Phil

Thanks for the help with my THANG, I am now nice and warm, passenger ok and my culinary skills improving, beans on toast anyone.

ref relaiting car engine to human body was great and well put until you said you only use a racing 20w50 ? why

thanks to MIRAZ for the reply and I shall go and look now.

Hi, I have recently purchased a super sprint and while upside down in it as you do, I have found a long rod with a black knob looking like a choke on old minis etc, this is located under the steering wheel but up near the bulkhead making it hard to reach if sat in driving position, what is it ? can anyone help please.

imagine a football match and all the fans standing outside with a suitcase in each hand and an = number of fans waiting to get out holding the same, the suitcases are the impurities,as the gates open and all the fans try to get in and out catching each others cases and everyone heading in different directions,now take all the fans going in and tie them all together in a line and remove there luggage and do the the same to the ones coming out, now open the gates, they all pas smoothly and very fast and without damage to each other. The chain of oil and its resistance to braking down is called shear quality and the better the oil the better the shear quality, longer stronger chains of oil moving freely and doing a better job.

thanks to everyone pionting out the slick 50 thang, interesting reading and I shall look futher into this and hold fire with the treatment at present. Fast Westie, what is an old engine or do you mean old design. It doese not matter how old the design if it is built with modern machining, clearences and better materials to perform better, be stronger and last longer demanding modern oil to support this, or do you think I should use 20w/50 as this is was the oil available at the time of design? I would like to explain that I was trying to get people away from the terminology of thick and thin as this leads to ignorance for example, my engine is old so I will try a thicker oil, thus taking away cold start up protection and the required additives to keep it clean which is WRONG. when a 15w grade oil is heated does it not travel through the same viscosity hole as quickly as a unheated 10w, yes it does so by adding heat are you thinning the oil, the lower number the oil starts with means it flows quicker because it is pure and clean and not packed out with impurities.When making a semi or fully synth oil they are using only the parts needed to do the job so you get maximum lubrication.

Hi from Phil akapmr@aol.com It may help you if you read my comments under Syner G in a Zetc for your engine requirements. as for the gear box a semi or fully synthwetic ep75/90 will do a good job.

to all conserned with oil please read my comments under heading SynerG in a Zetec. Thank you

all the time at work I am asked for drilled disk for road car application and they are a waste of time. If the car is used on the track and raced the team will check the disk after every race for cracking and replace on a regular basis, on a road car when would they be checked? the addvantage of drilled disk is as you have said to get rid of gases and cool things down but when in a road situation do you generate that sort of heat. The better alternative in most cases is a quality grooved and vented disk and posible with dimples, they also have the advantage of being a lot cheaper, ie EBC disks and green stuff pads.

some imobilisers will lock up if battery is disconected so check with your hand book or dealer first, charching the battery disconected is far safer and highly recomended as it is not putting power around the system and to the ecu with possible damage, same with welding etc. Also jump starting a modern car should be done with the negative lead going to an engine earth rather than to the battery earth i believe. Also see my comments under heading dead battery. good luck.

to Amosian archangel please read my bit under heading dead battery as this may help thank you

me again just to say that as an honest retailer, all the batteries we charge no matter what the size are all done on a simple 4amp charger with a decent connection. And most of the time I will if asked sell the customer a 4amp charger as this is all that is needed. Only when the customer is short on time or has more than one battery to charge etc will I sell him/her a larger unit. All batteries we sell leave with the terminals sanded down now. Avoid garages who quick charge batteries as this can damage them, they will give enough energy to start the car but will fail again soon after.

I sell battery chargers and charge battereries for angry customers who believe the battery to be faulty, severall years ago after being told by the boss that we as a company had one of the highest return rates for faulty batteries i did some research. After using what I had learnt and educating fellow members of staff we know have the lowest return rate for batteries, far fewer angry customers and a lot of happy ones. The problem is a simple but not obvious one. It is all down to bad connections, you would not earth directly to a rusty piece of metal, in the same way corrosion on lead makes the terminal look dull and creates a bad connection, in some cases even though the battery is connected properly and the terminal is tight, it may not be excepting all the charge from the alternator and as a result the battery can go flat very quickly sometimes within two to three days of regular use, the same applies with the charger often connected on to the battery clamp showing the battery to be taking a charge but not a lot and taking a lot longer to charge than the average 8 hours from flat of a 44ah battery, so disconnect those terminals [check first with book if imobiliser fitted] clean them up and charge that battery. If storing the car for say winter, charge the battery and if removed from the car do not store on a cold surface, keep a min of 2 inch away from the wall and on a piece of wood if on the garage floor. If left on the car do not worry about imobilisers as they take very very little power. Some battery chargers have a light to say when they are fully charged, this detects that the battery will not take anymore charge and lights up, if you have a bad connection the resistance tells the charger that the battery is full and lights up giving a false reading, so again get cleanibg. Thanks for listening and any comments will be appreciated, Phil.

1 charge battery anyway so as to make sure it is ok and will survive longer, sand down the lead terminals so as to make a better connection to make sure it recieves as much of the charge as possible from the alternator. 2 check the power lead to the starter, even if it is tight, undo it and clean it and sand it and reconect, use copper grease to cover it over as this will take the heat and protect it. The reason for doing this is the fact that a bad connection will lead you to believe that the battery is on its way out or the starter is becoming LAZY, both cost lots to replace and could be solved easily. Have discovered this over years of testing batteries for people at work.

Handy tip, books give gap settings for the car type not the plug, the supplier will give the gap setting when they are sold to you, most plugs are pre set these days but always worth just checking. Resist cleaning modern plugs as the secret to there succes is the special coatings they have and cleaning with wire brushes and grit machines kills them, this is why it will be very hard to find cleaning brushes and grit machines for sale. Biggest cons are split fire plugs, the originals are expensive but the best but loads have tried to copy them and are mostly rubbish. Champion do a nice range of double copper plugs and a range called EON, these run cooler aiding increasing performance and have a smooth seramic so as the plug lead grips well and prevents moister intrusion for better starting.

ref question from Brent Chiswick yes a fully synthetic will prolong he life of all modern engines and there are semi and full synthetics for deisel cars too. Always stick to the manufactures recomended service interval no matter how good the oil as the maker has calculated the amount of soot etc that the engine produces and the oil and filter can hold before becoming less efficient. Changing the oil early is not always neccassary and costs a lot of money, but can add to the life of an engine. In the early 80s Duckhams did a servey and found out that the average recomended service interal for oil was 6,000 miles but the average oil change was done between 10 and 11,000 miles, no wonder people have problems. The lower the first number the better start up protection. Thanks for the question, hope this answers it for you.

Firstly thanks for any replies given. Simon n how, yes you can use, tuned or not, SynerG or SynerZ. You should not suffer from rattling tappets as a result. julians. Castrol RS is a fully synth 0w/40 top spec but they only give you 4ltr at a high price. paul Turner. Semi Synthetic means that it has additives to increase brakdown resistance, increasing thermal and oxidation stability. It has deposit control, reducing formulation of sludge and varnish. Wear protection to improve oil film strength and breakdown resistance . The main reason for noisy tappets is a build up of varnish making the tappet stick, this is caused by to much heat possibly done by turning off the enginge when hot [specialy when racing] leaving no oil to circulate and disapate the heat, Turbo car owners are addvised to let the car cool down before leaving it for this very reason and a lot of turbo cars now have timers to keep the engine running for this purpose. millsn. there are a few 5w/30 semi synthetics out there but you will pay a lot for them as they are not widley used at present, Fully synth would be a better buy. Petrol stations are always over priced. Mark Piper. As I said racing your car produces a lot more heat and your car needs to cool down for a while so as to disapate the heat. Have you tried an oil designed for racing as these oils have a powerfull additive pacage that helps the oil withstand extreme temperaturesand ecessive rpm. Your tappets may be in need of a clean or a fresh set, Somtimes using a quility flushing oil like the one by Wynns which you add to your oil before you change it, this may help if not to bad.Minimum requirment for K series engines is 10w/40 semi synthetic but 5w/40 fully or 0w40 fully synth is highly recomended. Jam Mad, ref your x flow engine, I am in the proses of buying a 1700cc x flow Caterham which has been serviced by the dealer and is using a 15w/40 oil mineral based.The first thing I will do when I get it is Flush it with Wynns,change the oil for a fully synthetic 5w/40 and I will be adding a can of Slick 50. If you are on a budget a 10w/40 semi synthetic will do the job but if you want a fully synthetic will do a far better job.When you start your engine all the oil is at the bottom and the top end is starved until the oil is pumped up to it, the better the oil the faster moving it is because of a lack of impurities, so the quicker it gets to cams and tappets giving far less engine wear. The reason for using slick 50 is that it coats the metal parts giving instant protection while waiting for the oil to arrive, even more protection, using the flush by wynns removes sludge, varnish etc from metal parts and oil seals, preventing the seals from drying out and shrinking causing leaks, the oil still in the engine provides the lubrication and the waste particals are bonded to the oil, when the oil is removed ie drained it takes all the rubbish with it leaving a very clean engine, if a flush is not used, alayer of sludge,film of dirty oil sticks to the engine and your new oil arrives and collects this holding it in suspention as it is designed to, so you do not have a completely fresh start. thanks for listening, any comments appreciated.

here are the specs for Comma oils Syner Z 0w/40 fully synth highly recomended all engines. Syner G 5w/40 fully synth highly recomended all engines. Xtec 5w/30 semi synth standard for all ford zetec engines. Eurolite 10w/40 semi synth minimum requirement for all engines. Comma do make a 15w/50, it is mineral based oil, but why skimp on oil saving a few quid when paying a small fortune on your pride and joy. Mobil is a name and it has a reputation for being the best but they do produce many grades of oil, Mobil 1 being the reconised oil of 0w/40 fully synth, but the mentioned mobil 15w/40 is an overpriced mineral based oil and can be used but it is not recomended, Mobil, Castrol, Duckhams all produce good 10w/40 semi synth oil but overcharge for it and only give you 4 to 4.5 litres. It does not matter how many revs you do or are intending to do, this does not determin what oil you should buy. As I have said before on cold start up the lower the first number the faster the oil giving less start up wear.Semi synthetic means that the oil is far more refined and cleaner and chemicals have been added to keep the oil performing to its best for longer ie better lubrication properties at any given point than a mineral based oil. Fully synthetic, this is a man made oil only using the best ingreadiants to make a near perfect oil, very good viscosity at -20 deg C very resiliant to braking down and very good at disapating heat. people often think that the engine is making a noise as it is getting old and needs what they think is a thicker oil to plug the gaps, wrong, cheaper oils are burnt quicker by modern engines and sludge up causing the tappets to make a noise on start up as they are starved of oil and the varnishing effect on the tappets left by the oil makes them stick and stay noisy, Keep to the recomended oil or better no matter how many miles you have done as the oil has the correct additives for the job. example ford OHC engine from the sixties ran on the best at the time 20w/50 then 15w/50 and you would expect about 70 to 100 thou tops. In 1983 the engine was given a new lease of life using better quality materials to build the engine and run on 10w/40 synth from new, these engines can happily if serviced correctly do 200 thou plus. Thanks for your time and reading this. Hope it helps

Hi all conserned, please take time to read my comments given on oil under the heading Syner G in a zetec and if you have any questions you would like to ask me on oil i will try to answer them. My experiance is based on selling oil for the last 15 years and being told many things by many reps from many companies and there special catchy terms used for selling it like Hypergrade.Any oil worth looking at will be graded by the Americans........

ref oil first figure 10 as in 10/40 is the viscosity reading taken at -20 deg C, the lower the numbeer the better as it is faster moving from cold getting to the cam and hydraulics quickly giving less engine wear, also easy on your starter and battery, this is acheived by using a quality base crued oil and taking out impurities and adding chemicals to the oil to stop it from burning, foaming and varnishing. the second number for example 40 relates to the viscosity taken at 100 deg C,some cars like a faster oil with a low second number as the engine revs high and needs the oil to move fast and disapate the heat quickly. there is no such thing as a thick or thin oil, it is fast or slow. there is no reason why you can not upgrade from say a 10/40 mineral oil to a fully synthetic and this will not result in leaks. any oil should have the American Petrolium Institute [ API reading ] on the can or should not be touched, the reading for an oil of quality is J rated, this means that the oil is made with a quility crude base and meets all the top requirements. bargains to be had are A1 motor stores packaged oil 5/40 full syn 5ltr £28.49 Delphi [ac delco]5/40 full synth £28.49 5ltr and Comma syner G 5/40 fully synth 5ltr price? wynns engine flush add to oil before change is highly recomended £4.99 worth every penny, my Audi is on 176,000 is driven hard and engine like new, always used 5/40 fully synthetic from purchase at 73,000