I just checked the oil in my 348. The warm level is just at the minimum mark. I assume this means I need to add a qaurt. When the shop changed the oil, the receipt read they used "AGIP 2000 10W 40". I do not have any oil and the shop is 2 hours away. Can I add a qaurt of any 10W 40 sythetic oil or is this something special? Is this Synthetic Oil? Any guidance would be helpful and sorry for the probably stupid question.
Go for it. As long as the oil you buy is synthetic, it will be ok. The AGIP 2000 oil is synthetic also.
All synthetics are essentially the same. Adding 1/2-1 quart of something different (as long as synthetic) won't matter in the slightest.
When you say "warm level" do you mean you checked the level with the car running/right after shut down, or after the engine had some time to cool? If the car has cooled down (i.e. to just being warm instead of hot) you will get a reading that seems low and may over-fill it. I'm sure you did it right, just checking before you toss another quart in!
I had run the car for about 30 minutes then is cooled a bit for about 1/2 hour. I then started it and let it idle for about 5 minutes until the water temp was up again. I then checked it. I just adjusted the idle to 1000rpms today and the hot oil pressure is now between the 0 mark and the 1/4 mark. The car used to idle at around 1200 and the oil pressure, when hot, was a little below the 1/4 mark. The reduction in idle oil pressure is what made me check the levels. Does it sound like I did it right? Does the oil level in these dry sump systems affect oil pressure? Does this oil pressure seem ok? It goes up when I blip the gas and wide open throttle, at 6000rpms, I have a little over 70 pounds. Thanks fellas
If you checked it after about 5 minutes of it running, then you should be fine as far as an accurate reading. +1 to the others that said adding another quart of a different brand synthetic. I actually called Redline to ask them if it is okay to mix their synthetic oil with a different bramd, and they said it was perfectly fine, therefore I don't see why it would be any different with Agip.
That sounds a little low to me, maybe one of the experts can chime in. Mine goes right to the 1/2 mark at startup, rises to just below 3/4 under acceleration and drops to just over 1/4 during idle when warmed up. My idle is about 950 when the car is warm.
The engine oil flow requirements at idle are very low. The flow of oil carries away heat and refills teh valume between moving surfaces to prevent metal to metal contact. There is little heat to carry away at idle, and the operating pressures are very low, so there are lower flow requirements. The standard rule of thumb is that you need 10 PSI for every 1000 RPMs. That is 10 PSI at idle, 20 PSI at neighborhood speeds, 30 PSI hiway speeds, 70 PSI a trace track speeds. The oil pump is geared so that there will be enough pressure after the engine has seen considerable wear (like 100K miles worth) and still deliver the required pressure after all the clearances have opened up. In addition, there is a pop-off valve that prevents the oil pressure from becomming too large (in order not to blow gaskets and seals.) Back when my F355 engine was new and tight, it would idle with 45 PSI of pressure and anything over 2500 RPMs would show 85-90 PSI. Now with considerably more miles, it goes 30 PSI (warm) idle and reaches the pop-off pressure at 3300 RPMs. To your original question: Any 10W-40 fully synthetic will work just fine; so will any 5W-40 fully synthetic oil; and since you are just toppping the oil up, you could get away with a high quality dino oil in 10W-40 or 5W-40. All said, I recommend RedLine 5W-40 for its ester based (group 5) synthetic oil an great additive package. The oil level in the sump will not affect oil pressure until the oil level is quite low. I notice the oil pressure drops in my F355 after a day at the track by 5-PSI on the high end of the pressure scale, and by 2-3 PSI at idle. It comes back after the oil is changed, so it could be the oil or it could be the filter causing this. I have never been able to achieve the same with hard back road driving.
My 348 is reading just above the MIN level @ about 2-3 minutes after shut down. Approx how many quarts would you think I would need to add?
The proper check is to stop the already warm engine, get out of the drivers seat, pop the bonnet, and walk back and unscrew the oil lid. Clean dip stick, insert lid, screw on, screw off, check level. Should take all of 30 seconds including getting out of the car.
So, with that I waited 2-3 min (parking the car, moving motorcycle back in place) I probably waited too long to check the level?
