StewartG Posted August 1, 2000 Share Posted August 1, 2000 I note that a lot of people recommend Mobil 1 oil but there appears to be two grades of it. Which one is best the 0w- 40 or the 15w-50 which says on the bottle, for motorsport, or something like that. I wonder if the thicker one might be more suitable for the hydraulic tappets in Vauxhall engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simos Posted August 1, 2000 Share Posted August 1, 2000 Hi Stewart, modern synthetic oils are so good now that both will work fine but they're obviously designed for two different uses. 15/50, your so-called motorsports grade, will be better for engines which are run hot all (most) of the time. Here you're looking for the thickest hot grade (the 50). But it will give worse cold performance (the 15). Thats fine for motorsports - start it, straight to temperature, thrash it for a 3 day race weekend then change the oil ! If you are mostly working the engine hard when blatting then this is probably the stuff for you. If your car does a lot of cold starts i.e. you use it also as a day-to-day (ish) car, through town, in traffic while still warming up, cool running on motorways etc then the 0W is a better option, much thinner when cold (the 0w), plenty thick when hot the 40. This is also the case for very high tolerance engines which want a thin oil to maintain film strength in the very small gaps some parts work to. Separately; I don't see why you'd want thicker oil for tappets, quite the reverse, high temperature differences, relatively low loading but moving very fast - wants a thinish multi grade oil which maintains a good surface tension - Mobil1 the very thing. For a gear box with relatively slow movement, reasonable temperatures but tremendous loads, hell we put single grade treacle in there. But this is just my opinion :-) Cheers, Simon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old captain slow Posted August 1, 2000 Share Posted August 1, 2000 Caterham recommended Comma Syner Z when I asked them the other day. It's 0/40. Seems ok but how do you tell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHRIS CLARK Posted August 1, 2000 Share Posted August 1, 2000 Caterham used to use Mobil One (0-40) as was the fashion. If you have been to the factory lately you'll have seen all the 'Comma' products on view and of course the 'Comma' logo'd R500.Still wonder why the Syner Z is being recommended ? !!!!!!!!!! I'd agree with Simons appraisal. I use Mobil One (0-40) for my road car as it's the brew that has been used from after the initial running in period & so I see no need to change brands! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger King Posted August 1, 2000 Share Posted August 1, 2000 We don't sell oil so I have no axe to grind on this one. We have always found that Mobil 1 is an excellent product and tend to recommend it for most applications. I agree that the 0w/40 is best for a Vauxhall, but would point out that an oil cooler (with thermostat) is a very sensible idea, especially on track days. If the cooler is not needed on a particluar day the thermostat will simply keep it out of the circuit. I have experience of a car that came in to the pits with rattling hydraulic tappets when the oil got (very) hot. The next time out a cooler had been fitted and even though the ambient temperature was hotter the problem did not re-occur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted August 1, 2000 Share Posted August 1, 2000 Oh the joy of it: you buy a 7 thinking you've got a car ready for trackdays, then hear all these recommendations - oil coolers, dry sumps / Apollos, blah blah blah. sad.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E Posted August 1, 2000 Share Posted August 1, 2000 Roger why are you still a novice. get some more postings done and how was the barging. Copy of a northern article in the post to you tomorrow. engine is great talk to you soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Bees Posted August 2, 2000 Share Posted August 2, 2000 Nick - don't panic! There are very few K's running oil coolers (I only know of one - the same one that Roger's been intimately acquainted with very recently). Your newly-acquired Apollo tank has provision for a temperature sender, so you can hook that up to your coolant temperature gauge (with a switch to flip between coolant & oil temp) and monitor the oil temperature. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pie_boy69 Posted August 2, 2000 Share Posted August 2, 2000 I have been trying to work out which way the switch should be flicked on my car to read oil or water, am I right in thinking that the oil will warm up slower but in the end reach a higher temp. What should these be my water I think runs about 90 degc but the oil will get up into the 110 deg is this ok as I still have warrenty from caterham and if not I will take it back to get it checked out. Keith Pickering superlight T7 KCP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Bees Posted August 2, 2000 Share Posted August 2, 2000 You're right Keith, the oil warms up *much* slower than the coolant. My oil temperature rarely reaches 80deg (normally runs at around 60 in the summer and less in winter), unless I sit in traffic for a while or do a few hard laps of the track in which case it approaches 80deg. However my engine is dry sumped and has the sender in the bottom of the dry sump tank, so it's not telling me what temperature the oil is at inside the engine. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHRIS CLARK Posted August 2, 2000 Share Posted August 2, 2000 Mike B, Further to my other enquiry in the listings ; what water temp do you get on road running? Ta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted August 2, 2000 Share Posted August 2, 2000 Keith - I was at Hyperion this afternoon and asked them about oil temperatures - yours sounds about spot on from what they said. Up to 115 degrees is no problem on trackdays and the like, with the water at about 90 - I think the fan kicks in at 88? Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Bees Posted August 3, 2000 Share Posted August 3, 2000 Chris - about 80 on the gauge. I don't know how accurate one gauge (or sender) is compared to the next. The ECU reckons the temp is 90 when the gauge reads 80. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rory McLeod Posted August 3, 2000 Share Posted August 3, 2000 Back to oil types... I am going to try Castrol RS 0W/60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHRIS CLARK Posted August 3, 2000 Share Posted August 3, 2000 Thanks Mike. I feel a bit happier as my gauge reads 78*-80*, so I'll assume it's a true 90*! Would feel happier if the gauge read 'correctly'. Any way of 'bending' it short of physically opening the unit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Rexia Posted August 3, 2000 Share Posted August 3, 2000 For those who travel further than the M25 - did you know that Mobil 1 is at least half the price in the decent supermarkets in France - maybe worth someone doing a tyre-like bulk buy at Auchan in Calais !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules Martin Posted August 3, 2000 Share Posted August 3, 2000 Hello Anna, I thought you'd emigrated ! How was "Le Sept" ? We had a magic two days at Spa on the Thursday/Friday, - a bit of rain in the morning and evening but at least 5 hours of dry track each day. I gather you guys had some serious rain on the Tuesday. Are you going to be at the Caterham Festival at Brands Hatch on the 19/20th? Regards, Jules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Gillet Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I just checked today in the two Hypermarkets close to my home where I normally buy the Rosé wine I drink in the spring/summer time ( I shift to Red during autumn/winter) when I do not drive my Seven. It is about 250 FF for 5 liters either in 0W-40 or 15W-50 . As for my car , I am using a generic synthetic 5W-50 @ 135 FF /5 liters. The grade range numbers are certified by an American Bureau ...so it cannot be that bad! In fact I have not still noticed any oil pressure drop during road and autoroute use. Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Gillet Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I just checked today in the two Hypermarkets close to my home where I normally buy the Rosé wine I drink in the spring/summer time ( I shift to Red during autumn/winter) when I do not drive my Seven. It is about 250 FF for 5 liters either in 0W-40 or 15W-50 . As for my car , I am using a generic synthetic 5W-50 @ 135 FF /5 liters. The grade range numbers are certified by an American Bureau ...so it cannot be that bad! In fact I have not still noticed any oil pressure drop during road and autoroute use. Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Gillet Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I just checked today in the two Hypermarkets close to my home where I normally buy the Rosé wine I drink in the spring/summer time ( I shift to Red during autumn/winter) when I do not drive my Seven. It is about 250 FF for 5 liters either in 0W-40 or 15W-50 . As for my car , I am using a generic synthetic 5W-50 @ 135 FF /5 liters. The grade range numbers are certified by an American Bureau ...so it cannot be that bad! In fact I have not still noticed any oil pressure drop during road and autoroute use. Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Gillet Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I just checked today in the two Hypermarkets close to my home where I normally buy the Rosé wine I drink in the spring/summer time ( I shift to Red during autumn/winter) when I do not drive my Seven. It is about 250 FF for 5 liters either in 0W-40 or 15W-50 . As for my car , I am using a generic synthetic 5W-50 @ 135 FF /5 liters. The grade range numbers are certified by an American Bureau ...so it cannot be that bad! In fact I have not still noticed any oil pressure drop during road and autoroute use. Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Gillet Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I just checked today in the two Hypermarkets close to my home where I normally buy the Rosé wine I drink in the spring/summer time ( I shift to Red during autumn/winter) when I do not drive my Seven. It is about 250 FF for 5 liters either in 0W-40 or 15W-50 . As for my car , I am using a generic synthetic 5W-50 @ 135 FF /5 liters. The grade range numbers are certified by an American Bureau ...so it cannot be that bad! In fact I have not still noticed any oil pressure drop during road and autoroute use. Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Gillet Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I just checked today in the two Hypermarkets close to my home where I normally buy the Rosé wine I drink in the spring/summer time ( I shift to Red during autumn/winter) when I do not drive my Seven. It is about 250 FF for 5 liters either in 0W-40 or 15W-50 . As for my car , I am using a generic synthetic 5W-50 @ 135 FF /5 liters. The grade range numbers are certified by an American Bureau ...so it cannot be that bad! In fact I have not still noticed any oil pressure drop during road and autoroute use. Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Gillet Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I just checked today in the two Hypermarkets close to my home where I normally buy the Rosé wine I drink in the spring/summer time ( I shift to Red during autumn/winter) when I do not drive my Seven. It is about 250 FF for 5 liters either in 0W-40 or 15W-50 . As for my car , I am using a generic synthetic 5W-50 @ 135 FF /5 liters. The grade range numbers are certified by an American Bureau ...so it cannot be that bad! In fact I have not still noticed any oil pressure drop during road and autoroute use. Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Gillet Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I just checked today in the two Hypermarkets close to my home where I normally buy the Rosé wine I drink in the spring/summer time ( I shift to Red during autumn/winter) when I do not drive my Seven. It is about 250 FF for 5 liters either in 0W-40 or 15W-50 . As for my car , I am using a generic synthetic 5W-50 @ 135 FF /5 liters. The grade range numbers are certified by an American Bureau ...so it cannot be that bad! In fact I have not still noticed any oil pressure drop during road and autoroute use. Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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