Which Fuel And Oil Grade?

[Clarkie GT]

just put a deposit down on a H reg Starlet GT Turbo, n gonna pik it up next week... cant wait! what i want to know is do i have to run it on normal unleaded? super unleaded or Shell optimax? and what oil should i use and how often should i change it? cheers, Dayle

[Paseo2nr]

petrol grade really doesn't matter much. the higher grade, the higher octane, thus higher power and cleaner burning, but you'll get by with regular. oil-wise, i use 10W30

[scutch0]

my motor gets pretty hot, so i use 10W40.

Rich.

[scutch0]

but mine aint a turbo, sooo........??

Rich.

[willscars2807]

10/60 Castrol rs for a gt, and nothing less than optimax+ octane boost if you can, remember it has run on at least 100ron in Japan, any less and you risk the chance of losing a piston or 2.Oh and put friction reducer in with the oil aswell.Not sure on makes, any ideas???

[willscars2807]

10/60 Castrol rs for a gt, and nothing less than optimax+ octane boost if you can, remember it has run on at least 100ron in Japan, any less and you risk the chance of losing a piston or 2.Oh and put friction reducer in with the oil aswell.Not sure on makes, any ideas???

[willscars2807]

10/60 Castrol rs for a gt, and nothing less than optimax+ octane boost if you can, remember it has run on at least 100ron in Japan, any less and you risk the chance of losing a piston or 2.Oh and put friction reducer in with the oil aswell.Not sure on makes, any ideas???

[riko666]

erm, treble repost....

so what, 10/40w is the best for the uk? because when i change oil (the car's starting to eat some) i want to put something in that wont freeze over in winter but is still good enough for performance cooling...

[willscars2807]

ermmm, my pc is being over run by %$(ing aliens again!!!

10/60 is meant to be the best, so that will do for me.

10/40 is a safe bet i suppose, its all down to preference and budget. as long as the 10/40 is not from s super market eg tescos own lol!!!

[dac69er]

10w-60 is real hard to find. does octane booster really make a difference if your using the higher grade petrol anyway? i thought octane booster was only really needed if you tune your car?

[DazH]

Depends what mileage the cars done mate? I use Magnatec but that's just personal preference to be honest. In all honesty if its very high mileage and you put a low viscocity oil in it'll do more harm than good ;) Anyway welcome to the club, any more questions I'm sure someone will be glad to answer

[willscars2807]

im getting 10/60 f0r £20ish for 4 litres from my factors. Where do you live, im in s.wales, try your local partco factors???

Jap cars are set to run on 100+octane, any less and you get trouble, ive lost an engine coz of this, expensive lesson.ouch!!!

[Rubix_cube]

I run my Glanza on Shell Optimax cause its the highest Octane fuel on the market (well BP's is close but there robbing bams :P).

Oil wise I use Castrol 10w/60 RS :) Its good stuff :P

[Paseo2nr]

im getting 10/60 f0r £20ish for 4 litres from my factors. Where do you live, im in s.wales, try your local partco factors???

Jap cars are set to run on 100+octane, any less and you get trouble, ive lost an engine coz of this, expensive lesson.ouch!!!

←

are you joking? i've been running 87-89 octane for 5 years, and so has nearly every other import owner i know (with the exception of the rich kids) and NOBODY's ever had a problem stemming from the fuel system. I know they were never meant for leaded fuel, but that doesn't mean you have to buy premium. i think you got ripped off by someone who didn't quite know what they're talking about. (unless octane ratings vary per country, but i don't think they do)

[riko666]

hmm, maybe its for imports then cause different continents have different fuel and emissions regulations anyway. I mean i could understand if a car needs high octane fuel in japan cause its such a small country yet very polluted, so yeah...

and octane booster, ive used it and havnt noticed much of a difference, just that the economy gets quite a bit better

[nrgizerbunny]

I think there is confusion here between octane numbers.

IN THE UK - Octane is measured in RON (research octane number).

IN THE US AND CANADA - I believe it is worked out on Road octane number hence 85-89 Road octane number is equivalent to 95-99 Research Octane Number

IN JAPAN - They use MON which is motor octane number. and this is a different scale.

To put it simply the Octane number is a measure of the fuels resistance to self ignition. If you get the air fuel mixture at high enough pressure it will ignite by itself (this is what happens in a diesel engine). If you are using 99 RON petrol, it means you can run a higher compression ratio and or turbo without the problem of knock (spontaneious self igntion).

As for Oil, I agree with DazH, if you have a car that has done a lot of miles, the clearances are bigger and by using a thin oil you'll do more harm than good!

And finally if anyone wants to know why I@m a sad git and know all this, cos on thursday I have an internal combustion engine exam which I am bricking it about!

have a nice day

sanj

[riko666]

internal combustion engine exam ?! whats that - you doing engineering at uni at somerthing?

[Toby]

My SR is running a 92 ep82 4efte, roughly 50,000 miles. What viscosity would you recommend? 10w40, 15w40? Also synthetic or semi-synthetic? All help appreciated, thanks toby

[nrgizerbunny]

Riko,

Yes I am doing engineering at Uni! its tough. You learn lots though like i didn't realise that there were alternatives to the otto and diesel cycles, also the stuff about turbo chargers etc. Although I had a lot of experience in turbomachinery having worked at Rolls-Royce.

Toby,

I would go for 0w40 if you can. The first number dictates how your thick(viscous) the oil is when its cold (lower = more runny) and the other number is the viscosity at high temperatures. Pretty much every oil is Xw40, so I would suggest that if your car is kept outside overnight to use Mobil 1 0W40, it is dear but your car will start much better and you will notice a difference in fuel consumption if you are making short journeys.

If its garaged then 10w40 should be okay. generally speaking below 10w is fully synthetic, below 15w is semi synthetic or mineral.

hope this helps

have a nice day

sanj

[riko666]

thats awesome, im going to uni to study engineering as well ! and what you mean you worked at rolls royce ?!?!?!?! work experience or what?!

i really want to get a weekend job at some car dealers to get to know more about working with cars! got rejected from caterham (twice), mercedes and toyota already....gonna try another toyota place though! aargh. also i want to try learn more by doing an engine transplant and what not...

[Clarkie GT]

its a h reg and done 70K kms. its just been imported, totaly standard and ive only paid £3k for it, im quite pleased

[nrgizerbunny]

clarkie where did you get that from! that sounds like a steal! thats just under 45,000 miles by my $hite mental arithmetic.

Riko,

My degree is actually in aerospace engineering, i'm in my final year so i elected to do all the car modules because I had the choice! I am at bath university and in the middle year of the course they send you on a placement, I went to Rolls-Royce in Bristol to work on the JSF Project (replacement for harrier).

I would say this, and if anyone is contemplating doing engineering be warned the pay is not good. Most of my mates are going to investment banks where the pay is much better. The only people who pay well in engineering are Oil companies!

Also engineering, especially at bath, luffbra, nottingham, manchester, sheffield or anywhere that is on the times list in the top ten, is seriously difficult. The drop out rate on my course is 25% which they don't tell you in the brochure.

hope this helps

right i'm off to do roll centres!

have a nice day

sanj

[toyotasera.co.uk]

I'm glad someone clarified the differences between Octane, RON and MON. They are different and different countries quote octane rating in different ways, some as RON, some as MON, some as an average of the two, and the average chump on the street thinks the terms are interchangable and they aren't.

You can't compare apples to oranges, as they say.

[Clarkie GT]

brought it off a private seller, he origanly imported it for him self, but in the 3 months it took to come on the ship from japan he came in to sum money and brought a evo 6! the starlet's absolutly mint, the under side is spotless, the sump's still painted grey! ill get sum pics up when i can. he's 20, got an evo 6, twin turbo supra and an rx 7!!!!!! jammy *****! he runs a car company with his dad so i guess he has trade insurance