Engine Oil

D

DAV8

Member
Hi All,
The last time I did an oil change in my 1971 3500 Auto I used "Millers Classic 20W50" (product code 5119) this I found to be excellent, I now find that this oil is no longer available, (my local car spares tell me that the replacement is Millers Classic 20W/50 Trident oil) I e-mailed Millers for advice, they tell me the new name for the 20W50 is "Classic Performance 20W50 (this info was given to me by Mike Fenton at Millers) has anybody used either of these oils or is there something better on the market ?
DAV8
Regards Dave
 
Hi Dave,

Have a squizz through the post at the very top of this thread. There is a wide range of information available there covering suitable engine oils.

Ron.
 
Hi Dave,

I too need to do an oil change on my V8 after using Halfords Classic. I'm following this thread, hopefully this should help as I think sone if the guys on here are using Millers oil. It's probably what I'm going to use.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5488
 
Hi Mike,

Just to update you with oil for the V8, I contacted "Castrol oils" through their website and I spoke to a chap called Martin Powel, he was very helpful and knowledgeable about the P6B, they have all the original oil as used on the V8, (i.e. the zddp etc) in his words "when they came off the production line", so, I gave him a bell on 01954 231668 and bought all I needed direct from them, the engine oil is now called "classic XL 20/W50", this comes in 1 gallon tins so you need to buy a litre tin as well, I also bought some auto gearbox fluid to bring the total cost just beyond £45 to get the free delivery. Hope this helps
Best Regards DAV8

Dave
 
Hi DAv8

Regrettably, it's only Castrol that think their XL 20/50 is suitable for the Rover V8. According to their spec sheet, it doesn't have nearly enough ZDDP in it to look after the cam in the V8. Castrol do make a suitable oil, but it is a scrambler motorcycle oil and not easy to get hold of.

Sorry!

The choice at the moment in terms of oils you can actually get hold of in the UK seems to be limited to the two Morris oils - the 15/50 and the 20/50 along with the Millers.

And as Rich says - very important not to use a Fram or other motor-factor freindly filter, but to use the K&N one (a much finer filter and will get out much more of the damaging very small particles in the oil down to 10 microns - millionth of an inch).

Chris
 
DaveHerns said:
How did we cope back in the 70's ? Did oil have ZDDP etc in it then ?
Click to expand...

Yes. IIRC it was removed with the intro of catalytic converters because of the damage caused to those by the additives, and of course, oil companies think that everyone has new cars so there was no further need for them....
 
The amount of zinc, phosphoros and other elements in engine oil will vary depending both upon the grade and the country in which you live.

Ron.
 
Hi Chris,
I am interested in your comment about the castrol oil, perhaps a tin of "Wynns" addative would do the trick, what do you think, as regards the oil filter I have obtained a K & N filter
Regards
Dave
 
pat180269 wrote,...
I'd like to see some evidence that putting castrol oil and fram oil filters in a v8 damages the engine.
Click to expand...

Hi Pat,

Any engine that is of the design where there is direct contact between the camshaft and the lifters with actuation of the valves via pushrods requires a certain amount of zinc and phosporous within the oil. Together along with other components a compound called ZDDP is formed, and its purpose is to minimise wear due to scuffing.

My Rover used Castrol GTX and then GTX2 in the engine from 1978 till 1988. With just short of 70,000 Miles covered and with oil and filter changes every 2 to 2500 Miles, the engine was starting to knock after oil changes. I changed to Pennzoil GT Performance (later GT Street Machine) which I continued to use until 2007 when 203,000 Miles was reached. The knocking after oil changes never occured again. That is just my experience with Castrol engine oil, others may be different.

I wouldn't say that Fram oil filters result in damage to the V8, rather they meet the minimum standard of oil filtration. There are filters available such as those by K & N which have a much better level of filtration, removing particles that the Fram and other filters will leave within the engine. The filters that were used in my Rover from 1978 till 2007 ranged from Unipart, JRA (an OEM filter) and Pennzoil. The latter from what I later read what essentially a rebadged Fram.

No oil and filter will keep an engine wear free forever, it is just that some oils and filters will keep the engine running better with less wear for much longer.

Ron.
 
Up until now I have been using Halfords Classic 20W50. However, I think I have been swayed by other forum members and shall use Millers 20W50 at next change.

I found these official Halfords responses on their website
http://answers.halfords.com/answers/4028/product/537977/questions.htm?sort=recentq
The Zinc content of Halfords Classic Oil 20W50 is in the region of 0.07%
Click to expand...
Halfords Classic Oil 20W/50 will contain antiwear additives like ZDDP in small quantities. We are unable to disclose exact proportions as this is proprietary information.
Click to expand...

For my last few oil changes I have used filters from the P6ROC. These are marked as "TECNOCAR R406". Can anyone confirm that these are of sufficient quality :?:
 
JVY said:
For my last few oil changes I have used filters from the P6ROC. These are marked as "TECNOCAR R406". Can anyone confirm that these are of sufficient quality :?:
Click to expand...

Hi, I won't comment on the quality because it's a minefield. Tecnocar is owned by Sogefi which happen
to own Fram among others. But curiously cross referenced it, keeps coming back as a 3/4" thread.

Colin
 
The K&N oil filter is the ONLY commercially available filter that claims any performance improvement over the "norm". W'e're not commenting about quality here - quality is about how closely the product conforms to what it's meant to do and about how well it lasts - we're discussing performance, which is completely different.

So, sorry, the P6ROC oil filter is definitely of inferior performance, I have no information as to its quality.

Chris
 
chrisyork said:
Hi DAv8

Regrettably, it's only Castrol that think their XL 20/50 is suitable for the Rover V8. According to their spec sheet, it doesn't have nearly enough ZDDP in it to look after the cam in the V8. Castrol do make a suitable oil, but it is a scrambler motorcycle oil and not easy to get hold of.

Sorry!

The choice at the moment in terms of oils you can actually get hold of in the UK seems to be limited to the two Morris oils - the 15/50 and the 20/50 along with the Millers.

And as Rich says - very important not to use a Fram or other motor-factor freindly filter, but to use the K&N one (a much finer filter and will get out much more of the damaging very small particles in the oil down to 10 microns - millionth of an inch).

Chris
Click to expand...

Oh dear - I use it.

Their data says it contains 0.8% Zinc, is that not enough?

chrisyork said:
RPI seem to as well according to their website.
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll find Hollie - their engine builder - will use it.

Chris
Click to expand...

I did speak to Hollie a while back, and her always uses Valvoline 20-50.

Richard
 
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