The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hi All
I am going to have my Excel serviced the oil changed next week & engine tuned by a motorsport engineer.
I have been reading some of the comments on oil, is the Lotus hand book recommended oil still the best to use on a 1987 Excel SA ?
Advice please,
Regards Roger

I am using castrol 10w60 edge sport full synthetic because previous owner also used it.
Most seem to use mineral 20w50 oil, which should be ok for normal driving and I believe some even race with this oil.
But I do not know how many miles the race engine runs in between revisions.
Personaly I would not change from mineral to synthetic if engine is used to mineral.
Due to the different detergent coctail, some sort of a jelly sludge can develop in the oilpan which does not drain when oil is replaced.
This is based on a personal experience on a Range Rover which developed a very low oil pressure when hot, after a change from mineral to semi-synthetic oil.
when oil pan was removed and the jelly removed all was back to normal.


Hope this is usefull information to you.

i use valvoline 20/50 drive hard no problem change about 5000 miles good oil

I always use a full synthetic in my Excel. There is much less "clatter" on start-up and the oil pressure is far more stable at all temperatures.

lambert.john wrote:I always use a full synthetic in my Excel. There is much less "clatter" on start-up and the oil pressure is far more stable at all temperatures.

Strangely i returned to Valvoline 20 50 because the 10 60 (edge) increased the clatter on start up. I am thinking about installing an oil pre lubber (http://www.autoenginelube.com/) as the majority of wear is on start up. I run Valvoline and give my engine seriouse grief upto 7700, bouncing off the rev limiter and covering between 3 to 5k a year and changing the oil yearly....................Bearing in mind that i also top up a litre evey 500miles or so. Not sure waht you mean by stable?

When I first got my Excel, I put Mobil 1 in and found small oil patches in the garage after standing. Changed to "what it said on the tin" Valvolene 20-50, and have had no further occurances of oil on the floor. Don't know about all the technical stuff but am quite happy with the Valvolene.

By the way, I use Valvolene Racing VR. Is this what you are all on about regarding Valvolene?

Price wise its not too bad at £25 for a 5 litre bottle.

I use the recomended Mobil 1 5w-50, due to that thicker then (5w- )makes it take more then the 10-15 miles the engine has to warm up , with more wear , using more gas/petrol.
I don't do trackdays but love to drive at typical Lotusroads, and i then rev close to the limiter.
I do 2-3k miles a year and always change oil and filter every year.

The -60 oil is only recomended at trackdays , as i understand.

When i bought the car 2001 , i used Mobil 1 0w-40 to clean out old oil, but i did not strain the engine and it was only for a few weeks and a few 100 miles.

A very important thing is that the API level is equalent or higher then recomended in the book. (Most synthetic oils today are way better then recomended).
And as ALWAYS , full synthetic is allways cheaper in the long run.

Do i sound as paid of the Mobiloil?

GJ1 wrote:When I first got my Excel, I put Mobil 1 in and found small oil patches in the garage after standing. Changed to "what it said on the tin" Valvolene 20-50, and have had no further occurances of oil on the floor. Don't know about all the technical stuff but am quite happy with the Valvolene.

By the way, I use Valvolene Racing VR. Is this what you are all on about regarding Valvolene?

Price wise its not too bad at £25 for a 5 litre bottle.

yep same stuff

RRHANS wrote:I am using castrol 10w60 edge sport full synthetic because previous owner also used it.
Most seem to use mineral 20w50 oil, which should be ok for normal driving and I believe some even race with this oil.
But I do not know how many miles the race engine runs in between revisions.
Personaly I would not change from mineral to synthetic if engine is used to mineral.
Due to the different detergent coctail, some sort of a jelly sludge can develop in the oilpan which does not drain when oil is replaced.
This is based on a personal experience on a Range Rover which developed a very low oil pressure when hot, after a change from mineral to semi-synthetic oil.
when oil pan was removed and the jelly removed all was back to normal.


Hope this is usefull information to you.

Hi Hanns,
Many thanks for the info very helpful
Kind regards
Roger
Hull
East Yorkshire

garry wrote:i use valvoline 20/50 drive hard no problem change about 5000 miles good oil

Hi Garry,
Many thanks for the info very helpful
Kind regards
Roger
Hull
East Yorkshire

lambert.john wrote:I always use a full synthetic in my Excel. There is much less "clatter" on start-up and the oil pressure is far more stable at all temperatures.

Hi John,
Many thanks for the info very helpful.
Kind regards
Roger
East Yorkshire

MrCoolA wrote:

lambert.john wrote:I always use a full synthetic in my Excel. There is much less "clatter" on start-up and the oil pressure is far more stable at all temperatures.

Strangely i returned to Valvoline 20 50 because the 10 60 (edge) increased the clatter on start up. I am thinking about installing an oil pre lubber (http://www.autoenginelube.com/) as the majority of wear is on start up. I run Valvoline and give my engine seriouse grief upto 7700, bouncing off the rev limiter and covering between 3 to 5k a year and changing the oil yearly....................Bearing in mind that i also top up a litre evey 500miles or so. Not sure waht you mean by stable?

Hi Jerry,
Many thanks for the info very helpful.
Kind regards
Roger
Hull
East Yorkshire

So, what you gonna put in then?

This thread reminds me of an old Dave Alan joke.

"I was in the supermarket looking for some shampoo. There was shampoo for straight hair, frizzy hair, greasy hair, dry hair, blond hair, aubon hair, etc etc, I was so concerned and worried so much that my bloody hair fell out."

GJ1 wrote:When I first got my Excel, I put Mobil 1 in and found small oil patches in the garage after standing. Changed to "what it said on the tin" Valvolene 20-50, and have had no further occurances of oil on the floor. Don't know about all the technical stuff but am quite happy with the Valvolene.

By the way, I use Valvolene Racing VR. Is this what you are all on about regarding Valvolene?

Price wise its not too bad at £25 for a 5 litre bottle.

Hi ,
I am going for Valvolene 20-50 in my Lotus handbook it recommends Valvolene.
Cheers
Roger

STELL wrote:I use the recomended Mobil 1 5w-50, due to that thicker then (5w- )makes it take more then the 10-15 miles the engine has to warm up , with more wear , using more gas/petrol.

The 5w means it;'s thinner when cold than 20w or 10w. The "w" means winter/ when cold, it's the same as a single grade oil of the viscosity quoted, so as 5 is a thin oil, it means when you do a cold start up the oil flows more freely.
The later part of the multi-grade figure is the equivalent grade of single grade oil when hot, so in both 5w50 and 20w50 they are the same viscosity as a straight (single grade) 50 oil when it is hot.

I know it may seem a stupid way of doing it, but it was the next logical step when multi-grade oils came out, people were used to the old grading system, so it told them how it would behave in cold engines and warm engines.

Andy