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What grade of oil to use?

What grade of oil to use?

by alanoxo » Sat Jul 09, 2005 8:30 am
Does anybody know what grade of oil i should use in my 1600cc bus engine? any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by wilgartw » Sat Jul 09, 2005 1:21 pm
use the search facility, you'll be suprised what turns up.. :wink:
searched for oil and grade
http://www.ssvc.ukshells.co.uk/phpbb/vi ... =oil+grade
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by BaronVonKronken » Sun Jul 10, 2005 9:07 am
monograde morris 30
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by MaHarg » Sun Jul 10, 2005 9:50 am
With my stock 1500 sp engine i have chosen 20w50 multigrade oil, all though i have always used Morris 30 till now.

After reading the 'search thread' above and speaking to my local oil expert, 20w50 is highly recommended.
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by wilgartw » Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:48 am
MaHarg wrote:After reading the 'search thread' above and speaking to my local oil expert, 20w50 is highly recommended.
I think the baron could (mis)quote blackadder series 2 - "Opinion is divided on the subject. All the other barons say it is; I say it isn't." :wink:
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by paul_f » Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:20 pm
I'd go to your local Brown Brother or Partco, and get 5litres of 20w50 oil. Its 5.99+ vat for 5 litres and is far better than Morris.

Its interesting to me that Morris is a very basic oil that costs £10(which you can only get from VW specialists) and that a modern multigrade costs under £7 (which you can get lots of places). I wonder why the VW places say you have to use Morris oil???? :roll:
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by alanoxo » Sun Jul 10, 2005 6:33 pm
Thanks for the help i've gone for duckhams 20w/50, so i took it out for a run and my nearside rear brake has died got taken home by the AA removed the drum to find that the shoes are bare, the handbrake cable snapped and the cylinder is kaput :cry: now i've got to get it repaired for my holiday in newquay.
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by friedgreedo » Mon Jul 11, 2005 2:50 pm
paul_f wrote:I'd go to your local Brown Brother or Partco, and get 5litres of 20w50 oil. Its 5.99+ vat for 5 litres and is far better than Morris.

Its interesting to me that Morris is a very basic oil that costs £10(which you can only get from VW specialists) and that a modern multigrade costs under £7 (which you can get lots of places). I wonder why the VW places say you have to use Morris oil???? :roll:
In what way do you think it's a better oil? Just interested as I currently use Morris'.
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by paul_f » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:19 pm
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by NEO » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:51 pm
Isn't a lawnmower engine basically the same ie aircooled 4 stroke?
Go to lawnmower specialist and they sell what sort of oil? Yep good old 30w.

Mind you I used to use 15/40 in my old bay and had no probs, but only cos it was free through work :wink: :wink:
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by gruftybuggers » Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:17 pm
i used 15/40 in my bay and use it in the split no probs
like neo its free from work :wink:
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by lammyrider » Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:02 pm
so what do the numbers actually mean?starting to get blinded with science :wink:
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by OP » Sun Jul 17, 2005 10:23 pm
lammyrider wrote:so what do the numbers actually mean?starting to get blinded with science :wink:
The API service rating is a two-letter rating that tells you the type of engine the oil is meant for.

The viscosity grade (for example, 5W-30) tells you the oil's thickness, or viscosity. A thin oil has a lower number and flows more easily, while thick oils have a higher number and are more resistant to flow. Water has a very low viscosity -- it is thin and flows easily. Honey has a very high viscosity -- it is thick and gooey.

Multi-weight oils (such as 10W-30) are a new invention made possible by adding polymers to oil. The polymers allow the oil to have different weights at different temperatures. The first number indicates the viscosity of the oil at a cold temperature, while the second number indicates the viscosity at operating temperature.

The way I look at it is that when the air cooled engine was invented there was only monograde oils available so they had nothing else. Now we have multigrade it's a far better oil. Afterall we all had black and white TV's in the 60's now we all have colour ones (well most of us) I use Quantum SJ 15/40 from my local VW dealer, £10 for 5 ltr. Plus if you use Morris 30 if you need oil en route to somewhere you're not gonna get it at a petrol station.

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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by Steve S » Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:34 pm
"Isn't a lawnmower engine basically the same ie aircooled 4 stroke?
Go to lawnmower specialist and they sell what sort of oil? Yep good old 30w".

No.... a lawnmower utilises splash lubrication for the main bearings. I.E. it has no oil pump. Hence the oil needs special "splashable" properties. Had to rebuild no end of mower engines cos my late father used boggy mulitgrade in them.

I would advocate the use of any good quality branded modern multigrade mineral oil in your engine. (IE not recycled supermarket stuff, and not synthetic)
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Re: What grade of oil to use?

by lammyrider » Mon Jul 18, 2005 1:04 pm
right so a bit of clarification, would 10w-40 be ok or is that starting too low
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