15 replies to this topic

[gazza01]

Hi all.

 

Going to give the mini an oil change and am thinking of using a 15w50 mineral oil this time as it seems to give the best of both worlds.

Thinner on start up but with the same hot operational viscosity as 20w50.

Am looking at using the Morris lubricants golden film classic motorsport oil.

Any opinions please guys.

[Mini 360]

20W50.  if it aint broke, dont fix it.

[jaydee]

Morris golden is a good oil.

Go for it.

 

And oil shear down faster in a mini, its got a shared gearbox..

[KernowCooper]

Tolerances and seals were never designed for thinner weight oils, I had one here brought in which it leaked oil like a sieve, put 20/w50 back in sorted

[Cooperman]

Morris oil is generally very good and I have used it in Minis in the past, although I do go for Valvoline these days.

So long as it's a mineral 15w50 it should work OK, although 20w50 is usually the best choice.

[KernowCooper]

The one I had in had 5/w40 ran out faster than you could pour in in not literally but it was far to thin

[Cooperman]

I use Morris 10w40 in the diesel engines of our gliding club engines and I have used the 15w50 mineral in Minis. It does seem a top quality oil, although I guess the ZDDP level needs to be compared with Valvoline VR1 20w50.

[jaydee]

Tolerances and leaks have nothing to do with each other, but mixing synth esters with petroleum based oils will make all your seals useless!

Dave, you've been lucky your 5w40 leaked, so you changed the oil. A good flush to the system would have been even better.

Several gearbox failures (synchros) reported in the bike scene have been addresses to the use of a reputable 5w40 oil instead of 15W40 and 20w50 oils, although 5w40 is great for modern engines, but not so good for a gearbox.

[KernowCooper]

Not mine jaydee one I had in from a customer mine is on 20/W50 Mineral

[mk3 Cooper S]

Tolerances and leaks have nothing to do with each other, but mixing synth esters with petroleum based oils will make all your seals useless!

Dave, you've been lucky your 5w40 leaked, so you changed the oil. A good flush to the system would have been even better.

Several gearbox failures (synchros) reported in the bike scene have been addresses to the use of a reputable 5w40 oil instead of 15W40 and 20w50 oils, although 5w40 is great for modern engines, but not so good for a gearbox.

 Very few bike gearboxes have a syncromesh? Some BMW'S but not to many.

[carbon]

I used to use Duckhams 15W50 Hypergrade until this was no longer available a few years back.

 

Worked well for me, slightly easier to crank over a 1275 lump on a cold morning than 20W50.

[gazza01]

We'll I did the oil change over to 15w/50 tonight along with filter of course, and am quite pleased with the initial results.
The car did crank over easier. The engine sounded lighter almost from cold start and the Gearbox also felt
smoother, maybe that's because of having fresh oil generally?
The Morris oil itself looked and smelt of quality, though don't ask me to explain how.
Will keep you posted.

Edited by gazza01, 13 March 2014 - 09:34 PM.

[surfblue]

 

The Morris oil itself looked and smelt of quality, though don't ask me to explain how.

 

 

Sounds like another closet Castrol R sniffer 

[tiger99]

Except that it doesn't contain castor oil!

 

The choice of oil for a Mini will always be controversial, but it is safest to stick with a straight mineral oil, definitely not a synthetic. The main problem is that the gears chop up the long chain molecules in many oils, such as viscosity modifiers, so there is a danger of a 15W50 being degraded to a 15W15, which will be no good at all when the engine is hot. People have already raised the issue of seal compatibility, and you can, in theory, do something about that next time you build an engine, as seals of different materials are available, just probably not from your usual Mini supplier. Maybe a discussion for another day?

 

I know some misguided people on here (not seen in this thread so far, everyone has been sensible), and some who know what they are doing but are fully aware that their engine and transmission is going to need a rebuild very soon, will advocate using a cheap oil. However, in most normal circumstances that is a very bad idea indeed. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that you have a standard 998 A+ which has had regular oil changes, and has done 50k miles. It is not even half way through its possible lifespan, and if it was well made to begin with and you keep using good oil it will get to 120k to 150k, maybe even more. Put in cheap oil, and it may only see 70k to 80k, maybe even 100k, and that is a lot of life to waste. But if it is knocking, rattling and leaking and burning oil, the syncromesh is very weak, and the diff is developing play, and you only need to keep it going for a couple of months till you can afford a rebuilt unit, then you may as well save money and use cheap oil.

 

My preference in a good engine would be to use the special oil that Millers make for Minis and related models. That is because I know Millers from previous experience and have never used Morris or any other classic oil supplier. But the ORIGINAL Castrol GTX (it has changed) was also an excellent choice many years ago, and was easily obtainable. I understand that now it is semi-synthetic.

 

http://www.millersoi...sector=Classics

[gazza01]

Morris oil is supposed to be good. And it's a mineral. The car is running lovely with it in there at the moment,