Oil advice and recommendations

[oilman]

Originally Posted by steve mooney

Hi Opie Oils
What oil do you recommend for my V70 T6 AWD, on a 58 plate. The sticker under the bonnet says 0W-30, but in your opinion which is the best performing make, and would you include an additive such as slick50.

Ive used this on all my other vehicles, and just forked out >£20 for a 750ml bottle of the performance stuff for this car. The only thing thats stopping me put it in, is some of the -Ve comments on here and other volvo forums ( saying it can actually be bad for your engine, rather than help the life-span and decrease wear etc ).. .... Any pointers or info would be fab. Cheers
Steve .

Hi Steve,

Stick with a 0w-30 synthetic, brand wise as long as you stick with a major brand then they are all good, Castrol, Shell, ***hs, Mobil, Motul, Gulf, Millers etc.

Don't bother with slick50, or any oil additive as they can do more harm then good.

This is an oldie, but nothing has changed. Have a read.

This is the transcript of an AA article published in Motor May 10th 1986.

The widely-advertised oil additive Slick 50 has been soundly slammed by the AA’s Technical Services.
The AA claim that their tests show Slick 50 provides no fuel savings when it is added to a cars engine oil – and there is no evidence of any other benefits under normal operating conditions.
The AA have made no press or public announcement of their report, but have produced a leaflet for the benefit of any paid-up members who apply for one. An AA member on Motor’s staff applied for a report in the normal way.
The report states that whilst there is no evidence the product will do harm to the engine, one good point is that most of it will be very rapidly removed by the oil filter. “At about £12 per treatment”, say the AA, “it is a very expensive way of coating your oil filter element”.
The AA performed tests by taking three identical cars and carefully running them in, splitting the driving equally among their test drivers. Oils were changed at 1500 miles, the cars were run a further 500 miles to stabilise the oils’ viscosity, the cars’ tuning was carefully checked and steady speed fuel consumptions and power outputs were measured.
The report says: “The procedure is so sensitive that, for instance, leaving the headlamps of the car switched on will make a nonsense of the results due to the extra drag of the charging system”.
Engineers added Slick 50 to two of the cars in the recommended way at 3000 miles.
After a further 2000 miles, further dynamometer tests were carried out. “One car should show the sort of gradual change expected of a car in good condition” says the report, “whereas two should show a noticeable improvement . Here came the big disappointment. After our several months of careful testwork, we could not distinguish any difference between the three cars.”
The AA claimed that all cars were performing well, but performance was remarkably consistent , within a few percent.
The AA say that a detailed examination of the claims made for the product will explain what happens when Slick 50 is added to an engine. Of one gallon of petrol burnt in an engine, says the report, some 60 percent of the energy will be lost as heat from the exhaust and cooling system. That leaves 40 percent and some 25 percent is used to drive the car and its accessories. The remaining 15 percent goes to losses such as pumping air into the engine (6 percent) and some 9 percent is lost as engine friction. Of that 9 percent, 6 percent is lost in churning the oil and only 3 percent of the total input goes into the sort of “boundary” friction that a solid lubricant could affect. “If tests of Slick 50 did show a 16 percent decrease in this friction, as claimed in current advertisements”, says the report, “it would only affect the car’s overall consumption by a half of one percent”.
The AA also claim that their tests show there is no evidence that Slick 50 produces a surface layer on the engine wearing surfaces, let alone one that could last for 100,000 miles.

On questioning John Rowland, Silkolene/***hs Chief R&D Chemist for 40 years about additives, I received the following reply.

Quote:

The AA report encapsulates my opinion of Slick 50, it is an expensive way of blocking your oil filter, Believe me, it does precisely nothing beneficial. It has been proven time and time again that it just blocks oil filters and oilways.

For all other “magic” additives, most are based on 1930’s technology corrosive chlorinated paraffins. (synthetic anti-seize compounds originally made 70 years ago. They are cheap, toxic and corrosive. We use them in certain types of cutting oil!) Do not touch them with somebody else’s bargepole!

UCL’s on the other hand can be useful. After all, 2-strokes in effect run entirely on UCL. So……the best UCL’s are 2-stroke oils! I always tell people to use a decent 2-stroke at 0.5% or 1%, because they are superior to the UCL’s sold as UCL’s if you get my drift. A litre of Super 2 Injector or Comp-2 will be better than a cupful of cheap mineral oil dyed red (no prizes for guessing the name) any day.

Vee engines (twins, to V8’s) benefit from UCL’s because the upper walls of the RH cylinder bank, looking from the front, always run dry. Think about it!

Unquote:

Cheers

Guy

[Alex121]

Hi,

What oil would you recommend for a remapped 2002 T4?

Car is on 150k now. Volvo always put 0w5 castol stuff in as per their system recommendation but I've been advised to use Redline 10W40 now it's remapped...

What's the best deal you can do on this as it's expensive stuff!

Thanks

Alex

[oilman]

Even though it has been remapped there is no need to change viscosity too much, no need for a 10w-40.

I think these are 0w-30 as stnadard? You could use a 0w-40 or a 5w-40 but I would not bother with a 10w oil.

Cheers

Guy

[UNCLE ALBERT]

Hi Oilman
Could you recommend an engine oil and antifreeze for my 2002 2.4 awd petrol V70 117,000 miles.I have been useing 0/40 Mobil 1 as per the sticker on the engine, changing the oil and filter every 5000 miles but it is quite an expensive oil do I need such a high spec oil ?.I see that you are selling Shell 5/40 for half the price I have been paying .

[Clan]

You wont get anything better , and very little cheaper than the volvo Antifreeze .

Oil 5w/30 A3/b3 but must be changed at 12000 miles as per your service specification .
Or 0w/30 A5/B5 if you want the best

Changing Mobil 1 every 5000 miles is ludicrous ! the very word synthetic means it hardly deteriorates at all . A Man called Alan Allard told me that ( Look him up )

Volvo do say NO to 0/w40 . just use what volvo recommend and change it at your 12000 mile / 1 year interval and you won't go wrong . Anyone would think the car spends its life on a racing circuit :-) Happy New Year .

[UNCLE ALBERT]

Thank you Clan I'll get some Volvo antifreeze.The 0-40 mobil 1 was first put in by a main dealer I just carried on the with the same when I got the car ,the reason behind the 5000 mile change's is this car does very low miles mainly short trips .I changed the oil and filter in march this year it's done about 3000 miles since .

[Clan]

Originally Posted by UNCLE ALBERT

Thank you Clan I'll get some Volvo antifreeze.The 0-40 mobil 1 was first put in by a main dealer I just carried on the with the same when I got the car ,the reason behind the 5000 mile change's is this car does very low miles mainly short trips .I changed the oil and filter in march this year it's done about 3000 miles since .

in that case you will find your oil is as good as new being synthetic , i wish i could have collected all the Mobil 1 you drained out :-)
The main problem with low mileage is water condensation and fuel comtamination in the sump, but one good run will evaporate all that away .

[oilman]

Originally Posted by UNCLE ALBERT

Hi Oilman
Could you recommend an engine oil and antifreeze for my 2002 2.4 awd petrol V70 117,000 miles.I have been useing 0/40 Mobil 1 as per the sticker on the engine, changing the oil and filter every 5000 miles but it is quite an expensive oil do I need such a high spec oil ?.I see that you are selling Shell 5/40 for half the price I have been paying .

There is no reason why you couldn't use a 5w-40 over 0w-40 as the difference is the cold crank viscosity of 5w vs 0w which in the UK is not a problem. There is rarely a requirement for the -35c performance of 0w!

I would suggest that there are plenty of decent 5w-40 oils to choose from and you'll find a wide selection of price/quality here http://www.opieoils.co.uk/c-656-5w-40.aspx

Cheers

[UNCLE ALBERT]

Thank you Oilman I have used your site many times before ,last time 15lts auto tran's fluid
very good product nice price.

[Chris_C]

Hi Oilman, non Volvo I'm afraid but looking for auto gearbox fluid for the other car.

1995 Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 (X14XE) Automatic. I am looking for recommendations and quantity required please.

Many thanks