~ On a similar note:
~
~ There is a known problem with synthetic oils and british-cars. The additives
~ and bases in the synthetic oils are harmful to seals made prior to about 1980,
~ and will eat them. (According to a Valvoline lube engineer anyhow)
The Redline engineer who attended the engine-building class that one
of my racing teammates took (there, is that indirect enough for you?)
offered some more information on that.
It was his contention that this was partly true for the earliest
batches of Mobil 1 back in the Seventies. Specifically, Mobil was
said to have constructed their first batches of synthetic oil with
none of the components that cause the seals to swell; this meant
that the seals shrank and caused leaks which were exacerbated by
the essential lower-viscosity synthetic oil. Redline, he said,
has always used the seal-swell, and other synthetic manufacturers
have used it ever since as well.
I will very probably run synthetic oil in the M.G. once the rings
seat, but once again, this car uses seals made in the early Nineties
and therefore is probably out of the test range in any case.
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