The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Hi All.

The time has come for an oil change and I am just wondering what you guys think the best oil is for an EA82.

I have been told to get the thinner oil as that will be better on subie engines.

What do you guys use on yours?

Thanks

one of the established gurus in here put me onto 10W30, so being a John Laws fan (cough*) I mean a Valvoline man since 1983 I use Valvoline XLD 10W30 - almost like sewing machine oil even in winter. Liked to also use 10 or 15W40 Diesel oil for its higher detergent levels to keep lifters clean in a Mazda 2.2 litre for 190,000km gave great service.

Oil viscosity really needs to suit temperature environment your car lives in .
My experience (59000km) with a turbo EA82 makes me think that something in the 10-30 to 15-40 range is somewhere near the money .
One thing I did find was that expensive synthetic oil , which tends to be less viscous when cold , finds every which way to leak out of a high mileage engine .

I think the thing to avoid with EA82's is more viscous mineral oils such as 20W50 unless in high ambient temperatures - 30 + daily . Long in the tooth dinosaur technology hydraulic rocker pivots have a bad habit of bleeding down and not priming properly until hot , particularly if the engines been left cold for say a week .

No engine really likes extended oil drain periods because the oil accumulates all kinds of combustion blow by crud and condensate and the only way to get ride of them is to change the oil , AND filter ...

Unfortunately people want to treat a cheapish cars with low budget maintenance because they think anything more is a waste of money .

If you like your engine change the oil at 3-5000 kays and don't use the cheapest supermarket oil . If you must use cheap oil change it and the filter more often .

BTW the 20 in 20W50 is not a cold oil viscosity , its a cold - or as the Americans call it - Winter pouring index . It's not possible to have a lubricating oil increase is viscosity as it heats up .

If the engine is new/reconditioned properly with new seals I'd run it in PROPERLY for a couple of hundred kays and go straight to Mobil 1 synthetic . An expensive engines worth it .

A .

I have been running Penrite Everyday Driving Oil 15W40
http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products/m ... ing_15w-40

It is ideal for the EA82 Motors as the can run a little hot. And most oils go foamy when they get hot. This is one of the few oils that dont.

Just remember that the service intervals for a EA82 is 8500Kms........

I've just had a look in my genuine 87 L WSM and in the Periodic Maintenance Services section (1-5 P23) it mentions "Change every 12,500 Km (7,500 miles) or 6 months whichever occurs first" . Dito for the oil filter .

For oil viscosity there is a table of temp vs viscosity and this would have been for SE or SF classification mineral (dino) lube oil .

Basically -18 to 0C 10W30 , 0 to 16C 10W-40 , 16-32C 10W-50 .
It also mentions for -18 to -32C 5W-30 in case you live in Siberia .

Commercially available engine oils have come a LONG way since the mid late 1980's because engines have changed temperature and tolerance wise .

To each their own but I look at EA engines like this , I think the last of them were sold here in 1992 (?) and if so the youngest would be ~ 17 yrs old . Mine is an 86 build EA82T so ~ 23 yrs and 308,800 k old .
Even a well maintained engine wears over time and by the by piston rings and valve guides/seals don't seal so well and that's when you get combustion gasses leaking into the crank case which is where the oil lives . Even in a road car engine there will be oil mist inside here and with spent gasses getting in the oil will absorb some of the crud before the crank breather system draws these gasses out .
Short drives where the oil doesn't get to operating temperature means any acids or water condensate in the oil doesn't get hot enough to boil out and exit via the crank case ventilation system .
Result ? The combined crud accumulates in the oil and the only way to get them out it to drain them with the oil itself .
The more wear and tear the more blow by the faster crud transfer to your lubricating oil . Crud doesn't lubricate and acids/fuel contamination break down the oil so it doesn't do it's job so well and leaves deposits over all the engines internals .

The situation with modern cars is worsening , a holes like the NRMA took it upon themselves to compare more recent cars in a weekly cost formula with obviously lesser being better .
The result is that manufacturers are stretching out maintenance schedules to try to sell a cost friendly product .
Where I work there has been fleet Commodes Falcons etc and it was interesting to see the General increase their sump capacity and DOUBLE the oil change interval to something like 15,000 Km ... So if you're lucky these cars , assumes they get "run in" for - dunno 500 k's survive on two oil changes in 30,500 K's ? Keen to buy one that's had four oil changes in ~ 60.00 K's ? The sump capacity didn't double BTW .

You choice , a decent 10W40 or 15W40 mineral oil based on cost would be mine . For me a new Ryco filter every time .

For an expensive new turbo engine Mobil 1 10W50 or even better the motorcycle intended synthetic 4T oil which the V8 supercar people use at times .

A .

The service manual and the owners manual for these cars basically says to use oil according to your location. So take that on board, and like what was said above change it as often as you should to make the car last longer.