.

++

 

Several years ago I had a friend who had a company van for his job. He was driving it on the Interstate near Washington DC and talking with me on the phone. Suddenly he said, "Hold on, the van is making a noise!" I said, "What kind of noise?" He said, "It sounds like metal grinding on metal." I said, "That is the worst possible noise, pull over right away!" Then he said, "Oh!!! Now there is smoke coming out!!!" and he hung up the phone. When I got back with him a day or two later I asked him what happened and he said that the engine burned up and the van had to be towed away. He also said that the company wanted him to pay for it because he had had the van for almost a year and never even checked the oil. BTW, it was basically out of oil.

Another time this guy who was from a very wealthy family had a car that his mother had bought for him and he had had it for two or three years. He came to see me and told me that it was not running right, so I went out to take a look. When I pulled out the dipstick, instead of being the thin strip of metal that we are used to, it was round. I took a closer look and wiped it and it was just filled with sludge. I said, "When is the last time you changed the oil?" He said, "I never changed it, I just put some more in once in a while." The engine was basically destroyed.

Yes, some people are VERY meticulous with their oil and some are absolutely clueless.

 

... and some are in between

Now, one had no oil and the other never really looked at his oil, even if he had
looked at the dipstick to determine when to add oil. Or maybe he just addded a quart
whenever the low oil light came on.

 

I think that he just kept adding oil with no regard to anything. I should have mentioned that the dipstick was round, WAY up past the level where it was supposed to end. The whole engine was just sludged up and his mother had to buy him another car.