This May Be Of Use (oil Recommendations/advice)

[oilman]

I posted this on MR2OC and felt that it may be of assistance here.

There seem to be a lot of questions here concerning the correct oils for your MR2's.

Hopefully this information from our database should be of assistance.

The following grades are the Manufacturers recommended ones (which should appear in your handbooks) for stock cars used on the road so, unless you car is modded or being used competitively then they should be followed.

I would recommend the use of at least semi-synthetics but fully synthetics will give better protection both in the short and long term.

MR2 (1985-90) Oil capacity 3.3l 10w-40

MR2, GT (1990-99) Oil capacity 3.9/4.2l 10w-40

MR2 1.8 VVTi (2000 onwards) Oil capacity 3.7l 5w-30 or 5w-40

MR2 1.8 VVTi SMT (2001 onwards) Oil capacity 3.7l 5w-30 or 5w-40

If your car is modded and has increased BHP you need to consider your choice of oil more carefully and moving to fully synthetics is the safest way to increase the protection of your engine.

The following is good guidence for those of you that don't have stock cars:

If you are "modding" your car and adding BHP then consider your oil choice carefully as the stock manufacturers recommended oil will not give you the protection that your engine requires.

A standard oil will not be thermally stable enough to cope with higher temperatures without "shearing" meaning that the oil will not give the same protection after a couple of thousand miles as it it when it was new.

Let’s start with the fundamentals. An engine is a device for converting fuel into motive power. Car enthusiasts get so deep into the details they lose sight of this!

To get more power, an engine must be modified such that it converts more fuel per minute into power than it did in standard form. To produce 6.6 million foot-pounds per minute of power (ie 200 BHP) a modern engine will burn about 0.5 litres of fuel per minute.(Equivalent to 18mpg at 120mph). So, to increase this output to 300BHP or 9.9 million foot-pounds per minute it must be modified to burn (in theory) 0.75 litres.

However, fuel efficiency often goes out of the window when power is the only consideration, so the true fuel burn will be rather more than 0.75 litres/min.

That’s the fundamental point, here’s the fundamental problem:

Less than 30% of the fuel (assuming it’s petrol) is converted to all those foot-pounds. The rest is thrown away as waste heat. True, most of it goes down the exhaust, but over 10% has to be eliminated from the engine internals, and the first line of defence is the oil.

More power means a bigger heat elimination problem. Every component runs hotter; For instance, piston crowns and rings will be running at 280-300C instead of a more normal 240-260C, so it is essential that the oil films on cylinder walls provide an efficient heat path to the block casting, and finally to the coolant.

Any breakdown or carbonisation of the oil will restrict the heat transfer area, leading to serious overheating.

A modern synthetic lubricant based on true temperature-resistant synthetics is essential for long-term reliability. At 250C+, a mineral or hydrocracked mineral oil, particularly a 5W/X or 10W/X grade, is surprisingly volatile, and an oil film around this temperature will be severely depleted by evaporation loss.

Back in the 1970s the solution was to use a thick oil, typically 20W/50; in the late 1980s even 10W/60 grades were used. But in modern very high RPM engines with efficient high-delivery oil pumps thick oils waste power, and impede heat transfer in some situations.

A light viscosity good synthetic formulated for severe competition use is the logical and intelligent choice for the 21st century.

You should consider a "true" synthetic for "shear stability" and the right level of protection.

Petroleum oils tend to have low resistance to “shearing” because petroleum oils are made with light weight basestocks to begin with, they tend to burn off easily in high temperature conditions which causes deposit formation and oil consumption.

As a result of excessive oil burning and susceptibility to shearing (as well as other factors) petroleum oils must be changed more frequently than synthetics.

True synthetic oils (PAO’s and Esters) contain basically no waxy contamination to cause crystallization and oil thickening at cold temperatures. In addition, synthetic basestocks do not thin out very much as temperatures increase. So, pour point depressants are unnecessary and higher viscosity basestock fluids can be used which will still meet the "W" requirements for pumpability.

Hence, little or no VI improver additive would need to be used to meet the sae 30, 40 or 50 classification while still meeting 0W or 5W requirements.

The end result is that very little shearing occurs within true synthetic oils because they are not "propped up" with viscosity index improvers. There simply is no place to shear back to. In fact, this is easy to prove by just comparing synthetic and petroleum oils of the same grade.

Of course, the obvious result is that your oil remains "in grade" for a much longer period of time for better engine protection and longer oil life.

If you would like any advice on oil then please feel free to ask.

Cheers

Simon

[jaxx]

its the legendery OILMAN!

welcome matey! some top advice there

[Roytoner]

Should be moved to Important Topics

[oilman]

Thanks, happy to be here and give any advice needed, just ask ;)

Cheers

Simon

[Skeete]

ahh ha !!!! what about gearbox oil then ?? I have asked this question before but never really got a clear answer..

I have an e153 with an LSD attached to my little 3sgte engine. the car has only done 25000 miles, so the box is relatively new.

Cheers

Skeete.

[oilman]

ahh ha !!!!  what about gearbox oil then ?? I have asked this question before but never really got a clear answer..

I have an e153 with an LSD attached to my little 3sgte engine. the car has only done 25000 miles, so the box is relatively new.

Cheers 

Skeete.

←

Skeete,

For the gear box you will need a 75w-90 gear oil, I would suggest the Silkolene Syn5 75w-90 as this will also be suitable for the diffs.

Cheers

Simon.

[CozmoNz]

good **** ppl!

we got 5w-60 in ours ;). fully synthetic, and trust me, worth every cent :). great stuff!

[oilman]

5w-60? Don't you mean 10w-60?

It's way too thick for your car. This causes reduced bhp through oil drag and friction which leads to wear.

Cheers

Simon

[Bibbs]

Simon,

What company are you with?

What would you advise as an oil for a turbo'ed motor .. ?

[oilman]

Simon,

What company are you with?

What would you advise as an oil for a turbo'ed motor .. ?

←

Bibbs,

I am with my own company Opie Oils.co.uk we are a distributor of oils.

For your car we would recomend a 10w-50 for the turbo'd motor.

If you are after quality I would suggest an oil like the Silkolene Pro S 10w-50.

Cheers

Simon.

[CozmoNz]

5w-60? Don't you mean 10w-60?

It's way too thick for your car. This causes reduced bhp through oil drag and friction which leads to wear.

Cheers

Simon

←

nup, 5w 60. same stuff thats recommended for Evo8's

http://penrite.com.au/pispdf/SYN5.pdf

also suggested for Rally cars, N/a V8's and V10's.

if its good enough for porshe, fpv, hsv bmw and merc, its good enough for a sw20 turbo.

[oilman]

5w-60? Don't you mean 10w-60?

It's way too thick for your car. This causes reduced bhp through oil drag and friction which leads to wear.

Cheers

Simon

←

nup, 5w 60. same stuff thats recommended for Evo8's

http://penrite.com.au/pispdf/SYN5.pdf

also suggested for Rally cars, N/a V8's and V10's.

if its good enough for porshe, fpv, hsv bmw and merc, its good enough for a sw20 turbo.

←

Wow

We dont get that grade of oil here in the UK, never seen it before.

The thing that worries me about this oil is not so much the fact that its an SAE60 and vry thick when hot, but the amount of viscosity improver needed to keep the oil in grade through the huge viscosity gap, oils with less viscosity improver the better.

Cheers

Simon.

[CozmoNz]

5w-60? Don't you mean 10w-60?

It's way too thick for your car. This causes reduced bhp through oil drag and friction which leads to wear.

Cheers

Simon

←

nup, 5w 60. same stuff thats recommended for Evo8's

http://penrite.com.au/pispdf/SYN5.pdf

also suggested for Rally cars, N/a V8's and V10's.

if its good enough for porshe, fpv, hsv bmw and merc, its good enough for a sw20 turbo.

←

Wow

We dont get that grade of oil here in the UK, never seen it before.

The thing that worries me about this oil is not so much the fact that its an SAE60 and vry thick when hot, but the amount of viscosity improver needed to keep the oil in grade through the huge viscosity gap, oils with less viscosity improver the better.

Cheers

Simon.

←

its aussie made... Shell be right mate ;).

in a year or so Shell be getting a rebuild anyway, so what does it hurt :D shes a toyota after all ;)

[AE82 GT]

hello all,

so i'm a tad confused, after my recent trip to france where oil seems to be £15 cheper than hear for 5L can's i purchased some Mobil 1 5W-40 fully synthetic.

so is this ok to use for the service which i'm going to do at the weekend? or should i get 10w-40 ?

My brother in law always used Mobil 1 in his CRX VT because like the MR2 engine it revs to 7/8 K.

Many thanks

Confused.

[oilman]

hello all,

so i'm a tad confused, after my recent trip to france where oil seems to be £15 cheper than hear for 5L can's i purchased some Mobil 1 5W-40 fully synthetic.

so is this ok to use for the service which i'm going to do at the weekend? or should i get 10w-40 ?

My brother in law always used Mobil 1 in his CRX VT because like the MR2 engine it revs to 7/8 K.

Many thanks

Confused.

←

This oil will be fine, infact its very good quality so no worries there.

You do not need to move to a 10w-40 as all the 5w-40 will do over it is give better cold start protection because it has a lower cold start viscosity.

Cheers

Guy.