Clearing up all the oil info....

Change oil and filter, then drive 500 miles, change again. That should take care of things.

Don't forget to check the banjo bolt and see if it has a filter and take care of it. Either make sure it's clean or remove it.

Change oil and filter, then drive 500 miles, change again. That should take care of things.

 

Don't forget to check the banjo bolt and see if it has a filter and take care of it. Either make sure it's clean or remove it.

So are you saying DO the engine flush, then follow the procedure above? Sorry, just being paranoid.

And is this thread a good reference for the banjo bolt you're referring to? http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/2-5gt-turbo-oil-supply-banjo-bolt-filter-removal-61689.html

No need for the flush unless you suspect that it's full of tar, but you will see that when you drain the oil first time. Otherwise the procedure I stated above would take care of things pretty well.

And yes - that's the banjo bolt filter procedure I was referring to. The state of that filter would definitely tell you the actual state of the engine and if you need to consider a flush. If it's clean you are all OK. If it's missing then someone else already have done the "fix" and no need to worry about oil starved turbo.

Seems reasonable.

Check the color and condition of all the spark plugs. If they are all alike then you have a good start (I know it sucks to access them, but that's a small price to pay compared to the alternatives like burnt valves and ringland failures). If one is off from the others you may want to check all the injectors. Do a compression test at the same time unless the dealer provided one when you bought the car. The manifold donut gaskets are also known to leak sometimes causing bad idle when the engine is cold - annoying but relatively harmless.

LOL, talk about information overload. Not sure it "cleared it up" for me. I'll probably try the Rotella T6, since that seems to have a positive consensus

Yeah, think the thread title needs an update. Clearing up all the oil info sounds like it should be one post and done...24 pages later.

Yeah, think the thread title needs an update. Clearing up all the oil info sounds like it should be one post and done...24 pages later.

I see your new here, 49 post...you'll learn.

Correctly built it doesn't matter which oil you use as long as it conforms to the spec the engine requires.

But if I built a motor I would run the first set of oil just a few hundred miles, up to a 1000 and then change - essentially a break-in fluid. And just use a cheap oil as a break-in fluid. Then I would go synthetic.

Since I've heard from several sources to avoid full synthetic oils in a built motor, I went a different route than my usual castrol 5w-30 oil change and jumped on 4 quarts of Rotella Triple T 15w-40 and a half quart of Lucas. Lets see how this one works out

According to my machine shop its because of the Zinc. I was told that you can run the synthetic oil if you add a Zinc additive to it. Also that its not necessary because of the pistons or bearings, but because of the high lift cams and heavy duty springs, it will wear them down. That being said, I have ran the 15w-40 in a ton of built motors and always had good luck with it, but I don't drive any of those motors in the winter anyway.

I once built a SR20DET for a guy, spent around 15K on it. He had Supertech springs, and HKS high lift cams, the springs are the stiffest you can buy on the market for the SR. Machine shop warned me to tell him to make sure you use Zinc additive or regular oil. When we finished the motor we used the Rotella 15-40 for brake in, changed it 3 times in the first 1000 miles. He was on his way to have it tuned and stopped by my house just to check everything over, motor looks perfect, checked all the cam/shim clearances, compression, leak down, everything was perfect. He went to the shop and changed the oil before they put it on the dyno, 3rd pull in motor started making weird sounds. Pulled valve cover and every rocker arm and cam lobe was completely shredded down to nothing. He called me and I came to the shop to look at it and could not believe what I saw. Called my machinist he came over, looked at it and in 5 seconds says " I bet he changed the oil to synthetic with no Zinc additive before he put it on the dyno didn't he"

According to my machine shop its because of the Zinc. I was told that you can run the synthetic oil if you add a Zinc additive to it. Also that its not necessary because of the pistons or bearings, but because of the high lift cams and heavy duty springs, it will wear them down. That being said, I have ran the 15w-40 in a ton of built motors and always had good luck with it, but I don't drive any of those motors in the winter anyway.

If you have a modified engine it makes sense to have thicker oil with some extra additives as long as it don't see winter temperatures.

The worst problem with too thick oil during winter is that it will just make the engine harder to crank, and if it's too thick during winter temps the oil pump may disagree with you.

I haven't posted in this thread for a long time, but there is some bad information coming out and I will use my 20 years of selling lubricants to straighten some things out.

There is some difference in performance between mineral oil and synthetics. Understand that a synthetic is nothing more than a man-made version of mineral oil. The main difference is the synthetic molecules are more uniform in size than a standard mineral oil that is refined from crude oil. That makes the base oil a little slicker and more resistant to oxidation. There are different base oils the most common is PAO, there are others that have a slightly different ph due to the chemicals used to make them. The most common of those is ester.

Now for the ASE ratings: any oil that has a given a ASE rating has exactly the same additives. What has changed over the years is the reduction of certain load bearing additives like zinc and boron. This is due to most modern new engines having tighter tolerances and have more sliding parts than impact parts. Also, the EPA determines that boron might cause cancer after use in motor oil. They cannot take those additives out of diesel oils due to the pounding the crank takes.

There are motor oils sold for old school engines that use the old school additives. However, the engines in these cars is a modern style and modern oils should be fine. Breaking in a "built" motor is critical. The cams in particular. Synthetic oil could not make cams go flat, not possible. Only a few things could: improper heat treatment of the cam lobes, over tightening of rocker arms, loss of oil pressure are the most common. Super heavy valve springs create very high loads on the rockers and cam lobes, a good quality racing oil will protect those things. Use a cheap oil on a $15k motor is going to cause problems.

There is an old saying oil is cheap, iron is expensive. Don't use a synthetic to break in a new build, but don't use the cheapest stuff. I would run a Dino diesel oil and change it early and often.

What people don't understand about multi- viscosity oils is that it's done with additives, and the top number is reached around 140 degrees. High viscosity oils do not guarantee protection, just high oil pressure readings. Most modern engines are clearanced for lighter oil viscosity of 20 or 30w. Heavier oils produce higher pressure readings but not necessarily more metal on metal protection. Again that is done with additives and the best oils are racing oils. They don't meet OE warranty requirements and if you run them and try to make a warranty claim, you may not succeed because they will test the oil and metal before paying for a major engine warranty claim.

Very few synthetic oils these days are made with what most people would consider synthetic basestocks, such as PAO (polyalphaolefin) and POE (polyol ester). You can bet that most of them only use a small percentage of group IV (pao) or group V (poe) basestocks, and that most are primarily composed of group III basestocks, which is nothing more than highly refined mineral oil. This doesn't make these synthetics "bad", it's all about how the final product performs, not about the individual components used to make a motor oil.

Group III basestocks have come a long way, and the performance gap between pao and group III isn't what it once was. The link below is 10 years old, but it helps illustrate this point.

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/533/base-oil-trends

Ok...

typing on iPad excuse me for screwing up

typing on iPad excuse me for screwing up

Since this thread the number of oil threads have diminished to a trickle.

has anyone ever heard of an oil additive called liquid moly the "active " ingredient is MoSo2

the same stuff that i have seen used to lubricate new camshafts on flat tappet engines

Well, I finally made the change to synthetic oil, now at 85k mi. Original turbo.

I put in 5W30, Castrol EDGE with SYNTEC Power Technology.

Any thoughts on this weight (similar weather to Seattle) *and* brand?

What is this I have been reading about using the long type oil filter?

Is this a must use?

I plan on changing oil every 3200 miles. Most of my driving is highway,

and I next to never drive the car for durations less than half an hour. Is this an ok interval?

Also, is it correct that synthetic oil will require more top-offs/burn more?

TIA.

Since this thread the number of oil threads have diminished to a trickle.

They are SAE 20W-50 threads. They don't flow very well in this weather.