It's small wonder cars go bang.

[BigglesPiP]

Popped into Motor World to get some oil today. Asked for 10W40 Semi-synth, the correct grade for my car.

They asked what car, looked in the book, and tried to sell me Castrol Eldge 0W30 (this is really what Catrol recommend). To cut a long post short, this WILL trash the crank, and the motor will start to rattle almost immidiately.

They only sold Castrol So I ended up in Halfrauds buying some Mobil S Super of the correct grade.

What must people who trust the motorfactors industry with their choice of oil be running on.

 

[BigglesPiP]

You could ask the last person who put 0w anything in a twin spark. It's just the wrong oil, it doesn't support the bearings on the crank. Might as well run it on diesel.

The staff in the shop offered me some "even better" oil when I turned down the Castrol. It may have been good quality oil, better then the Mobil I ended up with maybe, but it was the wrong grade. There are people out there killing motors with excellent examples of the wrong grade of oil.

 

[BigglesPiP]

A reference chart in Motor World, only featured grades of Castrol, so probably produced by them (Alfa Romeo, Selenia and all the Alfa experts I've spoken to say 10w40 semi-synth for my twin spark by the way).

But more so by the staff you find in these places.



And if you don't believe me, here is Castrol advising 0w30 in a 147 1.6TS http://ew5.earlweb.com/recommendations.php?vehicle=1580

Here is Selena recommending Selenia 20K for the same car http://www.flitalia.it/en/fl/component/option,com_dspsearchprod/Itemid,255/ (click the P/N to see the grade is 10w40). Selenia (aka OLIO FIAT), like Alfa Romeo, falls within FIAT Group PLC.

 

[BigglesPiP]

Dead link for me. The Castrol website recommends 0W40 Edge or 10W40 Magnatec for mine, which is about right, though many owners seem to use 10W50. Interestingly they recommend 0W30 Edge or 10W40 Magnatec for the 147 1.6TS.

I wonder if the use of low viscosity oils has partly caused the reputation of the TS using a lot of oil?

Nah, it gets past the valve guide seals on the over-run in well used vehicles. Even on the correct grade of oil. Mine does this, uses about a litre every 1,000 miles.

It's a good idea to replace these if you ever have the head off.


Interestingly, Selenia's fully synth. oil for the Twin spark is 10w65.

 

[BigglesPiP]

Maybe its the chain diff on the Alfa, too simple for there own good that people think they dont need oil...

Drop the fact I may or may not have taken something you said out of the context you meant and come up with something constructive or go elsewhere.

If they only soled Castrol oil, could you not have got 10w-40 Magnatec?

Yes, I *could*, I could have used Tesco value oil too.

Crap engine that gets the finger of blame pointed at the oil by the sounds of things....

Of course the Vtec will run happily on the wrong grade of oil won't it?

 

[BigglesPiP]

What does Alfa Romeo make thier cranks out of? Glass?

The crank is nitrated steel, these never suffer damage on their own.

The shells are what wears prematurely with the wrong oil, or bad/old oil. Then when the big end starts rattling, the crank suffers damage, and it's quite expensive because of the processes it's been through.

The shock from valves meeting pistons also damages the shells which in turn damages the crank. This is quite a common one, nobody want to rebuild the bottom end at the same time as the head it seems.

That's the bottom end, and at the top we have hydraulic tappets and a hydraulic timing variator (which I will admit isn't as good as the VTEC, not seen an Alfa one fail, but all of them rattle beyond about 80,000 miles, the tappets rattle for ages if you leave the oil in too long as well, can take months to purge). This is why it's got a finer tolerance than most vehicles.

 

[BigglesPiP]

I was just getting side tracked talking about the bottom ends failing after a head implosion.

And we're both getting side-tracked here, I'm not trying to say the twin spark is better than the VTEC, it isn't.

I was trying to start a discussion about motorfactors confusing oil grade and quality.

 

[BigglesPiP]

I can see the Alfa technican with his vernier calipers out on the various engine components now, rounding to the nearest mm.

"Yup, that's fine".

They're no worse than anything else new, mine is 8 years and 95,000 miles old, and the only oil its loosing is going down the valve guides.

My rear arches however are rounded to the nearest foot.