Oil Opinions ?

[Tommy95]

If you go back in history on these forums, there's endless posts about oil including some of my own time wasting rants since 2006. Basically the cars have aged, and the oil technology has improved. Manufacturers today aren't expecting today's new cars to last as long as cars from 2000 have. If people were changing over their Holdens like they are with cars today, then they wouldn't be closing down.

The VX's were fist to recommend 10w30 to meet emissions but no one would use it as it did burn at that viscosity. If you have a new or rebuilt motor (rings and pistons, crank) then 5w40 is fine and lowest I would go like HPR Diesel 5 or Shell Helix Ultra is really hard to beat. 15w40 SL/CI4 diesel grade oils are best all rounders and best to clean and keep clean a motor. All the various brand SN rated oils are pretty much the same, but for performance Penrite 10 Tenths 5w50, Valvoline Synpower and Shell Helix are excellent. If you like thicker oils then the Penrite 20w60 in mineral, diesel or full synth is perfect.

Because of how Holden built these motors, the oil will not save you from leaks and the rings will wear regardless over time. I did my first and only rear main around 300,000k's and now has 400,000k's. I owned my car since 60,000k's. The oil will save your bottom end, cam and valve train.

Don't waste your time and money on 5000km oil changes and do in 12 months or 10,000 - 15,000km's. The oils today are not the same as they were even 5 years ago and they last longer due to enviro requirements and service intervals/longer warranties.

Yeah i've been aware of certain oil posts over the years i've browsed JC's before i decided to join finally. But it's more i wanted something current (2018+) and more what people might have changed in that time, etc
Shell Helix Ultra is a great oil i won't argue that, definitely a more "cleaner" alternative overall in my books. I honestly think Helix Ultra is a bit of an "under dog", yes it's pricey but hey, definitely worth it. The biggest plus to a VX - VY is their one piece rear main seal, VT & older were a 2 piece which were notorious for leaks, but no oil is perfectly sealed anyway, even an AMG !

When it comes to changing, i personally go 8500km max but generally keep it around 8k but it's just what i've always done & always will. Wear & tear is inevitable, but atleast quality oils make the process a little better.
Bit like trans, i still drop the pan every 40k even with semi-syn atf, anything newer is generally better than dex 3

 

[Tommy95]

If you go back in history on these forums, there's endless posts about oil including some of my own time wasting rants since 2006. Basically the cars have aged, and the oil technology has improved. Manufacturers today aren't expecting today's new cars to last as long as cars from 2000 have. If people were changing over their Holdens like they are with cars today, then they wouldn't be closing down.

The VX's were fist to recommend 10w30 to meet emissions but no one would use it as it did burn at that viscosity. If you have a new or rebuilt motor (rings and pistons, crank) then 5w40 is fine and lowest I would go like HPR Diesel 5 or Shell Helix Ultra is really hard to beat. 15w40 SL/CI4 diesel grade oils are best all rounders and best to clean and keep clean a motor. All the various brand SN rated oils are pretty much the same, but for performance Penrite 10 Tenths 5w50, Valvoline Synpower and Shell Helix are excellent. If you like thicker oils then the Penrite 20w60 in mineral, diesel or full synth is perfect.

Because of how Holden built these motors, the oil will not save you from leaks and the rings will wear regardless over time. I did my first and only rear main around 300,000k's and now has 400,000k's. I owned my car since 60,000k's. The oil will save your bottom end, cam and valve train.

Don't waste your time and money on 5000km oil changes and do in 12 months or 10,000 - 15,000km's. The oils today are not the same as they were even 5 years ago and they last longer due to enviro requirements and service intervals/longer warranties.

I know the M90's have a minor issue with the coupler, but has anyone changed the supercharger oil every 50k roughly and never really had problems with it ?

 

[vxcalais_01]

Yeah i've been aware of certain oil posts over the years i've browsed JC's before i decided to join finally. But it's more i wanted something current (2018+) and more what people might have changed in that time, etc
Shell Helix Ultra is a great oil i won't argue that, definitely a more "cleaner" alternative overall in my books. I honestly think Helix Ultra is a bit of an "under dog", yes it's pricey but hey, definitely worth it. The biggest plus to a VX - VY is their one piece rear main seal, VT & older were a 2 piece which were notorious for leaks, but no oil is perfectly sealed anyway, even an AMG !

When it comes to changing, i personally go 8500km max but generally keep it around 8k but it's just what i've always done & always will. Wear & tear is inevitable, but atleast quality oils make the process a little better.
Bit like trans, i still drop the pan every 40k even with semi-syn atf, anything newer is generally better than dex 3

New Cars are very different. Look at Hybrids for example, their petrol/mechanic engines come on all of a sudden at high revs's to take over from the electric motor. Surely these motors will not last as long, and this is already being expected. So 5W20 oils are the go.

Apart from the SL/CI4+ I mentioned, the rest and anything SN - SN+ is the most advanced for 2018. But remember you car came out with an SJ requirement back in the day and you don't have dual overhead cams and tight tolerances to satisfy. You only need to change your oil at 8500 if it is at 12 months, because condensation can build up in the crankcase that is sitting for long times. Tiny amounts of wear occurs initially on an oil change as the new oil brand, or even new bottle of same oil sets up on the engine parts and the additive pack removes and re-plates the surface with the Zinc, Boron and sometimes moly. If it didn't do this, then the oil will block up everything over time. I have done numerous oil test back in the day and found at 10,000km the oil is still very good. This short oil change thing came from the US back in the day (80's) with 5000 mile oil changes when oils were of a lesser quality. Then Aussies converted 5000 miles into 5000km. Best of luck !

 

[Tommy95]

Kinda why i'm doing it, if i'm not driving it frequently i'll simply dump the oil, cheap insurance depending on the km/time or hours. I can only think of one company that uses Moly DTC & that's Nulon, off memory anyway. There's probably one or two others but i know Penrite mainly use other friction modifiers by comparison.

 

[vxcalais_01]

Reason I mentioned the 10 Tenths in Penrite is they use a great Zinc and Boron combination. Some use a Zinc/Moly combo. They need to due to the lower Zinc that is permitted. Many oils use Moly, just Nulon like to advertise that they use it.

 

[Tommy95]

Reason I mentioned the 10 Tenths in Penrite is they use a great Zinc and Boron combination. Some use a Zinc/Moly combo. They need to due to the lower Zinc that is permitted. Many oils use Moly, just Nulon like to advertise that they use it.

I thought as much

 

[Dak]

Castrol Magnatec 10W/40 been using it for years, up to 280,000km now and still like new

 

[Immortality]

Reason I mentioned the 10 Tenths in Penrite is they use a great Zinc and Boron combination. Some use a Zinc/Moly combo. They need to due to the lower Zinc that is permitted. Many oils use Moly, just Nulon like to advertise that they use it.

I'm now running the high zinc Penrite stuff in our L67 and at the 10K oil change it's still just as quiet as the day the oil went in. Last oil change no lifter clatter after dropping the oil/filter either.

 

[J_D 2.0]

I don’t know about the Ecotec but in my VE SV6 I have run a Shell Helix 15W-40 or a Castrol Magnatec 15W-40 after it got to around 150 thousand kms as this was around the time that it started burning oil at a considerable rate on the recommended oil and would probably go down below the min line on the dipstick if it wasn’t topped up between services. My thought at the time was that it’s better to have a thicker oil that lasts the service interval than to run out of oil and grenade the engine.

The thin oils that are recommended from the factory are mostly used to reduce the fuel consumption (less drag) for the ADR sticker and won’t serve you well once the car has a decent number of kms under its belt. My SV6 now has 300 thousand kms on the clock and is still going strong without burning any oil between services. Having said that I am in Queensland and if it is below about 10 degrees overnight there will be chain rattle in the morning before the oil pressure gets to the hydraulic chain tensioners but you don’t need to worry about that with the ecotec being a pushrod engine.

 

[Immortality]

Ecotec/L67 have a unique oil system so its not an apples for apples comparison.