How often do you change the motor oil in your Dino? Also, please post the brand and weight you use. Thanks, poll to follow, you may choose multiple options so if you do it on a time/mileage schedule. Public poll.
There's probably 2 sets of people...those that drive their Dino a lot and are more likely to change the oil based on mileage (e.g., every 3000 miles), and those that put very low miles on their Dino and change oil based on time (eg, once a year).
Valvoline 20-50 with 4oz of ZDDP GM EOS. I attended a Lake Speed / Joe Gibbs oil seminar last June, quick summary: - Only 3 companies in the world make all Base Oil stocks - Only 4 companies in the world make all Additive packages - ZDDP needs heat to activate its lubricative ability, so warming your Dino oil up to temperature is important - Too many detergents compete with oil's viscosity, so formulation is very important - Stribeck Chart shows the one limiting parameter that dictates what engine oil W to use is bearing clearance. Lake Speed is the Oil Tech at Joe Gibbs Oil and speaker, who asked to be phoned on any oil question you might have, saying that he has only one phone number, his cell and the office # is just a FWD to it: 678.213-2578 or email him at [email protected] Fully receptive and responsive. I actually had difficulty finding the seminar and called the phone listed on their website. This ended up being the N. Carolina office and since it was 7PM Pacific time that means it was 10PM East Coast time and nobody would be in the office. I left VM and 2 minutes later he called back.
I would not recommend that oil unless you live somewhere where it is really hot all year around and you run high oil temperatures when you drive the car. A 20-X wt oil is very thick when not hot and will not move well thru the engine well at startup I use Rotella T-6 Synthetic 5W-40 ($21 per gallon at Walmart) and add 4 oz ZDDP. This will get you much better flow at startup and only slightly less pressure at normal operating temps.
What if you allow the oil to warm up before driving? According to Lake Speed, the limiting factor is bearing clearance and we do not have tight tolerances on the vintage Dinos. Then again your 5W-40 looks like a great oil at Temp; 40W is good protection.
My understanding is that the damage occurs in the first few minutes, even if the car is just idling. So the viscosity at room temp is what matters. I think Ferrari and other manufacturers of the day had to protect the cars from uninformed owners who didn't keep an eye on the oil temp gauge and hence didn't back off when it got too high. A thicker oil would prevent disaster longer than a thinner one and a dramatic failure gets more attention than slow wear, so they chose the thicker oil. The best oil for any car is determined by how the owner uses it. I'm not recommending the super thin oils modern cars run-- that would be a mistake.
Haven't seen lake since he almost fell out of a taxi in Hong Kong ..back in 1975 or 6 can't remember....all I do remember was he drank far too much and was becoming rather frisky with my WIFE.....all in good fun...(I hope) ...anyway if he ever reads this ...it was a HK kart race ..victoria park...great days...we were in wanchai.....
Are you based in HK, yakxx21? I'm there a few times a year. Funny, this thread should be resurrected in this fashion. I'm just about to do an oil change, by the way. I use red Line 20W50 (with ZDDP).
Unless it is always 40C where you live I would recommend Castrol 5W-50. You get instant flow when stone cold and protection to high temps. I hate to think about how much I damaged my engines back in the day with 20W-50, even living in LA.
I also use 20-50 classic car oil from Halfords in UK Green and smells like good old Duckams did ...seems to be fine and pressure comes up instantly ... But my temp rarely goes below 15 c and is usually 25 plus where I live... I don't live in HK but I did for 22 years and that's where I bought my Dino 40 years ago for ten grand (£) and todate she had 22k miles on the clock ..in those days long gone by we would all meet down town ( and lake Speed) and enjoy rather wild nights ... And all drive home ... Often got stopped but the police would help us to stand up straight and then also to get back into our cars to wobble all the way home ....that poor Dino ...and I cringe when I think we all drove that way .... Thank God the kids today are more sensible .... Good days though , used to get her up to 130 mph on the way to Tai Po .... I should be in jail.... Hope this light banter doesn't annoy anybody !
I looked up some current specs on Castrol GTX 20W-50, Shell Rotella T-6 5W-40, and Castrol Edge 5W-50: GTX 20W-50 ROTELLA T-6 5W-40 EDGE 5W-50 Visc at 40C, cSt 152 95 114 Visc at 100C,cSt 18 15.5 18.5 Viscosity index 130 175 170 Total base number 7.4 10.6 HT/HS viscosity, cPmin 3.7 Low temp crank vis -35C 28,000 60,000 I think for the vast majority of owners the Rotella T-6 is the best choice. The GTX is too thick at startup (even at 40C) and unless you regularly run oil temps above 100C the T-6 has plenty of viscosity once up to temperature. Also the TBN (the degree to which the oil will not become acidic) of the GTX is really mediocre. If you do run the car hard you could sacrifice a little cold temp start up flow and go with the Edge 5W-50. I run that in my Abarth because it seems to like the higher viscosity when hot. Viscosity index is a measure of how LITTLE the viscosity changes with temp-- so a HIGH number is good. Jim Oddie
