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I have an ea81 with 280k km on it and have been using castrol gtx2 20/50w for about 15k km with no ill effects and am coming up to another change.

1. just wondering what oils you guys run? this post is mainly due to, i think, tipcoupe saying castrol makes 3rd rate products.

2. After all these years running with regular oil would it be stupid to change it over to synthetic?

3. what weight oil is best for brisbane's hot climate.

There is a mob out at brendale that sell australian designed oil for hot climates such as ours.

Just cant remember the name of 'em

Pro Lube i think.

I normally use either penrite or penzoil if your really serious (ie: steenless cored wire wound spark leads and iridium plugs serious) go for fuchs and if you're even more serious than that go for redline oils although I think redline is a bit of a waste in an EA81.

Jordan.

I run Valvoline, Fuchs, Penrite and Redline.

Castrol do make 3rd rate products. A local sales rep went into great detail once telling me they did. In confidence I might add too.

I ran Magnatec in the coupe when I first got it on the road, after 2000km's I dropped the oil and it was the blackest black I have ever seen. I then ran Valvone XLD Plus, and that came out a nice dark brown colour. When I switched to GTX3 after that, same blackness again. I now use only Penrite HPR15 in my EJ20, and I am very happy with the results.

I've also had many customers (mechanics) tell me they won't run Castrol.




But, I suppose to each their own. It was really an offhand comment I initially made about it, not really fussed if people have a problem with it.

i'll agree - magnatec when dropped at 2500kms is as black as the ace of spades...

so what would be a good equivalent oil to replace it with?

I really like Penrite. I switched over to it after the tranny in my coupe was playing up. Changed the oil with Penrite and it's totally transformed the car. After that I use Penrite in both my Subarus and the missus cars too.

I had been running Penzoil 10W-40 in my EA82T, but it seems to be getting harder to find so I swapped back to Mobil Synth-S that is now also 10W-40. I can't really tell any difference between the above two. I had previously run Mobil Synth-S in a Turbo TX-5 (when it used to be 15w-50) and I did 200,000km in that car before trading it in, but it still used absolutely no oil between changes so it can't be too bad.

The only thing I use is magnatec. I have had great results from it. It keeps the tappets nice and quiet. I do agree though it comes out black but only due to me adding engine flush. But when I check it on the dipstick its a nice brown colour.

I have used GTX oils before in other cars and yeap black as the ace of spades.

But being black is not a bad thing. You know your oil pump is working and it might just have a higher detergent than other brands.

I wouldn't mind giving the new oils from Nulon a crack but i'm to scared to swap and change due to the RS's tappet problems.

With gearbox oil I will never use syntrax again. Redline from here on in.

Now I might have this wrong, but I was under the impression they only used detergents in Diesel oils?

From the castrol web site about magnatec.

Improve engine cleaniness through excellent detergency chemistry.

This is not a bad read either. Aparently you can use it in a diesel.

http://www.castrol.com/liveassets/bp_in ... 766_04.doc

MUDRAT wrote:Now I might have this wrong, but I was under the impression they only used detergents in Diesel oils?

according to my electrician tafe teacher he said engine oil has detergent in it and thats why u cant use when reoiling bearings in elec motor as it'll gumm up after a while.