Mazda Rotary Club

General => General Technical => Anything Engine/Performance/Tuning related => Topic started by: Rixio on October 05, 2004, 06:22:24 PM

Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Rixio on October 05, 2004, 06:22:24 PM
As the name sez...




what oil do you guys use...??:confused:




:wave
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Mart160plus on October 05, 2004, 06:49:56 PM
Search the forum, this subject comes up all the time. I personally buy mine straight from the local Mazda dealership, seeing as the oil is meant for rotors.
Whilst we\'re talking oil, I guess oil changes are easy enough ? Got my first one next weekend. Drain plug easy to find, drain, remove filter, add new one, top up ???? 5 litres enough ?

Cheers.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: gavin on October 05, 2004, 09:10:01 PM
yep 5ltrs is enough easy to do filter can be a bitch though i find that taping the silver edge of the filter with a large flat screw driver in the correct direction saves alot of grrr aahhhh grrr come off you c@nt, :p
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Shark on October 05, 2004, 09:29:24 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by gavin
yep 5ltrs is enough easy to do filter can be a bitch though i find that taping the silver edge of the filter with a large flat screw driver in the correct direction saves alot of grrr aahhhh grrr come off you c@nt, :p

These only need to be hand tight??!  You shouldn\'t have a hard time getting it off unless it\'s been put on way too tight last time.  In which case - don\'t feel that you should need to be hercules when you put a new one on.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: gavin on October 05, 2004, 09:35:56 PM
was really tight to get off when i got the car and done 1st change then put on hand tight with a bit of oil on the rubber and then struggled to get off again, dont know why
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: gsb876 on October 05, 2004, 09:39:13 PM
I use Johnsons Baby Oil!!!!!

Oh sorry you meant FOR THE CAR???:rollin :rollin :rollin
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Mart160plus on October 05, 2004, 11:26:36 PM
Too much information... :D

So you buy a common-or-garden filter from Halfords, will that suffice ???

Cheers for your help Gents, and apologies for the slight thread hijack.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: MillSpeed on October 08, 2004, 01:01:28 PM
I use Castrol GTX 10w40 mineral oil. Think you\'re supposed to use 10w30 but that stuff is harder to find than rocking-horse shit. Filter is only a fiver from Mazda, use that one.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Mart160plus on October 08, 2004, 01:31:33 PM
Cheers Millspeed, will set that up this weekend then. I guess the drain plug is easy to find once you remove the covers. Will be the first time I\'ve had a look underneath, can\'t wait !!!!
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: gsb876 on October 08, 2004, 01:39:47 PM
TBH if you go to halfords and tell the kids there what car you have they will look it up and get you the right oil.:)
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: MillSpeed on October 08, 2004, 01:41:12 PM
Ooooh it\'s a slippery slope mate, I made the mistake of picking mine up....I haven\'t stopped messing with the bastard since!! Seriously tho, once you get her up in the air you\'ll see how simple they really are to maintain. I\'d pop the plugs out while you\'re under there and give them a gentle cleaning with a soft wire brush, they\'re easy to reach when the car\'s jacked up.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Mart160plus on October 08, 2004, 01:58:04 PM
It\'ll be on a couple of ramps on my Dad\'s drive so we\'ll see how easy it is, gotta watch the GP qualifying (if it\'s not cancelled due to Super Typhoon 22), England Vs Wales, wash & polish the car, look at some Polo\'s for my missus, and that\'s all after I drive from Durham to Milton Keynes, so it\'s gonna be a busy day....!

Sunday I\'ll just relax and watch racing I think :D
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Holmsey24 on October 08, 2004, 02:19:22 PM
Sat should be a bit more free now Mart.  Sat qualifying not being run till Sun morn before the race due to Typhoon.  I\'d still change the oil tho!!!  Priorities an all

:D
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Mart160plus on October 08, 2004, 02:27:00 PM
Having just completed my first 3,000 miles in the car I shall definitely change the oil. Let\'s hope the rain keeps off. At least I have some more time to check a few cars out then before the footy starts. And the GP itself is on early enough to leave for Santa Pod straight after on Sunday. Perfect.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Holmsey24 on October 08, 2004, 02:30:18 PM
I\'m sure there is a weekend in there somewhere. :D
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Holmsey24 on October 08, 2004, 02:32:28 PM
Santa Pod eh.  Make sure you take it easy after watching the Grand Prix.  You wouldn\'t want to have a Minardi moment and then have to catch the bus home!!

Have a gud un!

Matt   :D
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Mart160plus on October 08, 2004, 02:35:55 PM
I\'m not ready to wreck my clutch so I\'ll watch and not take part this time ! Maybe several more thousands miles and a few bucks down the road when I have a single turbo et al...... !
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: gsb876 on October 08, 2004, 02:53:22 PM
Mart,

long journey for you buddy??

Was it you i spoke to at the Jap Show at Pod awhile back??? when it kept bloody raining???

Sorry if i got the wrong dude.:rolleyes:
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Mart160plus on October 08, 2004, 02:56:24 PM
Last time I went to the Pod I was in a GT-Four, but I won\'t hold it against you !!! That motorbike geezer that used to be on Top Gear in it\'s previous format was in the burger queue with us.
Bit of a journey, yes !! Did it last weekend too, I can get about 21 to 23mpg if I\'m really reserved, then as soon as I get off the motorway I go mental round the roundabouts in Milton Keynes, can\'t really help it.

Any ideas how much oil the RX takes ? Don\'t wanna overfill it.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: gsb876 on October 08, 2004, 03:33:54 PM
If you mean from empty then i\'d say put in a fair bit but keep checking the level by the measureing tip. Dont wanna overfill her.:(
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Mart160plus on October 08, 2004, 03:49:38 PM
3.7 quarts I just read on one of the US \'How to\' pages, so that\'s 3.7 litres (as found on a conversions page).

I could frankly give up work and spend 8 hours a day every day reading about and modifying my car. When I said one of the reasons I wanted an RX was because it is new technology to me and I wanted to learn about it I didn\'t know there was so much stuff online !!!!
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: MillSpeed on October 08, 2004, 07:06:46 PM
I found mine took just over 4 - 4.5 litres, need to top mine up a bit aswell.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Pete C on October 11, 2004, 11:27:07 AM
This is interesting, do you guys all use mineral oil in your turbocharged FDs? Is this what Mazda recommends? :)

You see, I\'d always been told that the very high temperatures that oil has to endure in a turbocharged engine (rotary or otherwise, the turbo will get just as hot) would break down mineral oil very quickly, and therefore fully synth oil was the only kind that would survive for any amount of time.

I mean, I use Mobil 1 Motorsport 15W/50 fully synth in my Nissan (conventional turbocharged inline-4), and I change it every 3000 miles, and it\'s still really black and horrible when it comes out :(

So just curious, can anyone explain why mineral oil is best? And not just \'cos Mazda said so LOL :D
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: MillSpeed on October 11, 2004, 12:09:02 PM
This debate has raged for years and there still isn\'t a definite answer one way or the other. Perhaps the principal reason for using mineral oil is the fact that in a rotary engine, a metered amount of oil is injected into the combustion chamber as part of normal operation. Supposedly, when synthetic oil burns it leaves behind a sticky residue which coats the rotor faces, gums up the seals and leads to increased wear. In addition, there have been reports that synthetics attack the oil seals used by mazda, hence the recommendation to use mineral oils. However, plenty of people do use synthetics in their rotaries with seemingly no ill-effects. Personally, I\'m gonna stick with the GTX for now, change it regularly and add a healthy dose of pre-mix just for good measure!
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: banned advertiser on October 11, 2004, 12:18:03 PM
Im using royal purple, and not just because I sell it, John helps has been using it for a couple of years now, and his car has held up very well, went single turbo at 60000 miles and still going stong i believe. I went royal purple because it was the only fully synthetic which is double estha and only one recommended for rotaries, and i believe that knightsport use it.
Most use mineral like me originally on price, 5ltr fully synthetic £37.5 +vat racing £61.75 +vat. Since useing Royal purple have discovered its pretty amazing stuff. Working with manufacturer at moment to put some facts together. Was hoping to get the guy to Pod on Sunday but he could not make it, he was going to bring his lab tester to show you just how crap mineral is and with test kit prove how weak and easily it is broken down.
http://www.rotarytarts.com/acatalog/News.html
http://www.rotarytarts.com/acatalog/Royal_Purple_Oils.html
They also have a massive range, so drag racers can have different oils to track car, and diff oils for road cars.
Will post facts later when complete.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: banned advertiser on October 11, 2004, 12:21:23 PM
talking to the guys at royal purple, it is normally the detergents in the mineral oil that bugger the rubber oil seals and there synthetic will help preserve them, and some times switching to fully syn after mineral will wash the crud off the seals to reveal there weakness caused by the mineral oil.
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: Pete C on October 11, 2004, 12:26:10 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by MillSpeed
This debate has raged for years and there still isn\'t a definite answer one way or the other. Perhaps the principal reason for using mineral oil is the fact that in a rotary engine, a metered amount of oil is injected into the combustion chamber as part of normal operation. Supposedly, when synthetic oil burns it leaves behind a sticky residue which coats the rotor faces, gums up the seals and leads to increased wear. In addition, there have been reports that synthetics attack the oil seals used by mazda, hence the recommendation to use mineral oils. However, plenty of people do use synthetics in their rotaries with seemingly no ill-effects. Personally, I\'m gonna stick with the GTX for now, change it regularly and add a healthy dose of pre-mix just for good measure!

Thanks for the reply, that\'s really interesting - I didn\'t realise that rotary engines burn oil as a matter of course :)

They say you learn something new every day :D

I guess it\'s better to stick to mineral in that case, espcially if you use a fair bit, \'cos the oil I buy costs £35 for 4 litres! :eek:

I have heard arguments on my board (I am a member of the SXOC (http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/index.php?)) that a really good mineral oil should be as good as a synthetic one anyway :)

How much oil do they use, just out of interest?
Title: What Oil Do u guys use??
Post by: MillSpeed on October 11, 2004, 12:54:38 PM
Just under a litre every 3000miles is about the norm I believe.