Jump to content

Oil conundrum


GUMPY

Featured Posts

2 minutes ago, Goliath said:

?

then I’d do the oil cocktail for now then at least you’ve got something ‘fresh’ in there. 

 

When the good stuff arrives you can put that in. 

 

Is it easy to change your oil? Have you got a little brass pump? 

 

Disclaimer : I’m not and never have been a mechanic. 

 

50hrs a year? I wouldn’t worry. Chuck anything in. 

 

 

Pela and a brass pump ;)

Its going in to be painted next May and 50hrs between now and then is very optimistic. Doubt it will be more than 20hrs.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Goliath said:

?

then I’d do the oil cocktail for now then at least you’ve got something ‘fresh’ in there. 

 

When the good stuff arrives you can put that in. 

 

Is it easy to change your oil? Have you got a little brass pump? 

 

Disclaimer : I’m not and never have been a mechanic. 

 

50hrs a year? I wouldn’t worry. Chuck anything in. 

 

 

I go along with that, when I bought my engine I changed the oil filter ran it to pressure and shut it down for a couple of years, I also filled the injector pump and injectors back to the last filter with inhibitor that I managed to find. that was used to run to circulate the oil. This was all on blocks in my garage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in the late 60's I had a Saturday job in the local village garage.

 

One of my jobs was to collect the "empty" pint tins of engine oil that motorists had used to top up their engine oil and then discarded. The tins had a removable metallised strip, which when pulled off left two holes, one for the oil to come out of and one for the air to get in.

 

I had to crush the lip between the lower hole and the side of the can and then empty the few teaspoons of oil into a big drum of oil which was used for oil changes on customers cars.

 

The garage owner didn't care about mixing brands or viscosities, although be fair most of the oil in the big drum was the proper oil advertised on the side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks to a tip from a local forum member I went to Bedford Batteries in Wellingborough and got the oil I needed at a price as good as on the interweb.

Oil change done as well as all filters, old oil poured away, just got gearbox oil and  Chimney sweep still to do.

Love the fact that my beta self bleeds after changing fuel filter didn't have to touch a bleed screw ;)

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 27/09/2019 at 20:03, Goliath said:

When I had high revving expensive motorbikes I used to choose oil very carefully.

I rode a Yamaha FJ1200 for a couple of years and I did 150,000 miles in that time; 1,500 miles a week.

 

I ran it on Halfords cheapest 20w50. I seem to recall it was £2.99 a can. Every Friday evening as I stopped I'd drop the sump plug, drain it till the flow slowed down to a trickle - about 20 seconds (probably 95-99%), pop the plug back in and fill with that awful, cheap, additive-free oil of the wrong grade and incorrect spec.  In 150,000 miles I never changed the oil filter.

 

Also, in 150,000 miles nothing at all ever went wrong with the engine.

 

If you change your oil often enough you can use any oil you want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 27/09/2019 at 18:14, frangar said:

You need to ask my mother about that...her kitchen cupboards resemble a packaging museum.

When we cleared out my parents' house after they had passed away, we found some food tins and jars bearing price stickers in shillings and pence.

This was in 2005. Northern people aren't keen on chucking things away.

Edited by Athy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 27/09/2019 at 18:36, Onionman said:

Here's an oil manufacturer's comment on the shelf life of oil:

 

" You are probably wondering if you can still use cans of oil which seems old: the oil is usable as long as it is sealed, stored in a cool dry location and no water or dirt has gotten in the bottles."

 

https://www.elf.com/en/lubricants-faq/about-lubricants/does-motor-oil-expire

Would anyone (outside of the southern USA) allow a formal statement to get out from the office with the word "...water or dirt has gotten in the bottles"

 

I have no problem with the word, just doesn't sound like proper guidance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, 1st ade said:

Would anyone (outside of the southern USA) allow a formal statement to get out from the office with the word "...water or dirt has gotten in the bottles"

 

I have no problem with the word, just doesn't sound like proper guidance?

Would anyone outside the South Midlands use "outside of"?:D

 

It's from the website of Elf, a French company, so perhaps they use an on-line translation device which has American programming. That's the onliest answer I can think of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am of a mind and age to call all this shelf life on oil humbug, (thanks Boris, nice word) .

When we had garages we bought BP Viscostatic 20w50 oil in 45 gallon drums. It went on the lube rack with the automatic pump in the drum. If business servicing was slow, as often it was, that oil could sit there years. The oil company never told us it had a shelf life, there was no best before date on the drum which could of been years old before we got it.

 

I have pulled vintage vehicles out of barns where they have been for decades. Started them up without changing anything other than fuel. Never a problem, nothing blew up or went knock knock.

 

I will concede that our van fleet got oil changes strictly on time but then most of those vehicles did 50k to 60k miles a year and a lifetime mileage in excess of 400k and oil was cheaper than breakdowns.

But a 1900cc diesel ticking over in a narrowboat with damn all load on it is not stressed to the same extent and oil contamination is considerably less.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

I am of a mind and age to call all this shelf life on oil humbug, (thanks Boris, nice word) .

When we had garages we bought BP Viscostatic 20w50 oil in 45 gallon drums. It went on the lube rack with the automatic pump in the drum. If business servicing was slow, as often it was, that oil could sit there years. The oil company never told us it had a shelf life, there was no best before date on the drum which could of been years old before we got it.

 

I have pulled vintage vehicles out of barns where they have been for decades. Started them up without changing anything other than fuel. Never a problem, nothing blew up or went knock knock.

 

I will concede that our van fleet got oil changes strictly on time but then most of those vehicles did 50k to 60k miles a year and a lifetime mileage in excess of 400k and oil was cheaper than breakdowns.

But a 1900cc diesel ticking over in a narrowboat with damn all load on it is not stressed to the same extent and oil contamination is considerably less.

Just picked up on this thread. I fully agree. Oil doesnt go off with age (like epoxies do.....someone mentioned that earlier). The additive package may degrade over time but that is not going to affect the lump of diesel engine I have in my boat (beta43). Yes, I need decent stuff in my merc but anything can go in the beta. I always buy the cheapest I can get.....25L cans from Costco....and change the oil and filter every 150 hrs (IIRC the book says 250Hrs). Mixing two different viscosities isnt going to cause issues if you are only doing 20hrs in the next 6 months.

It is important though to change the oil regularly....so at least once per year...as acid residues can build up from a running engine that need to be removed.

 

As Sam says....Humbug.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 27/09/2019 at 19:07, The Dreamer said:

In Africa, some charities promote a thing called SolDis, or solar disinfection.  In short, people with no clean water supply, fill up an old, once use, water bottle with swamp water, and place it on their corrugated steel roof for 12 hours of sunshine.  Miraculously the water becomes safe to drink, arguably because it is cleaned by the chemicals released from the degrading bottle. Controversial, I suppose because it is a lesser of two evils approach.

We're going off at a tangent here, but I would imagine it's not so miraculous and not much to do with chemicals from the bottle. More likely, the temperature that water will reach in the African sunshine could kill off any bugs, bacteria etc. in the water making it safer to drink. It's got to be better to drink dead creatures than live ones? The lesser of two weevils, or rather of whatever nasty small things live in African swamps?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 27/09/2019 at 17:51, Loddon said:

I have in my shed 5L of 15w40 and 3L sae30 and 2L of 20/50 all of which are mineral oils

Yeah but, yeah but...

 

It's not the varied ages of his miscellaneous vintage oil collection that's the issue - it's the mixing of different multi grades and mono grades. Well, I wouldn't do it anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.