As title. I've been told it may be too thin for an Ecotec (VS). Anybody know? It's Castrol Titanium Edge Sport, or something like that.
I've used it in my VR Buick, VY Ecotec and now my VZ L76 without problems. Alot of people use Edge 10-60, whoever told you otherwise is a nuffy.
He said it because his car started to smoke, as the oil was getting into the pistons or something. Yeah I remember somebody with a blue VZ telling me to use it before haha, cheers
Someone's getting confused here. For a start if an oil is too viscous that means it is too thick, not too thin. 60 weight oil is thicker than the standard 50 grade that's recommended for Ecotec's, so that's NOT cuasing it to get past the pistons. Also synthetic oils should be avoided in cars that burn oil because the smell of burning synthetic is disgusting, that's possibly why he noticed it more when he started using it !! The 10W cold viscosity is thinner than the normal 20W so it will flow more when its cold but that shouldn't be a problem unless the engine was burning oil to begin with. Most VS ecotec's burn oil anyway. Arguably the best 60 weight oil to use in this case is Penrite HPR30. That is a 20W60 so has the same cold viscosity as the normal 20W50, but is thicker at operating temp so will burn less. Good for track days too. A lot of people talk BS about oils because they don't understand them.
I always thought higher viscosity meant more thick. My mate seemed to think 60 was more thin than 50 I think. And no smoke seems to come from my engine currently, he used it on a Toyota Camry at the time
no i always go and always have gone for the 15 - 40 both my mechanic and my engine builder said they are safe for all cars but 20 - 60 is for older type cars thats how i see it plus u should be reading ur manual booklet it will tell you the same thing.
15W-40 oil is probably too thin, and is not the recommended grade oil for the ecotec. Its gotta be at lest a 20W-50 SG or SH grade oil . The lower number or the oils cold viscosity rating or W grade is fine if its below 20W, as the lower this number is ,the thinner the oil will be at cold startup, which means faster oil pressure buildup from a cold start. Rememeber that 90% of all engine wear occurs at cold startup when the oil pressure hasnt come up properly, so the engine suffers from oil stavation for a second or two until the oil pressure comes up. I used to use penrite HPR 15 in my ecotec, which is a semi synthetic 15W-60 oil , and it was pretty good as far as keeping the engine clean etc goes.. I now use mobil 1 full synthetic 5W-50 , mainly because my engine gets a very hard time a lot of the time, so I like to use the best in it. I dont have problems with the mobil 1 being too thin and burning away or whatever, and my engine now has around 200,000 km on it.
Holden recommend and use Magnatec 10w-30 in pretty much all Commodores, and I'll be buggered if a $30 bottle of Magnatec is better than an $80 bottle of Edge 10w-60.
The newer oils with the lower last number in their specs 10W-(30) is mainly recommended for newer type overhead cam or multi cam engines, not for old pushrod type OHV engines like the ecotec or buick etc. The VN owners handbook says that the engine oil for V6 and V8 must be a 20W-40 SF or SG grade oil, except in snowy areas below 0 degrees C, then a 15W-40 oil should be used. The ecotec wortkshop manual says the oil must be a 20W-50 SG or SH grade oil,except in snowy areas below 0 dgrees C, then a 15W-40 oil should be used. Its also depends on the oil grade, and whether its a SF or SG, or SG or SH grade etc.
If your engine doesn't burn oil at the moment then yes the Syn 10W60 should be good for you. Certainly won't harm anything and if you don't like it try something else next time. There is some good info on Penrites website about why you should or should not use synthetic oils which would be worth reading.
Cheap oil. As I said up the top, Magnatec is about $30 for 5L, Edge 10w-60 is about $80. People will say that there is no need to buy expensive oil, but it must be expensive for a reason.
VN-VS manuals specify those old SG-SH dinosaur grades because that's all there was to choose from back then. If you tried to find those grades now they are only available in the $10 bottles right down the crappy end of the shelf, or in the supermarket. If Holden was to rewrite the VS manual today they would specify somethign decent by todays standards like SL-SM at least. To the OP, anything between 10W-50 and 20W-60 should be fine for an old ecotec battleship. If it is SM or SN grade on the back its an added bonus. If it starts burning oil then its either too thin or the synthetic has cleaned out the gunk that was sealing your rings then switch back to mineral.
