Club 80-90 Forums

I see that the many earlier posts regarding which oil point to 15w/40 as being the correct viscosity. My local dealer looked it up in the Castrol handbook and they recommend Castrol maganated Diesel 10W/40.

I would happily buy Maganatec 15W/40 but I can only find it for petrol engines. Halfords do a mineral based 15W/40 for a cheap price of around £13. I think, Carlube does a similar product for around the same price but would prefer a 'branded' oil. Any thoughts guys?

Hi Wavehead,

Carlube is ok but change it often, better safe than sorry as it does not contain all of those wonderful additives.

The advantage of freqent oil changes is that it cleans the engine, change it every 4/5000 miles or so failing that pay the money and get a more expensive brand.

The other thing is that 1600 na diesels are not high revving race engines so not too much to worry about on that front.

TTFN Kris
(one fed up van owner)

I can only use 20 50 in mine or the buzzer goes off.

Guess I will follow advice from both of you and get the right viscosity albeit cheaper oil. I only cover about 4000 miles a year so should be ok?

Thanks Keith

10w40 is fine it just means the oil will get around the engine quicker when its cold that's a bonus.

Just about all engine oils are dual rated.. API CD/SG etc, regardless of what it says on the front label.. yes there are some diesel specific oils out there.. but a good mineral oil is all thats needed in it..

The API ratings are the important bit.. the C in the CD means "Compression ignition" (Diesel) the S in SG means "Spark ignition" (Petrol)
the classifications are not all that clear cut.. it used to be that the higher classification actually did provide better protection, but since catalytic converters and emission regs, the standards mean something different now...
Example... (now this is a generalisation and is meant to show in easy to understand terms),
an SG oil was the norm and an SJ has "fuel economy" improvement rating compared to it..
the latest SM oils have low zinc and phosphor to extend the life of catalytic converters, there is some debate at present that SM grade oil does NOT offer the protection required to older engines.. especially in aircooleds.. a lot of "modern" oils do not like and are not designed for the higher temperatures found in Aircooled (and older engines in general) modern cars are very good at keeping the temperatures in a much tighter range.. I expect to see a lot more engine suffer with cam and follower wear when using SM grade oils..

I use oils in the SG-SJ range.. as I feel these provide the best levels of protection and temperature resistance.. Maybe I should write up a little item in the wiki....