On Wed, 7 Dec 2011 16:55:26 -0800 (PST), thirty-six
wrote:

5l fully synthetic at Asda for 20 quid.

I'd bet it's not real synthetic at that price, but an erzatz
synthetic.

On Wed, 7 Dec 2011 16:30:10 -0800 (PST), thirty-six
wrote:

Too right. Gearbox oil is often left. It needs changing in an
economy car probably sometime within six months to get rid of all the
swarf from manufacturing and allow for initial wear-in of the cogs,
and thereafter at every 20,000 to 40,000 miles unless driven
particularly sedately.

Cobblers.
Even on my SOJC, it's 90K.
I notice you've been spouting a load of ******** in this thread.

On 08/12/2011 10:59, Scott M wrote:
thirty-six wrote:

Double ended coils reverse the spark for the opposing cylinders, it
matters not which way round the coil is connected, it is wrong for
half the time.

Ummmm.... Since both ground electrode of both spark plugs are, errr,
grounded they're effectively in parallel. Both sparks will travel in the
same direction. The secondary of the coil is effectively centre tapped.

Not that the direction of travel of the spark, such as it is, would
affect anything much.

Scott


Maybe the electrode wear on the plug.

On 08/12/2011 11:27, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article
,
wrote:
Really tight torlearnces and beter materials and beter design and
synthetic oils have pushed oil changes from 3000 miles (BMC A series) to

As fitted to the Marina, Maestro and Metro, the main service interval
(with 1980's oils) was 12,000 miles without any intermediary interval.

That was the A plus version. Not the same as the earlier A Series. The A
series engine had more variants than many had hot dinners.

Yes, I had a 1275 in a Metro and a Maestro. The latter one was actually
pretty good - 130K miles with no grief and still working well.

(My sister then got the car, and a similar one at the same time via her
boyfriend's mum. Mine was dented, hammerited, had done 130K, the other
one had less than half the miles and was still shiny. She mistook shiny
for capable and retired mine (to banger racing IIRC), then discovered
that a car which has been pottering round the shops all its life ends up
with no performance.)

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 00:25:48 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Doctor Drivel wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Doctor Drivel wrote:
The Tesco fully synthetic is made by Chevron, so a good buy and easily
available.

Don't go by maker name or anything else. Check the spec on the
container and make sure it meets/exceeds the requirement for your
engine.

It is the highest spec.

No such thing.

Again....It is the highest spec

It might be for the latest engines but there is no such thing as an
oil that can be universally applied by virtue of it being 'the
highest spec'

If it is designated as suitable for modern engines then It will almost
certainly have very low levels of Zinc dialkyldithiophosphate and is
thus totally useless for the cam and cam followers interface on a
great many vehicles particularly those built prior to 1990's Indeed
there are vehicles sold less than 5 years ago in the UK that can't
cope with low ZDDP oils.

--

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 10:17:01 +0000, Davey
wrote:

My concern is: What happens when just one computer on a modern car
fails, in a few years' time? Is someone going to stock all the thousands
of variations that are already out there? And if you do find one, how
much will it cost?

There are places that fix them or just buy a new one - they only cost
two or three times the price of a good runabout

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...ine+ecu+repair


--

On Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:30:26 +0000, Steve Walker
wrote:

On 05/12/2011 22:44, js.b1 wrote:
Large oil sumps (7-8L) mean twice as long oil drain intervals compared
to small (3.7-4.0L). It was all done for the fleet buyer who basically
wanted a) minimal servicing costs and b) resale on the used market to
be close to what they bought at on the subsidised fleet bulk buyer
market.

Can anyone tell me, am I imagining it or did oil used to come in 5l
cans? They all seem to be 4.5l these days and my car needs 5l !!!! I
wouldn't mind if buying extra would be useful for a top-up, but the
level doesn't really change between oil changes.

In the UK it generally used to be imperial gallons then 5 litres,
except Mobil 1 which was in 4 litres until the late 90's when they
moved to sell in both 4 and 5 litre packs.

Can't recall seeing any 1 gallon or 4.5 litres packs recently - I
usually buy Mobil 1 (5L), Halfords synthetic (5L) or Castrol Magnatec
(4L) depending on the vehicle.


--

On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:27:21 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article
,
thirty-six wrote:
Really tight torlearnces and beter materials and beter design and
synthetic oils have pushed oil changes from 3000 miles (BMC A series) to

As fitted to the Marina, Maestro and Metro, the main service interval
(with 1980's oils) was 12,000 miles without any intermediary interval.

That was the A plus version. Not the same as the earlier A Series.

It was as near as dammit the same engine! That 12k servicing move imho
was a marketing decision, not one necessarily based on engineering.

Apart from the external ribbing on the crankcase fundamentally the
mechanicals were near identical to the earlier engines. They rolled
the fillet on the crank journals to improve fatigue life, and iirc
finished them a bit better.

The distributor changed to allow longer intervals before the points
needed adjusting (sliding point contacts) The crank damper got bigger
and there was minor work on the valve seats and combustion chamber
shape, carbs changed to integral float chamber SU's, plus a bit of
work on the crankcase ventilation. There was some other change, I
can't recall exactly what, on the cam drive - maybe the tensioner, or
getting rid of the rubber inserts on the chainwheels. The tappet
covers were also deleted to reduce oil leaks.

The biggest problem for any lubricant was on those with the transverse
engine when gears in the box mashed up the engine oil. Most burnt the
oil such that what was in the sump at 12k miles wasn't what was in the
sump at the last service


--

On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:09:41 +0000, wrote:

On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:05:05 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

Ford were one of the first with wasted spark

Honda, 1960s.
Iirc, they weren't the first, even at that.

Can you recall which model?

Speaking of 60's Honda's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw8dZfrvGxw



--

The Other Mike wrote:
On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:27:21 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article
,
thirty-six wrote:
Really tight torlearnces and beter materials and beter design and
synthetic oils have pushed oil changes from 3000 miles (BMC A series) to
As fitted to the Marina, Maestro and Metro, the main service interval
(with 1980's oils) was 12,000 miles without any intermediary interval.
That was the A plus version. Not the same as the earlier A Series.

It was as near as dammit the same engine! That 12k servicing move imho
was a marketing decision, not one necessarily based on engineering.

Apart from the external ribbing on the crankcase fundamentally the
mechanicals were near identical to the earlier engines. They rolled
the fillet on the crank journals to improve fatigue life, and iirc
finished them a bit better.

The distributor changed to allow longer intervals before the points
needed adjusting (sliding point contacts) The crank damper got bigger
and there was minor work on the valve seats and combustion chamber
shape, carbs changed to integral float chamber SU's, plus a bit of
work on the crankcase ventilation. There was some other change, I
can't recall exactly what, on the cam drive - maybe the tensioner, or
getting rid of the rubber inserts on the chainwheels. The tappet
covers were also deleted to reduce oil leaks.

The biggest problem for any lubricant was on those with the transverse
engine when gears in the box mashed up the engine oil. Most burnt the
oil such that what was in the sump at 12k miles wasn't what was in the
sump at the last service


I honestly think that the change to service interval was about marketing
and better oils in the 70's.

The Germans and Japs had these service intervals and BL was forced to
follow their lead.

A whole BL car was pretty fecked at 70k miles anyway. And Ford weren't
any better.

On 7 Dec, 17:02, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
BUT I am fairly sure that commercial diesel engines in big trucks are up
for quarter of a million miles, at least.

ROFLMAO. Detroit Diesel Corporation (customer in my previous job),
has made plenty of engines with a million miles on the clock.

It's true that _most_ of their customers decided that the the major
engine rebuild required at 700,000 miles wasn't worth it in light of
the value of the rest of the truck, but 250,000 miles isn't much more
than "run in".

On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:51:46 +0000
The Other Mike wrote:

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 10:17:01 +0000, Davey
wrote:

My concern is: What happens when just one computer on a modern car
fails, in a few years' time? Is someone going to stock all the
thousands of variations that are already out there? And if you do
find one, how much will it cost?

There are places that fix them or just buy a new one - they only cost
two or three times the price of a good runabout

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...ine+ecu+repair



I was thinking more of all the little ones, such as light controls and
system monitoring. Any one of these dies, and your car might not be
dead, but it will be maimed.
--
Davey.

On 08/12/2011 00:51, thirty-six wrote:
On Dec 7, 8:22 pm, Chris
wrote:
On 05/12/11 22:25, Huge wrote:

I am sure my 54 reg van has the oil change at around 30000 miles.

Bloody hell - did you hit the zero too many times?

Some VAG TDIs will do "up to" 30k/2yrs on variable.

I believe it's more than wishful thinking on a hard working commercial
vehicle.
Indeed. I got 24k from an A3 once, and apparently it's highly unusual to
get more.

Martin Bonner wrote:
On 7 Dec, 17:02, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
BUT I am fairly sure that commercial diesel engines in big trucks are up
for quarter of a million miles, at least.

ROFLMAO. Detroit Diesel Corporation (customer in my previous job),
has made plenty of engines with a million miles on the clock.

"at least"

It's true that _most_ of their customers decided that the the major
engine rebuild required at 700,000 miles wasn't worth it in light of
the value of the rest of the truck, but 250,000 miles isn't much more
than "run in".

rebuilding an engine properly is effectively setting the clock back to zero.

I know that the smaller diesel VANS are not good for much over 250k as
they are in general 'car engines' detuned a bit
But proper truck engines are better than that.

So that's a good data point if '700k before major rebuild' is trade
standard...

Davey wrote:
On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:51:46 +0000
The Other Mike wrote:

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 10:17:01 +0000, Davey
wrote:

My concern is: What happens when just one computer on a modern car
fails, in a few years' time? Is someone going to stock all the
thousands of variations that are already out there? And if you do
find one, how much will it cost?
There are places that fix them or just buy a new one - they only cost
two or three times the price of a good runabout

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...ine+ecu+repair



I was thinking more of all the little ones, such as light controls and
system monitoring. Any one of these dies, and your car might not be
dead, but it will be maimed.

well grab a pic programmer, and some chips and make your own :-)


In fact they ARE repairable

Silly FIL left the windows and sunroof open on the car and all the
windows stopped working; I stripped out the board cleaned all the
corrosion and applied switch cleaner...result!

On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:01:16 +0000 (GMT) Dave Plowman (News) wrote :
I'd suggest you read up on the history of BL. The 'factory owner'
spending money on new machinery? Perish the thought - unless with a
government handout. Every possible penny went to the shareholders.

Yes, read the books (copies of most of them on my shelves) about
BMC/BL in the late 1960s and 1970s and weep. IIRC there's one account
of B-series engine machinists using cigarette paper to keep the
machine tools within tolerance.

You can only look back and think 'if only': if only they'd been able
to build the Triumph Dolomite and Rover SD1 to Japanese build and
reliability standards.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on',
Melbourne, Australia www.greentram.com

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 15:14:58 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:


"The Other Mike" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 00:25:48 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Doctor Drivel wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Doctor Drivel wrote:
The Tesco fully synthetic is made by Chevron, so a good buy and
easily
available.

Don't go by maker name or anything else. Check the spec on the
container and make sure it meets/exceeds the requirement for your
engine.

It is the highest spec.

No such thing.

Again....It is the highest spec

It might be for the latest engines but there is no such thing as an
oil that can be universally applied by virtue of it being 'the
highest spec'

It is the highest ASPI spec. If your car fist the viscosity range then it is
suitable.

Then, by definition you are a badly educated idiot.

If it is designated as suitable for modern engines then It will almost
certainly have very low levels of Zinc dialkyldithiophosphate and is
thus totally useless for the cam and cam followers interface on a
great many vehicles particularly those built prior to 1990's Indeed
there are vehicles sold less than 5 years ago in the UK that can't
cope with low ZDDP oils.

What engines?

There is no point in mentioning them now, it would only confuse you
further.


--

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 22:02:06 -0000
"Doctor Drivel" wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Doctor Drivel wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Doctor Drivel wrote:

The Tesco fully synthetic is made by Chevron,
so a good buy and easily
available.

Don't go by maker name or anything else. Check the spec on the
container and make sure it meets/exceeds the requirement for your
engine.

It is the highest spec.

No such thing.

Says on the can 100% Synthetic

"SAE 5W/40
API SM/CF

ACEA A3, B3, B4."

On the API, S mean spark ignition engine, C means Compression
Ignition (Diesel) The next letter is the level of protection, M is
the highest for spank ignition, hence SM.

Read that again. The use of 'spank' and 'SM' in the same sentence must
be a coincidence, right? g

--
Davey.

On Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:14:11 +1100, Tony Bryer
wrote:

On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:01:16 +0000 (GMT) Dave Plowman (News) wrote :
I'd suggest you read up on the history of BL. The 'factory owner'
spending money on new machinery? Perish the thought - unless with a
government handout. Every possible penny went to the shareholders.

Yes, read the books (copies of most of them on my shelves) about
BMC/BL in the late 1960s and 1970s and weep. IIRC there's one account
of B-series engine machinists using cigarette paper to keep the
machine tools within tolerance.

That is a common prceedure on cutting tools to establish 'zero' height
above the material you are machining.

You can only look back and think 'if only': if only they'd been able
to build the Triumph Dolomite and Rover SD1 to Japanese build and
reliability standards.

Ditto

--

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 23:01:44 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:

"The Other Mike" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 15:14:58 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:
It is the highest ASP spec. If your car fist the viscosity range then it
is
suitable.

Then, by definition you are a badly educated idiot.

By definition you a ****ing idiot who knows sweet FA about oil. The idiot
continues....

Get back to your plastic hacksaw


--

In message , Doctor Drivel
writes

"The Other Mike" wrote in message
.. .

Filtered oil doesn't wear pumps.

Does it wear Nike trainers instead?



dIMM the stand up comedian - who'd have thought it ?



--
geoff

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 23:07:04 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:


"The Other Mike" wrote in message
.. .

The biggest problem for any lubricant was on those with the transverse
engine when gears in the box mashed up the engine oil. Most burnt the
oil such that what was in the sump at 12k miles wasn't what was in the
sump at the last service

Do you meant the oil wasn't still like brand new? Wow!

No I didn't. Go back and read what I wrote.

--

On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 23:25:33 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:


"The Other Mike" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 23:01:44 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:

"The Other Mike" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 15:14:58 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:
It is the highest ASP spec. If your car fist the viscosity range then it
is
suitable.

Then, by definition you are a badly educated idiot.

By definition you a ****ing idiot who knows sweet FA about oil. The idiot
continues....

Get back to your plastic hacksaw

**** off idiot!

Time you took your medicine again. Make it a large dose.

--

On Dec 8, 12:15*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 7 Dec 2011 16:30:10 -0800 (PST), thirty-six

wrote:
Too right. *Gearbox oil is often left. *It needs changing in an
economy car probably sometime within six months to get rid of all the
swarf from manufacturing and allow for initial wear-in of the cogs,
and thereafter at every 20,000 to 40,000 miles unless driven
particularly sedately.

Cobblers.
Even on my SOJC, it's 90K.
I notice you've been spouting a load of ******** in this thread.

So you don't examine your oil, that's fine by me.

On Dec 8, 12:35*pm, Clive George wrote:
On 08/12/2011 11:27, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article
,
* * *wrote:
Really tight torlearnces and beter materials and beter design and
synthetic oils have pushed oil changes from 3000 miles (BMC A series) to

As fitted to the Marina, Maestro and Metro, the main service interval
(with 1980's oils) was 12,000 miles without any intermediary interval.

That was the A plus version. Not the same as the earlier A Series. The A
series engine had more variants than many had hot dinners.

Yes, I had a 1275 in a Metro and a Maestro. The latter one was actually
pretty good - 130K miles with no grief and still working well.

(My sister then got the car, and a similar one at the same time via her
boyfriend's mum. Mine was dented, hammerited, had done 130K, the other
one had less than half the miles and was still shiny. She mistook shiny
for capable and retired mine (to banger racing IIRC), then discovered
that a car which has been pottering round the shops all its life ends up
with no performance.)

The perfomance gains, after degumming the rings and properly bedding
them in, with a 1.3 Maestro were what convinced me to use at least a
good semi-synthetic in all oil changes. Could pretty much out-
accelerate any regular car including an XR2 at least up to 60mph. B-
road overtaking was easy in 3rd gear. Quiet at 85mph and returned
around 55mpg. I found it ideal for winding narrow roads. I could also
start it at 5 degC without choke and between -8 and 0 with just 1/4
way on the choke control. There are a few little other tricks to turn
such an indifferent machine into a flyer, and the point is, they are
all cheap or no cost.

On Dec 8, 4:49*pm, "Doctor Drivel" wrote:
"js.b1" wrote in message

...
On Dec 6, 5:34 pm, "Doctor Drivel" wrote:

One automotive engineer, not mechanic, said the best thing is use the
likes
of Mobil 1 oil and a high quality oil filter that grabs particals of
smaller

Actually since about 2004 Mobil 1 is no longer a true fully synthetic.
.

I think gear oil is neglected especially as it lubricates the diff and drive
shafts as well. *How sensitive is gear oil to extended changes? *Is fully
synthetic gear oil superior. I would assume so as it would take more to
break it down.

Garages will top up via the vent plug so overfilling the box. Can't
remember the details, but the oil wont work as required when the box
is overfilled like this. It's better to have low oil than an
overfilled box. Next time I'll be using a molybdenum disulphide
loaded oil, probably a Rocol product. There's no need just now, needs
a few years (probably 4) and miles before the standard gearbox oil
starts showing effects of deterioration. The extreme pressure
additive in a standard gear oil is not particularly hard wearing.

On Dec 9, 2:10*am, "Doctor Drivel" wrote:
"thirty-six" wrote in message

...
On Dec 8, 4:49 pm, "Doctor Drivel" wrote:









"js.b1" wrote in message

....
On Dec 6, 5:34 pm, "Doctor Drivel" wrote:

One automotive engineer, not mechanic, said the best thing is use the
likes
of Mobil 1 oil and a high quality oil filter that grabs particals of
smaller

Actually since about 2004 Mobil 1 is no longer a true fully synthetic.
.

I think gear oil is neglected especially as it lubricates the diff and
drive
shafts as well. How sensitive is gear oil to extended changes? Is fully
synthetic gear oil superior. I would assume so as it would take more to
break it down.

Garages will top up via the vent plug so overfilling the box. *Can't
remember the details, but the oil wont work as required when the box
is overfilled like this. *It's better to have low oil than an
overfilled box. *Next time I'll be using a molybdenum disulphide
loaded oil, probably a Rocol product. *There's no need just now, needs
a few years (probably 4) and miles before the standard gearbox oil
starts showing effects of deterioration. *The extreme pressure
additive in a standard gear oil is not particularly hard wearing.


Sounds like pure synthetic is the answer.

I suspect an MoS2 loaded gear lubricant will have a lower viscocity
and not be temperature sensitive.

In article
,
thirty-six wrote:
The perfomance gains, after degumming the rings and properly bedding
them in, with a 1.3 Maestro were what convinced me to use at least a
good semi-synthetic in all oil changes. Could pretty much out-
accelerate any regular car including an XR2 at least up to 60mph. B-
road overtaking was easy in 3rd gear. Quiet at 85mph and returned
around 55mpg. I found it ideal for winding narrow roads. I could also
start it at 5 degC without choke and between -8 and 0 with just 1/4
way on the choke control. There are a few little other tricks to turn
such an indifferent machine into a flyer, and the point is, they are
all cheap or no cost.

If it started without choke on a cold day that simply means the mixture is
too rich. So it would used more petrol than it should, wear out the bores
quicker, and produce excess emissions. probably down on power too - if the
carb was otherwise correct.

--
*Why isn't there a special name for the back of your knee?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
"Doctor Drivel" wrote:


stuff

I say, Dr.! Is that really you? Haven't seen you here for yonks and
yonks! Dare I say "welcome back"?

J.

On Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:27:45 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
No BL car I know of had a 3000 mile service interval. Can you state
which one?

All of my midgets had 3000 mile oil changes,

Same with my Stags.

My truck ('67 Ford) is 6000 miles (and nothing in the manual about
changing it after x years even if it wasn't used - maybe that's only a
synthetic oil thing?).

More modern vehicles this side of the Pond all seem to be 3000mi for oil
changes, so in that respect things have actually got worse - or it's all
a big conspiracy

cheers

Jules

..

On Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:50:28 +0000, grimly4 wrote:

On Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:30:08 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

There are a lot of cars out there that require cam belt replacement at
60,000 or even 40.000 miles so every 100,000 isn't a good idea.

My ****eOldToyota is a 60K/5yr interval.

I think mine's supposed to be, too, but I've got 250K on that engine now
and the belt was last done at 93K, so it's operating a little beyond its
design life ;-) (it might be a 90K interval, though... it's one of their
MZ-series V6's; I think the early ones were 60K and the later 90K, but
I'm not sure when the change happened)

cheers

Jules

..

On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:32:09 +0000, dennis@home wrote:
But if they did fit them to the crankshaft then the cable would get
very twisted.

Ooooer!, maybe that's what's wrong with my tyre pressure sensors?

You too, huh? I fixed mine by putting a bit of electrical tape over the
warning light on the dashboard.

..

On Dec 9, 1:57*pm, "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
In article
,
* *thirty-six wrote:

The perfomance gains, after degumming the rings and properly bedding
them in, with a 1.3 Maestro were what convinced me to use at least a
good semi-synthetic in all oil changes. *Could pretty much out-
accelerate any regular car including an XR2 at least up to 60mph. * B-
road overtaking was easy in 3rd gear. *Quiet at 85mph and returned
around 55mpg. I found it ideal for winding narrow roads. *I could also
start it at 5 degC without choke and between -8 and 0 with just 1/4
way on the choke control. *There are a few little other tricks to turn
such an indifferent machine into a flyer, and the point is, they are
all cheap or no cost.

If it started without choke on a cold day that simply means the mixture is
too rich.

Nope. The setting was checked with a Colourtune plug.

So it would used more petrol than it should,

Average fuel consumption for that vehicle was probably no more than
38mpg, I was getting up to about 55mpg.

wear out the bores
quicker,

the body rusted.

and produce excess emissions.

tested emmissions were at around 1% of the pass limit

probably down on power too

120mph max 20-80mph (3rd gear) in under 8 seconds.

- if the
carb was otherwise correct.

What, like setting the needle height and cleaning out the damper and
using the correct, low viscocity, damper oil? I thinned the edge of
the throttle plate and spindle, but that doesn't affect emmisions
tests. BL manageg to suss out how to use siamesed ports correctly.
and maintain the fuel mist in a cold tubular manifold. The perfected
design was introduced with the 1.3 Metro. The valve timing was likely
critical to the combined economy and performance engine, clearances
were at 11 thou which is 3 thou under the normal service
specification, yet this is what made the engine sparkle. The design
is spot on, it's the service recommendations which need to be taken
with a pinch of salt. As I recall, the carburetter was considered a
non-servicable item, any problems demanded a replacement. This meant
many cars would never have the needle height checked unless serviced
by a knowledgable independant garage, probably with a little racing
experience.

On Dec 9, 9:14*am, "Doctor Drivel" wrote:
"thirty-six" wrote in message

...









"js.b1" wrote in message

....
On Dec 6, 5:34 pm, "Doctor Drivel" wrote:

One automotive engineer, not mechanic, said the best thing is use the
likes
of Mobil 1 oil and a high quality oil filter that grabs particals of
smaller

Actually since about 2004 Mobil 1 is no longer a true fully synthetic..
.

I think gear oil is neglected especially as it lubricates the diff and
drive
shafts as well. How sensitive is gear oil to extended changes? Is fully
synthetic gear oil superior. I would assume so as it would take more to
break it down.

Garages will top up via the vent plug so overfilling the box. Can't
remember the details, but the oil wont work as required when the box
is overfilled like this. It's better to have low oil than an
overfilled box. Next time I'll be using a molybdenum disulphide
loaded oil, probably a Rocol product. There's no need just now, needs
a few years (probably 4) and miles before the standard gearbox oil
starts showing effects of deterioration. The extreme pressure
additive in a standard gear oil is not particularly hard wearing.


Sounds like pure synthetic is the answer.

I suspect an MoS2 loaded gear lubricant will have a lower viscocity
and not be temperature sensitive.


You buy the oil to the viscosity recommended.

An MoS2 lubricant does not necessarily need an oil carrier. The
viscosity recommendations given in service literature are for a
specific product and are only a guide anyway. Despite the need for a
certain weight to cover summer ambient temperatures, I always do
better with the lighter oil as my car is not used for Post Office work.

In article ,
Doctor Drivel wrote:
Not if quality "pure" synthetic oil is used", which is now rare as many
"fully synthetic" oils have petroleum base. "pure" synthetics can go to
well over 25,000 miles. Some have ran as long as 100,000 miles before
breaking down.

Oil gets contaminated in an engine. So it's not just the oil itself but
how well it is filtered etc and whether those contaminants can be removed
or not which determines its service life in practice. That's one reason
why lifetime oils for gearboxes etc have been around for a long time - but
not for engines.

As usual you have just visited a few websites and are quoting the bits
that suit you without any understanding of the subject.

--
*Few women admit their age; fewer men act it.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 10/12/2011 10:26, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
Doctor wrote:
Not if quality "pure" synthetic oil is used", which is now rare as many
"fully synthetic" oils have petroleum base. "pure" synthetics can go to
well over 25,000 miles. Some have ran as long as 100,000 miles before
breaking down.

Oil gets contaminated in an engine. So it's not just the oil itself but
how well it is filtered etc and whether those contaminants can be removed
or not which determines its service life in practice. That's one reason
why lifetime oils for gearboxes etc have been around for a long time - but
not for engines.

As usual you have just visited a few websites and are quoting the bits
that suit you without any understanding of the subject.


Dave,

you are wasting your time. The bloke is a complete arse writing cr@p all
through this thread.

I hope no-one believes him, nor takes him seriously.

regards

David

On Sat, 10 Dec 2011 11:27:21 -0000, Doctor Drivel
wrote:


One guy there would take a sample of oil from his car, it happened to be
a SAAB, and test it before any changing of oil. He had gone 60,000
miles on Mobil 1 changing the filter every 6,000 and topping up a
little, and it still did not need changing. He said in many cases the
filter did not need changing but did it as a precaution.


Funny that. When I had a series of Saabs, they always got treated to Saab
branded oil. Like gnat's ****.

I think I remember (but maybe this could be memory fade...) that a) it was
thinner than Mobil 1 (i.e. it was the right spec. for the motor); b) it
was cheaper than Mobil 1; c) it was (to me) more readily available.

Looks like there is a wider range of Mobil 1 products these days.

--
Rod

On 08/12/2011 12:13, wrote:
On Wed, 7 Dec 2011 16:55:26 -0800 (PST), thirty-six
wrote:

5l fully synthetic at Asda for 20 quid.

I'd bet it's not real synthetic at that price, but an erzatz
synthetic.

On the bottle:

API SM CF (for DD)

ACEA C3 (for the rest of us.)

C3 is more for later Euro cars. API specs are better suited for cars
across the pond.

David

In article ,
Jules Richardson wrote:
All of my midgets had 3000 mile oil changes,

Same with my Stags.

Strange. 6000 miles intervals in the UK - same as pretty well every other
car of the time. Is the 3000 mile thingie in official BL literature - or
just the Haynes etc book of generalizations?

3000 mile oil changes date from the days of partial oil filtering. When
things went full flow, the distance doubled, approx.

My truck ('67 Ford) is 6000 miles (and nothing in the manual about
changing it after x years even if it wasn't used - maybe that's only a
synthetic oil thing?).

Not really. Low use usually equates to short journeys therefore more
condensation to contaminate the oil. Certain additives may have a 'shelf
life' too - but that's more of a guess.

More modern vehicles this side of the Pond all seem to be 3000mi for oil
changes, so in that respect things have actually got worse - or it's all
a big conspiracy

Which modern vehicles do you mean? Any normal car with a 3000 mile service
interval would be a bad joke in Europe. And there aren't that many models
exclusive to the US.

--
*The statement below is true.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Doctor Drivel wrote:
Oil gets contaminated in an engine. So it's not just the oil itself
but how well it is filtered etc and whether those contaminants can be
removed or not which determines its service life in practice. That's
one reason why lifetime oils for gearboxes etc have been around for a
long time - but not for engines.

The contamination breaks down the lubrication qualities of mineral oil.
"Pure" synthetics do not break down, or take an amazingly long time to
break down. Read the Popular Science article and the tests Ford did
nearly 40 years ago.

So there's no need for a filter, then?

As usual you have just visited a few websites and are quoting the bits
that suit you without any understanding of the subject.

It is clear you do not know anything about oil. About 25 years ago I did
some work in an oil research lab around Oxfordshire.

Cleaning the loos?

The Tribologists said "only ever use fully synthetic oils", as the
lubrication is vastly superior in every way. Most people thought it was
only for "sports" cars, they said "use it in all engines". One stated
that in bumper to bumper city driving the water pumps do not run fast
enough creating hot spots in the engine. This would bake mineral oil
onto surfaces. Anyone who has stripped down a BMC A series engine will
have noted the black baked on oil around the cam followers, which needs
scraping off.

You'll find black baked on deposits on an engine run exclusively on
synthetics from new too - as I discovered when changing the rocker cover
gasket on my BMW.

Oh - if you used a modern fully synthetic oil in an A Series engine,
you'll experience rapid cam and tappet wear. They don't have the correct
additives for this type of engine. Those additives aren't suitable for
cat. equipped engines, so inferior types are used.

--
*If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.