By tc on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 03:12 pm: Edit

What type of motor oil should I use?

By Steve (Steve2) on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 03:46 pm: Edit

castrol syntec. i use 10w30 out here in socal

steve

By carl on Thursday, November 15, 2001 - 06:44 pm: Edit

castrol syntec or amsoil is better than standard stuff! worth the money

By Al Hang (Alhang) on Thursday, November 15, 2001 - 08:24 pm: Edit

castrol syntec or amsoil is better than standard stuff! worth the money

really? why?

By Glenn Guinto (Glenn) on Thursday, November 15, 2001 - 09:30 pm: Edit

I've been putting Mobil 1 on mine every 3-4k along with a LR filter. Although I've been hearing from some folks that it's really not that good for Northeast Winter Climate. Could any of you guys please shed some light on this? I'd appreciate it...

-glenn
99 SD with 48K miles

By curtis on Thursday, November 15, 2001 - 11:41 pm: Edit

Depends on where you live and how often you change the oil. If you live in a fairly cold climate 5w30 is a great winter oil. 10w30 otherwise. If you change your oil every 3-4K miles then dino oil is the way to go IMHO. Synthetics are more likely to cause gaskets to leak and do not provide any extra protection if you change your oil like you should. Disco engines were not developed with the tolerances to require a syn. You can run syn oil longer before breakdown, but the reason you change your oil is because it is dirty. If you run a syn for 5K or so you are doing damage just by running dirty oil. Hence, I have never seen the point in synthetics unless you just feel more comfortable spending more money.

Curtis

By Scott Bowden (Scott_Bowden) on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 08:13 am: Edit

If your gaskets seep or leak use Valvoline max life. It cleared up my oil pan and rear main seal engine leaks.
I had been using Castrol syntec and some other synthetic for over 50,000 miles (120,000 miles on the truck)and the synthetic oils did not swell the gaskets and seals.
Also, I change my oil every +/- 3,500 miles and put 20,000+ miles per year.

By Horness Spencer (Horness) on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 08:49 am: Edit

Er - could this be the reason why my rocker gasket leaks no matter what I do?

Syn oil..

DOH!

HRNESS

By Tom P. on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 09:33 am: Edit

> Er - could this be the reason why my rocker
> gasket leaks no matter what I do?

No Horness, get new gaskets. Then whey you clean up the surfaces and reassemble you should be seep-free!

Tom P.

By Brian Jackson (Nerover) on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 09:53 am: Edit

Synthetics are worth the money? Well, that's an opinion. The fact is, no one has proven that synthetics benefit a Rover engine one way or another. Let's hear why they are better :-)

I don't buy it. How about Castrol GTX 20/50...that's good oil.

Brian

Thump, you're looking for that proof too, eh? Maybe Dr. Waycool will chime in here.

By SG on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 10:15 am: Edit

I've been running with the Castrol synth blend for several oil changes now. Best of both worlds, and cheaper too. Prior to that, I had the 'draindown tap' at startup whereby the lifters would tap for a few seconds as oil pressure built up. With the synthetic blend, this brief noise at startup has disappeared.

...except when I used the Castrol 20/50 synth blend. Now I run 20/50 in the '72 Series III except in winter, but the viscocity is a tad thick for the Disco. (It would seem that 20/50 would be slower to drain down, but the noise returned when using this oil.) So the Disco gets thinner oil, usually 10/30...no tap.

Cheers

By Al Hang (Alhang) on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 10:51 am: Edit

"Thump, you're looking for that proof too, eh? Maybe Dr. Waycool will chime in here."

man.. i was setting a trap. Oh well here goes. Overall synthetics are better than conventional oils. But I tire of reading all the myths that have spread about, when confronted about these most people have no logical answer for the reasons they choose synthetics other than they "are better".

Myth 1 - synthetics cause leaks, if I hear that one in public I will slap you. Tom P. hit this one on the head, if you got a leak get better gaskets. Synthetics do have better flow characteristics, and if you have a preexisting leak, will increase the amounts of oil lost. It's not the oils fault it didn't turn to varnish and close up your gasket leaks.

Myth 2 - All engines will last longer on synthetics. To varying degrees this is true, but Brian is right. The Rover V8 is not a high tolerance engine. High tolerance engines are mostly motorcycle engines, some sports car engines and some of today's high winding 4 cylinders, balance and blueprinted race engines.

Myth 3 - You can save money by running synthetics longer. Curtis is right on this point, dirty oil is the main reason you have to change it. Contaminants and viscosity breakdown wear out oil very quickly. And the hotter an engine runs the faster it's oil will break down. Frequent oil changes are probably the best thing you can do for any engine.

I actually performed a viscosity based test on various oils in high school and had a lab run an analysis, the results were really interesting.

By Al Hang (Alhang) on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 10:55 am: Edit

SG, one point about synth blend I don't like is the fact that you don't know how much synthetic you are getting. Blends only require 5-10 percent synthetic to qualify as a blend. If cost savings is a concern you might want to try and making your own.

By Brian Jackson (Nerover) on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 11:16 am: Edit

Good points...just change your oil and run what your motor enjoys. If it taps, change it to another weight. Spend the money for synthetics if it gives you piece of mind...I personally am very happy to run my 20/50. Kyle, as an engine-knowing person, what oil does WATROAD get? What's your take on the whole thing.

Brian