Oils AINT Oils

Mi16 Man

Mi16 Man

Active member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Jun 26, 2001
Messages
715
Location
Canberra, ACT
Finally, the hard work I do each day pays off and trying to make conversation with guests has it's merits. At the Hotel at the moment we have an oil company from America on an incentive trip. I I got talking to one of them today about their business and it turns out he is an oil consultant who gets contracted out to various race/fleet/mechanic companies. It is a smaller company (not a corporate giant) that are lubricants only, not selling petrol at the bowser.
(Once they leave the Hotel, I can tell you the name!!!)

One of his contracts is with 5 CART teams. I got talking to him about the benefits of mineral oils vs synthetic blends (mineral+synth) vs full synthetics. He stated that you will never earn your money back on a full synthetic in terms of engine wear saving properties.

Also, in the CART qualifiying periods, they ALL use full mineral oils as it is better lubricating than the full synthetic oils. They can go flat out using these oils and have less wear in this time period. It is only in endurance races (Indy 500 etc.) that they switch to full synth as it takes longer for the oil to break down. Sure, we aren't revving the PSA/Renault engines @ 12000rpm all the time but he did say the fulls are not the better lubricants.

I told him that the market here is quite flooded with varying brands and asked him what would be the best. He claims for a normal passenger car (what classifies normal?!? Lets say Camry!) that a blend is the best. He advised me that I was 'throwing my money away' by replacing my MOBIL 1 every 5000kms. He said it is a great oil but I can expect at least 10K kms between each change. That will save me $45 in between then!

He did get into the grade/weight side of it too but did not get too deep. An example he used was a "10W30" oil and that 0 degrees F is the where the '10' viscosity is tested and that 100 deg C is where the '30' viscosity is tested.

The only reason oil companies were forced to introduce full synthtic was due to car manufacturers wanting to increase the gaps between servicing. Full synthetic has more resistance to breaking down than mineral therefore it can be changed less often.

He did not mention specific brands in terms of the best as I am sure it would be in his best interest but I told him their lubricants are not on the market here.......please!!! But no luck.
If I catch up with him again, I will pick his brains.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

Cheers
Stu G tongue
 
So what your saying is that I am fine sticking with my Lupi extra virgin olive oil? wink

<small>[ 15 April 2002, 08:44 PM: Message edited by: Phasis ]</small>
 
Phasis,

I that the mineral or full synth Lupi??? I prefer the "Homebrand" from Woolies! approve
 
i can't resist.... being french cars we have to use french salad dressing! :D
 
On a similar note, has anyone heard of or used an oil additive called Bitron?

A friend of mine hooked into it and to me it looked like a pyrimid scheme.
 
Mi16 Man:
Phasis,

I that the mineral or full synth Lupi??? I prefer the "Homebrand" from Woolies! approve
Click to expand...
Lupi is on special this week at Safeway / Woolies - $17 for 4 litres, Mi16

I'd be worried about body rust though, using an Italian oil. :D

Cheers

Rod
 
ROFL @ everyone! :)

Phasis - you've gone "Lupi!"

:)
 
Many years ago a neighbour of mine was selling additives under the 'Pro-Ma' brand. (I think it was a multi-level marketing type business, but it seemed the products were good.)

Anyway, he gave me a demo of an oil additive which was pretty convincing. So I bought it and used it. At the time I was a courier driver in Sydney (you can imagine the conditions) and driving a 1988 Mitsubishi Triton ute.

The enging had by that stage become a little 'ticky', and for the sake of ten bucks I gave his stuff a go. To cut a long story short, I think the bottle lasted about 2 years (and that was with changing the oil every six weeks) and my ticking engine purred quietly ever after, until I sold it in 1996 with 380,000km on the clock.

But I guess my question is: has anyone else used these type of additives, and do they *really* help? :confused:
 
Well guys, I just bought 4litres of homebrand canola oil from Safeway for my ID19. Yes, I do intend using it.

Wonder who'll guess what I'm using it for 1st :D

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Surprising, really. You and your wife look like such a wholesome couple evil . Must be all that country air... tongue tongue tongue
 
HAHA...Skippy you're a sick-o.

DoubleChevron, I was thinking you may be dousing yourself in the oil, rolling in chocolate syrup and shreaded coconut, then feading yourself to the lesbians...or maybe thats my fansasy. blush
 
Yeehaa, sounds liken weez got owselfz a greazed pig chasin compeetishun goin on ya'll

soooooooooowwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

(Boy, ge me thu banjo ana thu shotgun)
 
Skippy,

About the same time as your neighbour was selling you Pro-ma a guy who was doing the service on my cars at that time was also promoting its virtues.
His greatest claim to fame was to ad it to the car during a basic service & the first you knew about it was when it appeared on the bill. I had a CX with a few miles on the clock and shortly after the first service it started using oil. I was told to "persevere" with it as it was washing the carbon out from behind the rings etc and it would come good with time as this stuff replaced it with a protective coating. (His tooth fairy stories were good too :rolleyes:
It didn't get any better so I bought another CX, as being in a rural area we can't afford to be car-less whist vehicles are refurbished. When I first discovered I had this stuff in the oil, he also suggested that I use it in my large ride-on as the scientific tests had shown that engines under load performed & lasted much better when fed on the stuff. Within about three hours of service, the engine failed and was taken to the service agent for a warranty claim which was rejected due to traces of oil additive found in the motor which according to Briggs & Stratton stuffed the motor. I had changed the oil before taking it in to them as I had my suspicions.
I then discovered that my new CX had all of a sudden started drinking oil and getting blow back and subsequently on checking my previous invoice found this crap had been put in without my authority. In my mind 3 engines, one almost new had failed within a short space of time of having this stuff in them, so I reckon if you had a good run with it you were very, very lucky.
Personally, I wouldn't use them for any price; it's interesting to note that my Citroen all have it stated in the hand books to "not use engine oil additives under any circumstances" eek! That's got to tell you something.

Alan S
 
Thanks, Alan. :D Like I said, it was many years ago and I never had anyone else to compare notes with. Given your experience I will avoid any form of oil additive whatsoever. disappro In essence, while it might be nice to only have to change the oil every 10k instead of 5k, I guess there really is no substitute for good, clean oil in there on a regular basis.

If that stuff truly is destructive, though, that Triton 2.6 motor must be about the toughest thing out there...Pity about the vehicle it was in, but hey, you can't have everything. :)
 
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