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what oils is good for a engine with 475,000 original kms

1991VNvacationer

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Hey guys my 91 VN S2 has 475,000 kms with a ,untouched or rebuilt engine and original 5 speed gearbox and diff. but i don't know what type of oil i should be running. its currently running 20w 40 and its running good, but i was wondering if i could put a lighter oil in and if so will it wreak my engine. It has highway kms of about 250,000 kms and then was owned by a old man so the engine was never thrashed.
 

someguy360

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Hey guys my 91 VN S2 has 475,000 kms with a ,untouched or rebuilt engine and original 5 speed gearbox and diff. but i don't know what type of oil i should be running. its currently running 20w 40 and its running good, but i was wondering if i could put a lighter oil in and if so will it wreak my engine. It has highway kms of about 250,000 kms and then was owned by a old man so the engine was never thrashed.

You don't put a lighter/thinner oil in an old engine......as the Km's go up you should thicken the oil used.

My last 3 cars were over 500,000km when I got rid of them, I had run Penrite HPR30 (20W60) which was perfect in all my commodores, no noises or rattles and no sludge build up...and the thicker the oil the less the engine will leak. (I believe Nulon do some old older/worn engine oils too)


I always serviced mine every 5000km as they got old...never had a failure and never had bad compression.

Anything over 300,000km I wouldn't run anything less than 20W50
 

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Anything. Most of the damage was done 200,000 + km ago. Just change the oil and filters regularly.
 

oska

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^^^

that's good advice

my VX on gas fitted 3 years ago

i'm using HPR15w60 full synth, i recently changed my rocker cover gaskets valve train were golden with no sludge @240K

the older the engine the thicker the oil
 

Brett_jjj

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The factory recommended oil (20W-50) will be fine. I run mobil 1 5W-50 oil in my VSV6 which has 230,000 km on it, and it doesnt burn or otherwise use a drop of oil between services. I service my oil and filter every 5000 km.
 

Jxfwsf

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Regardless of the mileage, engines that do NOT have a roller cam followers MUST use an oil that has ZDDP in it. ZDDP has been reduced in newer oils to make catalytic converters last longer. Very bad news for flat tappet cams. https://www.google.com.au/webhp?com...34,d.aGc&fp=90c14c46a36540e4&biw=1255&bih=955

great advice but not relevant to any v6 commodore, they all have roller cams in them (unless it has been modified from stock of course)


As above 20w50 is the recommended weight to be used from factory, given it's a high km engine then 20w60 or something slightly thicker wouldn't hurt.
 

1991VNvacationer

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So i guess the way to go is with 20w 60 oil then, thanks for all inputs.
 

savage1987

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Anything. Most of the damage was done 200,000 + km ago. Just change the oil and filters regularly.
Reaper is correct :)

I ran the old 3800 in my VN to 600,000 or so and it was perfect when we tore it down after turfing it for the LS. It never got any special treatment, just a bellyful of Valvoline XLD Premium 20W50 and a new filter every 5000km on the dot. Good cheap oil and you used to be able to find it on special all the time.
 
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