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Re: When it rains, it pours...

To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: When it rains, it pours...
From: Michael Hargreave Mawson <OC@46thFoot.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 17:33:42 +0100
In article <"00EFB3B176B46013*/c=us/admd=  /prmd=Cat/o=NOTES/s=Gosling/g
=Richard/i=B/"@MHS>, Richard B Gosling <Gosling_Richard_B@perkins.com>
writes
>Mike,
>
>Although 20W50 is the original recommended oil for Spitfires,

In the back of the original owner's manual (which I got from the TSSC
shop), there is a chart of the oils that you are recommended to use,
which actually includes 15W40 for temperatures between (I think this is
right - I'm going from memory) -10C and +30C.

> I have had no
> luck finding this viscosity in a decent oil at a normal motor factors.
> Manufacturers like Castrol and Penrite do 'Classic' ranges of oil, but you'll
> have to go to a classic specialist to get these,

...and pay through the nose...

> otherwise the only 20W50 I've
> found is for 'Value' range oils, which I would not put in my mower!

Quite.
>
>I have been advised by people whose job it is to know that it is definitely
> better to use a good quality oil in slightly the wrong viscosity than a poor
> quality oil in the right viscosity.  I use 'Castrol GTX for basic engines'
> (15W40 I think) with no apparent problems.  I was using GTX Magnatec for a
> while, but at the rate Daffy leaks I couldn't justify the extra cost...

I haven't bothered to keep a chart of oil consumption, but I think I may
have worked my way through two or three litres in 2000 miles.   That's
not including the four-and-a-half litres I had to add when I picked
Carly up...
>
>I would be very wary of aftermarket additives - particularly any that contain
> Teflon or other flaked or solid particles in suspension.  If you want to know
> why, I can point you in the direction of various articles that tell you just
> what's wrong with these things.  At best they are harmless, at worst they will
> clog up your oil galleries.  Not good.
>
The additive was simply a panic measure - I don't intend to use it
permanently.

>I hope you get your woes sorted out!  It will get better!!

The smoke problem has almost gone - the only time I see smoke in the
rear-view mirror now is when I pull away sharply from a roundabout (and
then only once the engine is up to operating temperature).   If I am a
little more cautious about things, I can drive with no smoke at all.
Oil consumption has dropped back down to negligible - the level on the
dipstick has fallen by less than an eighth of an inch in 50 miles, and I
suspect that that is as much to do with leakage as it is to do with
combustion.

Maybe things are looking up.   Or maybe the diff will go tomorrow...

ATB
-- 
Mike
Michael Hargreave Mawson, author of "Eyewitness in the Crimea"
http://www.greenhillbooks.com/booksheets/eyewitness_in_the_crimea.html

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