Hi,

I have a turbo petrol car, modified from 200 to 250bhp. I have been
recommended to change the oil every 3000 miles using synthetic, or whenever
the oil goes black. My handbook quotes 10k miles for non-synth or 20k for
fully synth.

What is correct? How efficient is synthetic oil when it is black? 3000 miles
sounds very extreme!

Cheers,

Dave

In article <d1t_b.9383$h44.1076640 (AT) stones (DOT) force9.net>,
dave (AT) no (DOT) spam.please spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...
What is the car?
Someone on here may have owned one, and can give you sage advice about
it.

Saab advice for dino oil is change every 3k with a filter change every
second oil change.


For Synthetics on more modern Saabs it varies between 5-10k.
As I've switched the 900 over to full synthetic I tend to still change
it every 3k but use pretty much the cheapest 5w40 I can lay my hands on.
Usually use Halfords 5w40, but the last few changes have been for
Chevron 5w40 bought cheap at £10 for 4 litres. As the change interval is
so short it doesn't really matter too much on an engine with 130k on it,
and half of that life has been on full or semi synth, especially as I
always give it 30 seconds idle down after I have been running slowly at
the end of a journey, or 2 minutes idle down directly after a fast run..
--
Carl Robson
(The poster formerly known as Skodapilot)
http://www.bouncing-czechs.com

"Dave" <dave (AT) no (DOT) spam.please> wrote

Every 3K here, normaly run on Royal Purple Fully Synth, which is a little
pricey.

3000 miles engine, 5000 miles gearbox.

Your call mate but it won't be doing it anygood running for 10 - 20K on the
same oil. Every 5K at a push I'd say if its driven hard.

Matt

MeatballTurbo <carl.robson (AT) bouncing-czechs (DOT) com> wrote:

I'd be vary wary of running a car of that kind of age / mileage on a
thin fully synthetic oil. I tried running the old 33 16v on
semi-synthetic Selenia (very, very, expensive and incredibly 'thin'),
but found it just pissed past the rings and made it smoke like a
bastard.

Went back to, ISTR, 10w40 Castrol after that.
--
Steve H 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
http://www.italiancar.co.uk Honda VFR800 - MZ ETZ300
VW Golf Cabrio - Alfa 75TS - Nissan Primera(I can't explain that either)
BoTAFOT #87 - BoTAFOF #18 - MRO # - UKRMSBC #7 - Apostle #2 - YTC #

"SteveH" <steve (AT) italiancar (DOT) co.uk> wrote


Then it was shagged!
The oil is not the problem.

What's the car? 3000 miles is quite reasonable for an oil change, it's not to
do with the oil "wearing out" so much as the oil "carrying away contaminants"
which may be being introduced due to the engine, or the modifications.


Apparently on date Mon, 23 Feb 2004 20:06:16 -0000, "Dave"
<dave (AT) no (DOT) spam.please> said:

Burgerman <burgerman (AT) ntlworld (DOT) com> wrote:

Not at all, it's a pretty common problem with older engines (bear in
mind the 33 engine went back to the early 70s before these ultra 'thin'
oils were available) - it had also done 80k miles (not a lot, but
enough) - which meant that there was a little wear to contend with, too.

And, not surprisingly, going back to a more conventional oil sorted my
problem.

Alfas tend to burn oil anyway - so it's not unknown for Selinia to
produce the above problem.
--
Steve H 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
http://www.italiancar.co.uk Honda VFR800 - MZ ETZ300
VW Golf Cabrio - Alfa 75TS - Nissan Primera(I can't explain that either)
BoTAFOT #87 - BoTAFOF #18 - MRO # - UKRMSBC #7 - Apostle #2 - YTC #

"SteveH" <steve (AT) italiancar (DOT) co.uk> wrote

Synthetics are available in all kinds of grades, so thin means little.

A 5/70 synthetic oil for ex, is actually more even or consistent than a
"20/50" oil...
Both will be around the same at "normal" temps, but at low temps (cold
winter frosty starts) the synthetic is thinner than the old style oil. Both
are still way TOO thick!

At say 120 degrees, the "thicker" 20/50 is now way THINNER! than the
synthetic is....

So it depends on what you choose and why.


--

www.optimabattery.co.uk
www.burgerman.info
www.fatnfast.com/robot
www.nitrous.info

"**-**" <m.faulks (AT) btinternet (DOT) com> wrote

Is that how long they last or how often you change the oil ?

Even my Ka gets oil changes every 5k. 10 and 20k is just trying to sell the
cars to fleet buyers looking for low servicing costs IMO.

Dave wrote:
No need for fully synthetic - just use a good quality branded semi-synth, to
the spec it says in the handbook - Magnatec is pretty good 10/40 for
example.

Change it twice as often as the schedule says - so every 5,000 miles in your
case - should cost <£30 including filter at your local garage (no point in
doing it yourself - it takes time, you get dirty, and you save £0)