Oil again.

[Arthur Marshall]

I've an old air cooled Lister SR2, currently running happily after a bit of fettling.

I usually fill it with Morris oil, SAE 30, API/SD/CC but someone on here said they'd been using Carlube Daytona oil, which is about half the price. It's 20/50 multigrade, and the spec is API/SE/CC.

What do the experts think - is the latter OK or should I go back to the expensive stuff?  I'm a leisure boater, usually about one six week cruise and three or four two week cruises a year plus a bit of pottering about.

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

13 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've an old air cooled Lister SR2, currently running happily after a bit of fettling.

I usually fill it with Morris oil, SAE 30, API/SD/CC but someone on here said they'd been using Carlube Daytona oil, which is about half the price. It's 20/50 multigrade, and the spec is API/SE/CC.

What do the experts think - is the latter OK or should I go back to the expensive stuff?  I'm a leisure boater, usually about one six week cruise and three or four two week cruises a year plus a bit of pottering about.

 

 

 

Possibly you shouldn't be using either.

 

I was told that the First letter after (API) denotes oil for petrol or diesel engine.

The letter C is for diesel, the letter S is for petrol engines,

[Tony Brooks]

All oils quoted by @Arthur Marshall are suitable for both petrol AND diesel engines within the performance specs of the oils. It is very common to see an oil specified with both petrol and diesel engine specs.

 

Read the spec as two sets of two or three character groups, we use the last one, the CC

 

Arthur - both have the same performance rating for diesels and although Daytona are not a well known brand (I think they may be related to Comma oils) the spec says it will be fine.

[Arthur Marshall]

Thanks Tony. By the by, your advice has been invaluable over the years - I've still got printouts of some of your training sheets from years back!

[Ex Brummie]

I use Morris 15/40 HD in a Perkins 4108. It is semi synthetic, and it doesn't seem to have harmed my engine. Using cheaper oils, I was topping up about a litre over 200 hours. The Morris's retains the level well within the limits over the same period.

[fatmanblue]

I was once advised (by a reliable source) that whilst a straight grade is best, an SR is very tolerant of oil grade and indeed just about everything else. Just make sure it has oil in it. From memory I put Duckhams Q 20w50 in my SR3. I think 15w40 is fine as well. Probably best to avoid any synthetics.