What's your favourite engine oil?

It's time yet again to do another oil change and after using mobile1 fully syn for the time I've had my zed, I was very disappointed to hear the have discontinued production of the 10W-30 range (I was feeling rich at the time and stockpiled a few bottles) a little while ago now.

So the question now, what else is good for a zed?

Thanks

 

Dude search! N/A thread or any other that has the word "service" in it?

 

Here we go again

I use Penrite SIN15. Fully synthetic 15w - 40.

But at the end of the day, any known brand in the weight you want will be more than good.

 

dude if you haven't noticed this forum's search engine isn't that great and yes I already did, with a lot more different words than just 'service'.

Anyway to my point, I'm not after just "use this" or "use that" I was hopefully looking for "I switched from this to this and I've noticed a big difference"

So thank you to all who contribute and not just jump on someone because they've finally had the chance to be the first one that does.

From one zed lover to another

 

Try this in google search: best engine oil site:aus300zx.com

Using the blue text above in google, searches only aus300zx.com for "best engine oil", you too can now search the forum with the best.

Results: http://www.google.com.au/#sclient=p...w.,cf.osb&fp=acc135da6d1347b&biw=1280&bih=823

 

hahaha cheers mate

 

I'm surprised you went with a 10w oil given you also live in a warm climate?
That sounds a bit thin in my book? Stick with a 15W? That's what the BGB recommends.

Penrite also make a 10-70W in their Sin range. A mechanic/tuner garage I went to a while back told me a 10W was too thin and made the engine more noisy. Switched to a 15-40W Castrol Mineral Oil and it quietened the engine down a lot. This mechanic had a strong opinion on Penrite though... Said it was crap. The shop stocked Castrol, so I think they might have been slightly/very biased..
I was under the impression a synthetic might show up potential oil leaks in an older car as well. At least that is what another mechanic told me...

 

Its a bit of a tradeoff with the W value. You want it to be thick to minimize wear, but you need it thin enough to flow fast enough to coat everything on a to also minimize wear. This is for cold starts only.

As for Synthetic showing leaks easier, its possible, only because Synthetic oils tend to be very thin, and of course easier to leak or blow out the back if your system / engine isn't up to scratch.

For those who don't know, just quick refresher, 15W40 means at 100 Celsius when the oil was tested, it had a viscous rating of SAE 40, at cold temp (think of it as cold start temp) it had a viscous rating SAE 15. Like I said before, its a bit of a tradeoff.

For me personally, I have been using Penrite for years, love them. I usually alternate between HPR 10 (10W-50), HPR 15 (15W-60) and HPR 30 (20W-60), depending on the time of the year and engine condition. As my compression got lower and I noticed a bit of oil being blown out the back I went to a thicker oil which helped. This is also why when some Zeds start up on cold mornings they'll blow a little white smoke or you'll hear some rattles, which disappears when oil gets thicker as it reaches operating temp.

Good read for the curious ones: Linky

MoulaZX

 

So what would you expect we would notice when switching from one brand to another ?

Twice as fast to 100k ?

Halved fuel consumption ?

Very minute differences between brands.

 

Hang on, oil gets thinner as it heats up, not vice versa. the second rating you describe as sae40, is the viscosity additives or whatever they're called which indicate how much the oil will thin out as temperarure rises. ie: a 15w40 oil at 100 degrees celcius will be thicker than a 15w30 oil at 100 degrees celcius. Both will have the same viscosity on a cold start but the 15w30 will thin out more as oil temperatures rise. for a car that sees lots of circuit work for instance or operates with high oil temperatures a 15w60 might be desirable, as a 15w40 might be too thin to create an oil layer on main and rod bearings when the engine is under duress. A 10w70 like i mentioned seems like a good oil on paper since the oil will be thin enough to flow around the engine and provide enough lubrication on a cold start while not thinning out a lot as oil temperatures rise.
Opinions and criticism welcomed.

 

Early on in the link I put at the bottom:

I think you've kind of contradicted yourself in saying Oil gets thinner as it warms up, then saying 15W40 is thinner at 100c then 15W30 which is exactly my point and inline with what I quoted above. You also went on to say 15W60 is thicker and desirable for an application where 15W40 is not so I'm kinda lost as to what you're trying to say...

Also open to constructive criticism.

Cheers,
MoulaZX

 

I do not like wide viscosity indexes at all. To get the polymers to stretch far enough to accomodate such a large index has some very negative effects on the other properties an engine also needs to have. I have not used penrite products at all since they went down this route about 8 years ago.

A quality 10/40 or 15/40 is perfect for these engines. 20/50 plus may be ok on a worn bottom end, but you still need to feed the cams, lifters, turbos, vtc the correct volume of oil as well. A 50 weight or more in an engine not clearanced for it is asking for trouble.

It goes the other way aswell, 5/30, 10/30 is to thin unless in a very cold climate.

You do not even need to be paying $60 plus for 5 litres of oil, Nulon, Shell Helix, Valvoline Durablend are all quality oil at reasonalbe prices. Personally not a fan of Castrol Magnatec mainly due to that massive marketing bs they try and have you believe.

 

These are exactly my thoughts as well. I'll admit I do not like the path Penrite is going with their latest "15W40+10!" campaign, but they haven't failed me in the past so I'll see how it goes. And you said 8 years ago? I've only noticed the "+10!" crap only in the last year...?

All this was on my old factory engine though. I still haven't decided what my final oil is going to be once I've finished running in the new forged one.

MoulaZX

 

Lol sorry, I think we're on the same page and I'm tongue-twisting myself. I meant the 15w30 would be thinner than the 15w40 at 100C, and that the 15w60 would only be thicker than say a 15w40 when oil temperatures rose up.. Not when oil temps are low ie: on a cold start.
Thanks to a2zed for that information, appreciated.

 

Nothing, apart from what a before and after oil analysis may indicate!!!!!!!!
L8r
E

 

Penrite 10w-50 (or maybe its 15w-50) Fully Synthetic.
Fully synthetic is obviously a plus, but the higher heat resistance is a major winner, and a 15 viscosity is always good for an older engine like the vg30, especially the TT which does get slapped around a lot.

Unless you have reonditioned your engine, or have a extremely low km Zed (less than 70,000km) 10 viscosity is probably a little low if anything.

Im currently using HPR30 (20w-60) which is bloody fantastic considering the old owner treated it like shit :S

 

FWIW, I use Valvoline Dura-Blend.
(In best John Laws voice) For all my cars!!!
Turbo and NA, road and race.

L8r
E

 

Nulon all the way high flow is the go.

 

I thought I was the only one! I use Mobil 1 5W50 because thats what the previous owner told me to use and there is a sticker under the hood that says 5W50. Engine is apparently rebuil with forgies etc. and the rebuilder said 5W50 although I never really rely on hear-say for knowing whats in my car