What Oil do you use?

[944Turbo]

Time for a new subject, this one always seems to start some debate!
What oil do you use?
I use Mobil one motorsport 15/50W in my Turbo and I am very happy with it - always good oil pressure and it seems to stay in longer than other oils about 1500 miles per litre when driven hard. I get it from teeside autotech in 4x4 litre amounts for around £110 delivered incl vat. (www.teessideautotech.co.uk)
Tony

 

[Diver944]

Hi Tony,

Yes this is always a good one and I' ve been trying to think how best to do a poll on oil consumption so that people can work out if there' s has a potential problem or not.

The trouble is we have three very different types of engine, the 8 valvers, the Turbos, and the 16 valvers which all have very different oil consumption. Do people agree I should start three seperate polls, beaing in mine there are only a few of us on here so far and the results will be a little meaningless for some time?

BTW I use Castrol Magnatec for advanced engines 10w40 on both the S2 and the Turbo. The S2 uses no oil between 6,000 mile changes, the Turbo uses a litre every 2,000 miles (apart from track days when its glug glug glug)

 

[944Turbo]

Hi Paul,
My previous Lux and my current turbo consumed similar amounts of oil, so it could just be 8v and 16v you need - I guess the only way to find out for sure though is a poll []
Trouble is there are lots of other variables, like mileage, oil change frequency, driving style so it could be fairly meaningless anyway, the handbook does give a rough guide on oil consumption " up to 1.5litres per 1000km" I would say that is generous so if it' s worse than that you have a problem.
Just spotted something in my hanbook (90 turbo) for temps down to -10degreesC to plus 40 SAE 20w 40 or 50 is reccomended when temp is lower-15 to +35 SAE 10W- 40 oil which would seem to confirm what many of us thought, standard mobil1 is too thin unless it' s very cold.
Tony

 

[wedgepilot]

I' m slightly surprised that 20w40 or 20w50 is recommended for what is, after all, a fairly modern engine. My old TR7 with it' s engine design dating from the late 60' s runs 20w50!

As a 944 newbie, I' d be interested to hear other people' s opinions on this. What oil pressure do people get on different oils?

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: wedgepilot

I' m slightly surprised that 20w40 or 20w50 is recommended for what is, after all, a fairly modern engine.

I haven' t got my handbook with me at the moment but I' m fairly sure those grades quoted by Tony are only for when it is very cold. For ' normal' [8|] UK temperatures 10W40 is the recommended multigrade for winter and summer.

Our engines aren' t that modern either, the first 944' s appeared in ' 82 and they do have their roots in half a 928 block which was designed back in the 70' s

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: wedgepilot

What oil pressure do people get on different oils?

Once warmed up my pressure reads 3 bar at idle and just under 5 bar at speed. When very very hot on track I have seen it come down to nearly 3 bar. This is with the Magnatec 10w40

 

[944Turbo]

Mine (mobil 1) sits at 5 drops to just over 4 when hot at tickover, I have found with other cars when using mobil1 the oil pressure stays higher. Originally I was convinced that Mobil 1 was the best running tuned Minis where the oil has to work extra hard as it is common for the engine and gearbox, they lasted a lot longer on
Mobil 1.

Tony

 

[944Turbo]

here is the table (90 turbo)

 

[Guest]

Shell Helix. 15w-40,

 

[Guest]

Castrol RS 10w-60.

No noticable consumption in 1000 miles.

Oil pressure reads 4.8 when driving. Just had every seal and gasket (apart from head gasket) replaced and new oil pressure sender.

 

[bert gear]

Swepco 15 40w

 

[John Sims]

I' ve been using Castrol RS 10W-60. A fully synthetic oil and thus can' t be beaten.

It has occured to me, following a recent article somewhere, that this may be a bit heavy. Apparently, the 944 engine has a habit of pumping oil up to the head faster than it can return, this was something tuned Ford Pinto engines suffered from. As a consequence, a damn good thrashing could end up with all your oil at the top of the engine and next to nothing in the sump. Not good!

I don' t want to go to mobil 0W-40 as this finds every possible escape route - almost as if you filled the engine with parafine. I like the thought of the lighter oil when cold as this must help during initial lubrication and was wondering if anyone knows of a 10w-50 fully synthetic oil.

 

[hawkhead]

10w-50 fully synthetic

Silkolene

David

 

[bert gear]

Swepco do a very good 15-40 non synthetic which performs very well

 

[944Turbo]

I read the article in 911andPW

It has occured to me, following a recent article somewhere, that this may be a bit heavy. Apparently, the 944 engine has a habit of pumping oil up to the head faster than it can return, this was something tuned Ford Pinto engines suffered from. As a consequence, a damn good thrashing could end up with all your oil at the top of the engine and next to nothing in the sump. Not good!

I would have thought it unlikely the head could contain enough oil to cause starvation problems elswhere I forget exactly how much the 944 holds but isn' t it around 6.5 litres. I have never noticed the pressure dropping on trackdays when the engine its working hardest (10-12 mpg) and cornering forces are high sloshing the remaining oil around.
But then I am not an expert so could well be wrong!

Tony

 

[Robbiemeister]

Nice one Bert!

 

[wedgepilot]

I' m a bit late with this one, but I just got my oil pressure sender fixed, so I can (finally) report 3 bar at idle when hot, 4.5 bar the rest of the time. I' m using Shell 10w40 semi-synth.

 

[Guest]

How do I change the camshaft bearings in a 944 1986.

laters neo4ms.

Edited John Sims - Heading changed back to match relative to thread.

 

[944Turbo]

ORIGINAL: neo4ms

How do I change the camshaft bearings in a 944 1986.

laters neo4ms.

How do I change the camshaft bearings in a 944 1986.

laters neo4ms.

I think that may be beyond most of our ability on here. I have never heard of anyone else having them changed why do you think they need doing?

Tony


Edited John Sims - Heading returned to main thread

 

[oilman]

Oil is a personal choice and people tend to stay loyal to a brand or a product if it works for them.

There are many debates on car forums about the right oil and it's always difficult to assess the quality
of an oil without the technical data which is unfortunately rarely available to the general public.

One thing is for sure, you always get what you pay for. Good quality oils with high grade additives and
more importantly good VI Improvers are expensive to blend and therefore it will be no surprise that
cutting corners is an often used commercial method of bringing a "cheap" oil to the market.

There are many different types of synthetic oils on the market today from the basic HC (hyrocracked)
/MC (molecularly converted mineral oil) through to PAO's (Poly Alpha Olefins) and of course esters which
have been used in the aviation sector for years because of their durability and higher levels of protection.

It's a minefield and the choices are infinate but don't be fooled by some of the pretty cans on the shelves
which say "synthetic" but in reality contain nothing more that a small percentage of synthetic.

If you'd like to look at some good technical data on a range of oils, there are numerous technical data
sheets here http://www.opieoils.co.uk/lubricants.htm

I Have been watching this forums oil debates for some time now and it makes for interesting reading.

Cheers
Simon


Edited John Sims - Heading changed back relative to main thread.

Edited by Paul - to make the clicky link work.