The 'E' Type Forum

Hi , can you please advise what the best engine oil to use in my series 3 V12. I live in Uk and occasionally drive in the cold . Thankyou

You will find a lot of posts on here with different views on oils.
But for me with my V12 it has to be Valvoline VR1 Mineral Racing Oil 20W-50
Mike

Hi, as SESH says, there's many different opinions on oils.
I once took my used oil and filter to a manufacturers labs for analysis and they told me as an aside, to use an oil with 1000pm-1500ppm ZDDP in it to combat long-term metal-to-metal contact. Oils to 'modern' spec may be of superb quality, but they won't contain the ZDDP as it attacks catalytic converters (a tiny amount of oil gets burned in engines in the best of health and of course it gets worse with the miles). Advances in metallurgy and manufacturing tolerances have negated the need for ZDDP, they said.
After that visit, I Googled this subject and found lots of useful info e.g. from Duckhams "ZDDP - what's it all about?" Morris, Valvoline, Millers and many others will have info and/or state the level of ZDDP in their oils, 1000-1500ppm seems to be the optimum level by consensus.
Valvoline VR1 is a quality brand and contains 1300ppm of ZDDP, so should be an excellent choice. Personally I'm using Westway 20/50 mineral, as it comes in 20ltr drums at a decent price and contains 1500ppm ZDDP. It was in my 4.2 when I took it to Spain over 2500 miles in sometimes 35c temps, it seemed happy enough (not me so much!) and consumption stayed at my normal 350-400 miles per litre. That's no proof that it's the best oil of course, but I've no reason either to stop using it.
Hope that helps, cheers

Alun
4.2

Doh that was 350-400 miles per pint, not litres. In 2500 miles, I topped up with just over 4 litres or 7 pints.

Dear All,
After various searching i went for an oil with a high tensile strength and lots of zinc, Amsoil Z-Rod 20-50W.
Regards
Paul Cundy