John and others,
I could not agree more. Personally, I find the whole concept of
"classic" oils and using straight weight because that is what they are
built to use hard to comprehend. Oil is one of the areas where huge
progress has been made in the product over the last 40 years. You
shouldn't use super thin oils like the modern iron- our cars' clearances
are a little wide- but a modern multiweight oil of the proper viscosity
will serve your engine well.
For my daily drivers, I have Honda products. These are one of the few
(?) modern cars that still require periodic valve adjustment. I run
Mobil 1 5W30 and the engines are just as clean and corrosion free as
they were the day they came off the assembly line. One of the cars does
a lot of short runs in the winter that would have really gunked up an
engine using older oils.
I also use Mobil 1 15W50 in my MGA. I changed from Castrol 20W50 100
miles after a re-ring with new bearings, cam and lifters. The A never
needed oil this summer and was driven about 3000 miles. I change the
oil every fall just before storage.
I started using Mobil 1 back in 1987 for a turbocharged Chrysler
product. I did this because turbos are notorious for cooking the oil
after shut down then having the leftover coke (as in coal, not soft
drink) eat their bearings. Although almost everything else broke, the
engine and turbo never had a problem. It did develop one of the more
entertaining faults I have ever encountered. The cruise control switch
shorted intermittently such that when you exceeded 30 mph, the cruise
could take over and slowly push the throttle to the floor. The only way
to defeat this was to drive with your foot lightly resting on the brake
pedal. So until I could get into the shop (car was still under
warranty) I drove around with the brake lights almost constantly on.
No, I don't work for Mobil and I am sure that most modern dino derived
motor oils would work just as well under the conditions our cars
experience. My MGA is stored in the winter so she does not benefit from
Mobil 1's cold weather performance. In the XK presently spread across
my garage, I will probably use Castrol 20W50 simply because it takes
over 10 quarts per change. The MGA leaks a little oil but then again
what would you expect from an engine with no rear crank seal and a felt
front crank seal? Anything that would build enough goo around these
areas to slow flow or could not cling to and advance along metal well
enough to get through these would be a mighty poor choice if you ask
me.
One caveat to the above diatribe. As John and CD mentions, if your
engine is already gunked up, a change to a higher detergent oil can
cause problems. I used to have an MGB and, being a stupid teenager, I
changed the oil using diesel oil because we had a lot around the farm
for our tractors. The B started burning oil like crazy and came apart
shortly afterwards. Today, most multiweight oils meet both spark
engine and compression engine specs (look for something like SG- CD on
the can) so the risk is less but if your latest low mileage barn find
has a bunch of crud inside the valve cover, you may want to stick with
straight weight until the motor comes apart.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA with Mobil 1
58 XK150 coupe with the modern equivalent of cosmoline
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