recommended engine oil

[Mckensy]

Hey guys, i'm planning on changing my engine oil and transmittion oil within this coming week. any recommendations as to which oils I should use? I drive a 95 BA hardtop V6 2ltr. What have u guys used and have found to be good??

Thanks!

[tim]

i have a 96 V6 hatch and i have used castrol magnatec since i've owned the car (3yrs and from 70k's to 140k's) i've have no problems with the car at all and no complaints about the oil..

i had heard it leaves gunk in the top of the motor from its 'magnetic qualities; but when we pulled the cam covers off (for new gaskets) the was no sign of the problem and it all looked clean as it should.

i change the oil and filter every 10,000ks and the car gets a mix of freeway and around town driving..

i did try the recommended grade oil a few thousand k's ago and it went straight through the motor, ie 5lt didn't last 10,000ks, so i went back to magnatec.

-tim

[project.r.racing]

if the car has 150k on the clock or more, then do the oil + filter every 7,500km

[Melbastina]

I've taken to changing mine every 5000k's now (I do kinda drive it hard) and I cant believe the difference it's making. Normally by the time it reached service time it was running like crap, now it runs smooth as silk all the time, for the few extra bucks I recommend it.

Also I am doing a bit of research on weather or not it help fuel economy, I doubt it will significantly tho.

Oh yeah, I use maganatec.

[Astro Boy]

Jeez, aint marketing grand!

[Mckensy]

Hmmm maganatec seems d way to go then. Thanks guys! will do this somwtime during this week!

[chicaboo]

Originally Posted by Melbastina

Oh yeah, I use maganatec.

I used Magnatec once, and only once... There is a reason for that, hence Greg's comment on marketing.

Castrol Edge is much better, and actually does cling. When I had the valve cover off measuring cam clearance with Andy one day, I noticed the Magnatec didn't cling to anything, it didn't polish or clean the cams like I have observed with Formular R(Edge) in the past.

I'd dare say given how the Magnatec came out of my engine after 5000km, it would be pretty nasty after 10,000km, even from a car driven less enthusiastically than mine. I am trying Royal Purple at the moment, it's not big in Australia, so I won't even bother trying to promote it. However, when the valve cover was off last weekend, the cams were clean, and the oil clung to the cams like it does with the Edge.

For the money, I don't see how you can go wrong with Edge, Motul Turbolight 4100, and if your budget stretches - Royal Purple. AstroBoy has had good experiences with other brands begining with P, but that is his story to tell, not mine... I have a very low opionion of Magnatec.

Gav.

[Astro Boy]

For the money, I don't see how you can go wrong with Edge, Motul Turbolight 4100, and if your budget stretches - Royal Purple. AstroBoy has had good experiences with other brands begining with P, but that is his story to tell, not mine... I have a very low opionion of Magnatec.

As do i... considerably....

Pick from the following list:

Edge;
Motul;
Royal Purple;
Penrite;
Caltex Havoline.....

Pick from that list, and you CAN'T go wrong.... Avoid Magnatec and Shell Helix...

Hell if your that worried, try this stuff aswell:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Roil-Gold-Per...QQcmdZViewItem

Now, i know your going to flame me because a. its a snake oil... obivously, and b. i sell the stuff... but both myself and nate can vouch for it, i run it in ALL my cars, and nate kept blowing power steering pumps in the commy until he tried this...

Aside from that, i can tell you some VERY respected australian motorsport teams use it, and even the holden performance driving centre holds information nights about it... so take from that what you will...

Have a read of the skyline test program link, i handed out a few samples while back for ppl to test, and that the results we got...

At the end of the day, your average road car will run on whatever you put it in, coming from a different perspective to most of you, i tend to find out what's rubbish and what's not alot sooner than you will in your road cars, but i will NOT put magnatec in the engine, go round and ask how many motorsport teams use magnatec in their race cars... then ask how many use the similarily priced havoline, penrite or motul...

Having said that i actually use magnatec in the gearbox of rally car, but for COMPLETELY different reasons that you'd ever wanna put it in your engine, or even a road car gearbox...

Pretty much, any oil that needs as much marketting as magnatec (or even shell helix for that matter), can't be good... When was the last time you saw an ad for motul? Never, its a product built on reputation, something magnatec will never acheive...

[Astro Boy]

actually, this will kill two birds at once, test peformaned by the QLD university of technology, and have a look at what scored lowest....

Note that the machine could get anything with roil to break down, even cat diesel...

http://www.dairally.net/greg/garbage...%20Results.jpg

[Cosmo Dude]

I've only ever used Penrite (throw back to the old rotary days) and never had problems with it. I've just had a look under the valve cover of the 929, when I first bought it 2 years ago it was covered with black sludge, now is beginning to look clean. Cam lobes are bright and shinny with an oil film over them and I havn't driven it for 10 days.

[Astro Boy]

Originally Posted by Astro Boy

http://www.dairally.net/greg/garbage...%20Results.jpg

Three other things to note from that:

1. Not all additives are the same, Mobil 1 and Wynns was worse than Mobil 1 on its own!

2. Water and Roil (at least in test conditions, remember, this doesn't take into account the heat of an engine, only the pure lubricating properties of the oil), out performed Magnatec!

3. Mobil 1 was able to absorb 3 times more pressure than Magnatec before the machine stalled...

[Rupewrecht]

another one here for Penrite.

VW gets whatever is on special...and thick.

[Cosmo Dude]

Mobil 1 will never see the inside of any of my engines. Any Mobil 1 that enters the combustion chamber will leave a residue as it burns off. No big deal in a piston engine but something that Mobil hasn't addressed in its premium product.

[Astro Boy]

Originally Posted by Rupewrecht

VW gets whatever is on special...and thick.

Extra Virgin...

[Rupewrecht]

Haha no, the thicker it is, the less it marks it's territory.

Seals are for pussies.

[Melbastina]

Originally Posted by chicaboo

I'd dare say given how the Magnatec came out of my engine after 5000km, it would be pretty nasty after 10,000km, even from a car driven less enthusiastically than mine. I am trying Royal Purple at the moment, it's not big in Australia, so I won't even bother trying to promote it. However, when the valve cover was off last weekend, the cams were clean, and the oil clung to the cams like it does with the Edge.

I find that really interesting. The reason I started changing oil every 5000 was because the oil was getting filthy (ie was going really really dark brown/black) by the time I got to 10k. Now that I think about it, that started happening when I changed dealers (to the one that uses magnatec).

To date, I have run magnatec for three oil change intervals. I got it put in the first time, 10k later the car was running like crap, oil was filthy. Got it serviced, within about 5000K's the same thing was starting to happen, so I got the oil changed again (all magantec so far) and that brings you up to what I have ATM and currently the car is running smooth (last change was about 1500ks ago).

When I took the car in the second time I had done a bit of a spin down the GOR so I thought maybe I just pushed the oil a bit far. When I asked the mechanic why it was so filthy he claimed it was because it "cleaned" the engine so was bound to get dirty (cough bull****e cough).

I was going to sit it out and see how it looked at the end of this 5k, but maybe (judging from feedback here) I may be better off to scrap that idea and start providing my own oil...

[Cosmo Dude]

Changing your own oil isn't a tough job.
Buy a set of ramps, a drainage pan, 5 litres of the good stuff and a filter (maybe a filter wrench). The sump plug from memory needs a 19mm ring spanner.
I'll be asking my local Mazda service what oil and filter they use and if I'm not happy with the brand then I'll replace the oil with Penrite when I get home.

[chipa]

I just take my own oil to the dealership when I get a service. The 2 dealers I've used haven't had a problem with using it. Costs me about the same as they don't charge me for their oil then. Both dealerships used Magnatec. Out of interest the dealerships have even cleaned my K&N panel filter when I supplied the cleaning kit, with no extra charge.

[Ian]

I recently changed my oil over to HPR15 from penrite and the cars never run smoother. Not sure what was in it before, as I didnt do the last service.

[BigBoyLemonade]

I second Penrite HPR for oil. I have noticed a difference in my eunos. I can't believe oil made a noticable difference.