OIL FOR A K SERIES

[HARRY BOY]

Any one know the best oil for a std k series 0/40 or 15/50 ???

[Fred]

Any good full synthetic oil will do the 0 /40 indicates the working temp of

The oil i.e. very cold to hot don’t go back to ordinary oil if you go to full

Synthetic the choice on the grade is up to you

 

 

Clik

The Impatient

[Fred]

it should read dont after the word hot sorry new specs

dodgy fingers

 

Clik

The Impatient

[Blatman]

Clik (sic) on the little magnifying glass/envelope icon just above the text of the message. It lets you go back in and edit the message so it reads right. It'll give you a chance to punctuate it too.....smile.gif

[CHRIS CLARK]

If you're feeling flush then use 'Mobil 1' in the 5 W 50 spec.

The 0-40 is like water!

[Jason Plato]

I've been running Comma syner G for the past hard driven 12K miles , we were VERY pleased with the condition of the engine internals and bearings upon strip down last week .

The oil is fully synthetic and pretty good value at around £22 for 4.5L .

 

Dave

[tillson]

Could someone tell me the sump capacity of a standard 1.6K. Just as a guide when re-filling.

[Tony J]

It's approx 4 litres

[HARRY BOY]

thank you all

i have been runing mobil 1 0/40 but the oil presure is makeing me nervous !!

[murph7355]

In a std K I used 0/40 without issue. I now use 15/50 which seems to give "better" pressure after a thrash (uprated K with 8k rev limit).

 

I don't think that this necessarily means anything much though in terms of engine longevity, just peace of mind.

 

Change it regularly (I get mine done every 3k miles) and you should be OK with any of them. I do tend to avoid mixing brands where possible, due to a 5th hand comment that someone suspects it may make the sump foam baffles go brittle. I should stress that I have no qualitative evidence of this though. I'm just a natural fretter.

 

Also, make a mental note of where your pressures are now. It's a deviation from these "std" readings that should really get you worried, not the numbers that you're getting now per se. Oil pressure senders and gauges can (do) all vary, so you can only really use other peoples' readings as a general guideline.

[Simon Dart]

Andy,

 

I infer from your post that you don't change the foam sump baffle with every oil change then. I've played safe and changed it every time, but I've often thought that it was a bit over the top. What sort of "life" do you give them?

 

Edited by - Simon Dart on 2 Dec 2001 15:55:56

[WILL FLY]

I use Comma Syner-G and have had no problems so far after 12000 miles and 8 track days. Just change the oil and filter at least every 3000 miles.

 

See willfly.net for more info.

If you don't spin you ain't trying smile.gif

 

[CHRIS CLARK]

Simon D.

 

The Caterham owners manual suggests;

Seems about right to me. I removed mine after 5,800 miles and although it was stained by the Mobil 1 (ie. brownish rather than the bright yellow) in was still in good condition & showed no signs of degradation thumbsup.gif

[Nick Green]

Just to back up Andy Murphy's last paragraph, back in the summer, I was starting to get slightly erratic oil pressure readings where I wasn't before. I changed the pressure sender. I no longer have erratic oil pressure readings, but I've gained about a bar in pressure in all circumstances.

[Paul McKenzie]

Simon/Chris,

I tend to agree that it seems a bit OTT to change the foam baffle every 3000 miles - nevertheless, I'm convinced it's a necessity. Why? You can't do a proper oil change otherwise, because the foam retains so much dirty oil.

Paul

 

 

 

[CHRIS CLARK]

Paul.

Fair point. I think that you actually get more 'left' in the sump if you just use the drain plug, so removing the sump to get to the foam (& therefore cleaning that residue out) is probably beneficial too. BUT, dirty oil? How dirty is the Mobil 1 anyway?

What about all the oilways and galleries. Do you remove sump and then leave it to drain overnight?

Sorry. Just getting carried away. Suzi Seven says that would be a good idea particularly if the men had white coats and a nice white jacket with long arms...............................

[matthewgardner]

I work for what used to Silkolene Oils and is now interestingly called Fuchs Lubricants. The most important aspect of oils for all of our cars is what they are made from. because most of our engines lie idle for upto a week at a time it is important to have not just a synthetic but one with a large proportion of synthetic ester. To the best of my knowledge the two oils mentioned in the letters above do not contain any ester(they have PAO and hydrocracked base stocks). Ester contains polarised molecules which adhere themselves to surfaces within the engine, even if the engine is not run for a while,this means that upon start up you will have a film of oil upon all vital components such as cam lobes. Car engine oils in general do not tend to meet the necessary performance levels required by our toys, instead I would recommend motorcycle oils which are designed to cope with much higher revs, extremes of temp and irregular use. The viscosity of the oil needed will depend upon your priorities, for racing cars such as formula vauxhall a low viscosity oil such as an SAE 0W/20 is used to give max power (less power used to move oil). for longevity thick oils are used but I would advise that you do not go above an SAE 50. I do not know enough about other manufactuerers brands to recommend their grades but I use Silkolene Pro 4 Plus 10W/50, which can be bought from pretty much any motorcycle shop.

[David Hopkins]

If you are crossing the channel , Mobil 1 in various grades varies from £18 to £22 if you buy it in France .

[Blatman]

.....instead I would recommend motorcycle oils....

That interests me, as I'm not sure how you would identify a motorcycle oil (apart from 2 stroke). Most motorcycle dealers I have used (and I've used a lot in my 1 million miles of motorcycling) use what can only be described as "car" oil, with the exception of BMW, who used Mobil 1 Motorsport (15W 50), and which has a picture of a motorcycle on the packaging.........

[matthewgardner]

Blatman,

Thanks for the reply, I was not trying to suggest that any motorcycle lubricant is suitable, you will find that less than 5% of them contain any Ester, but as a general rule of thunb a top class M/C oil will be better suited to our machines than an expensive car oil. M/C oils are also ideal because they do not have to be designed for use in Diesel engines.

Also worthy of note is that just because major brands (which I could not name here) sponsor certain F1/WRC cars, does not mean that that oil is in the car! Silkolene sell directly to many major teams not sponsored by us.

Ester synthetics are 4 times more expensive as a raw material than the cheap synthetics that go into most oils. So it should be obvious that I have not recommended a cheap option, merely the best. Esters can be worth the extra money because they cling to components when stationary but it is also because thay are far more 'slippery' than other oils (DO NOT use an ester in an engine that needs bedding in).

I think that there are a few Ester based oils in the back of Demon Tweeks that may be worth trying.

Sorry I think that I have rambled on for too long again.

[Blatman]

Ramble on for some more, 'cos I still don't know how to identify which product has the esters that I appear to require.....wink.gif

I'm all for buying a quality product (ooohh I can hear all the Blatchat afficianado's laughing at that, considering my choice of se7enwink.gif) but how do I know I've paid for the right oilquestion.gif Is the ester content marked on the can somewhere, and what chemical am I looking forquestion.gif

[murph7355]

Mobil 1's a quality product (I used to work for them, know their weaknesses and this isn't one of them IMO), esters or not so I wouldn't worry about using it. The only bummer is that it's half price on the continent (I had a rant at Mobil about this to little effect).

 

The foam gets changed in mine every two or three changes. I'm vague about it as the first couple of changes at "every other" showed no ill effects, so I don't worry about it too much.

 

 

[tillson]

Regarding the problem of moving contact parts not being coated with oil after the car has stood for a while, does anyone have any views / experience of oil additives such as Slick 50?

 

They make very impressive claims on the can, but how does it perform in reality.

 

Tom

[Buda]

Just going back a bit on the thread, I've got mobil 1 in mine, oil pressure is about 2 bar when idling, 4 bar when running, I a little less nervous now if others experience same results - still can anyone confirm this is 'normal'?, I'm forever checking the oil but it never drops.

[Buda]

Just going back a bit on the thread, I've got mobil 1 in mine, oil pressure is about 2 bar when idling, 4 bar when running, I a little less nervous now if others experience same results - still can anyone confirm this is 'normal'?, I'm forever checking the oil but it never drops.