Best oils - specific brands and types please.

Kes · Post by **Kes** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:50 am

I wonder if I could get some views as to the best oil to use for my '69 OTS. Can anyone suggest actual brands and types for engine, gearbox and back axle. When I ask in Halfords or local garages, they just try to sell me whatever they happen to have in stock, or just give me general information about "not using synthetic" or "any old 15/40" or whatever.
What I could do with is informed information on precise stuff I can order and use.
Grateful,
K

SESH · Post by **SESH** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:53 pm

When I asked the same question of one of the countries large jaguar classic restorers they told me to use Valvoline VR1 20W50 in the engine.

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:38 pm

In fact, what you have been told is accurate as far as the engine is concerned. In all my old cars I use a Ford Spec 15w/40 which I buy in 25 litre drums . A 20/50 would perhaps be better in terms of miles per pint, but is of course heavier for winter starts and there is much less choice these days . In the gearbox you need straight 30 grade if it's a Moss Box , or a 75W Hypoid grade, if it's a 4.2 , and I use Morris Oils for that and for the back axle I use a similar oil but ensuring it has LSD additive . I think morris also do a 20/50 which is highly spoken of

robsimons · Post by **robsimons** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:08 pm

HI Iam new here to this forum, in the USA... I have a 69 4.2l E, and have used 20/40 valvoline n my engine. Haven't had to add to gearbox and rear end yet.

I have a question on oils, what abut brake fluid? My car was in the shop for a long time, and when I got it back the 'gentleman' told me he had added Dot3 to my brakes to 'top it off' and get a pedal. Do I have to flush the system? I was using dot3/dot4 that I had found. I now have 2 pints of Dot4, should I empty the bottles in the car and just refill with Dot4? or What is suggested?

soon please!!!!

Rob (newbie)

Post by **Heuer** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:59 pm

DOT3 and DOT4 are both glycol based so are interchangeable. Basically DOT4 has superior performance (higher boiling point) and has all but replaced DOT3. Both are hygroscopic so if your guy used some (already opened) DOT3 it could be off. Personally I would renew the entire system with two fresh bottles of DOT4 because a) you know their history and b) a complete refill should be done every two years anyway. Don't worry about "flushing" the system, just bleed it and refill the bottles until the changeover is complete.

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 7:27 pm

If you can get it, Dot 3 is better for these cars than Dot4, although as David ( Heuer) says, either are useable in an E type. The reason for preference of Dot 3 is that it is closer in lubricating quality to the old Girling Crimson etc and equivalents. There is a school of thought which thinks that the use of Dot4 is one of the reasons for the epidemic of sticking seals, particularly in servos rebuilt using Dot 4 as the assembly lubricant .

robsimons · Post by **robsimons** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 12:10 am

Thank you, I have been wondering the differences for years. No one till you bothered to tell me. I got good information on my brake lights also on this forum... didn't know it was a pressure switch... will be soon a normally closed pushbutton on the brake pedal.

Thank you again!!!

blownmiata91 · Post by **blownmiata91** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 5:40 pm

Hello. I'm not sure what is available in the UK, but here in Canada (USA as well), we can buy DOT Type Ford, which was developed for Ford trucks, which had problems with boiling brake fluid. You can buy at a Ford dealer (550 degrees boiling point), or you can get Prestone DOT 3 Ford type just about anywhere (boiling point used to be 550, but has been changed to 500 for some reason) still better than most DOT3 and DOT4 available. I have used this for years in my autocross Miata

cheers
Doug

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:22 pm

That's a lovely looking FHC , Doug . They always look wonderful in dark blue ( although I did choose Opalescent Silver Blue for my FHC rebuild!)

Kes · Post by **Kes** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:58 pm

Glad we're sorted on the brake fluid front.
So, any comments on specific oils?

ahrbruz · Post by **ahrbruz** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:22 pm

I have been using Castrol GTX 20-50W for over three decades.

Cheers,

Bruce

aussieseries2dhc · Post by **aussieseries2dhc** » Sat Feb 02, 2013 8:08 am

I am about to install a new Rob Beere Racing 6 cylinder 5.16 litre stroked engine into my series 2 dhc - 356 bhp and 412 ft-lbs

I will be running Amsoil SAE 20W-50 PREMIUM PROTECTION SYN MOTOR OIL. A touch expensive, but good reports based on other users testimonials.
john

Woolfi · Post by **Woolfi** » Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:28 pm

" . . . but good reports based on other users testimonials."
I am allways wonderimg how a person without any education, special knowledge and test equipment can say something good or bad about oil-quality, except "my motor is still running well.
About quality of an oil:
My cousin drove a Ferrarri (330) from mid of sixties and told me, that he is allways using cheap + simple 15W40 or 20W50 from the supermarket in these superexpensive motors. No high-grad blah-blah-blah. Nothing special like Mobil 1 or Castrol 10W60. He was driving this car hard on german highways with more than 150 mph and in 20 years he never had problems with the motor.
Regards Wolfgang Gatza

JimmyS · Post by **JimmyS** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:21 am

I once had a wise old colleague whom had spent the second world war years building Merlin aero engines at the Rolls Royce plant in Hillington Glasgow.
If there was one subject guaranteed to wind him up, it was changing engine oil. He maintained that we were all brainwashed by oil companies into seeing this as a necessity and point blank refused to do it to his own cars after they had had their first service. This, he explained, would clean out any particles of swarf etc. and that was all that needed for the lifetime of the engine thereafter! I of course, being brainwashed, would laugh in his face at such a notion, citing the filthy state of old engine oil and improved oil pressure from the fresh stuff as ample evidence of the benefits of changing it.
He countered this by saying that RR had carried out extensive testing during the war, given that their engines and oil were such a valuable resource, and they had concluded that it was unnecessary to change oil at regular intervals. In fairness to him, he practised what he preached and ran his cars to six figure mileages in no time, commuting round trips in excess of 100 miles a day to our place of work from rural Argyllshire.
I don't know what the anticipated lifespan of a WW2 Merlin engine was, but I imagined it was considerably fewer hours than my car's. I therefore carried on changing oil at the recommended service intervals, I just no longer mentioned it to him.

Woolfi · Post by **Woolfi** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:01 am

My cousin has studied Dipl. Ing. Maschinenbau (machine construction) at TH Munich. After he has done his exame, they offered him to become an engineer at a race company of Formula 1. He rufesed this offer, because he wanted to earn more money than they offered to him.
He explained me, that all the mineral oils have the same basic oils, also the cheap oils from the supermarket. The expensive other parts of a high grade oil, are necessary for a longer use of the oil. His Ferrari took up to 4 L of oil for 1000 miles. Therefore the motor has allways fresh oil inside. Therefore it would not have been necessary to change the oil every 3500 miles.
Regards Wolfgang Gatza

Malc · Post by **Malc** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 7:46 pm

Hi all

I know this post is a bit old but it wandered off the subject re gearbox oil! I'm just about to change mine and there seems to be three main choices : EP 80W/90, EP 75W/80 & EP 75W/90.

Any of them better than the others, or does it really make any difference?

Thanks.

_________________
Malc

Series 1 2+2, 1968 Blue exterior, grey interior

Post by **Heuer** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 12:04 am

Check out the Red Line product range. I have their MTL in my Moss box and it is superb. The 75W90 would be applicable to the all synchro box.

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Best oils - specific brands and types please.

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