Technical Current view on oils

[puntodeltathema]

Hello folks

I was wondering what the current recommendations on engine oil for the classic 124 might be? I think the original spec was 20w50 - obtainable but no longer from mainstream outlets, at least round here. Do people use more modern weight and spec oils in their cars? I was wondering about Selenia Abarth 10w50, for example, but would the modern additives be a problem....?

Nick

 

[bugsymike]

Hello folks

I was wondering what the current recommendations on engine oil for the classic 124 might be? I think the original spec was 20w50 - obtainable but no longer from mainstream outlets, at least round here. Do people use more modern weight and spec oils in their cars? I was wondering about Selenia Abarth 10w50, for example, but would the modern additives be a problem....?

Nick

Personally I would try to keep with a similar viscosity as the original spec.
Certainly not any of the modern 0w30 or 5w30 etc. As way to thin for older design engines.
I was looking in older manuals re Fiats and some suggest 10w40 or 15w40 grades which may be more readily available.
If you give the age and engine series I may be able to see what the Technical manuals of that time offer as alternatives.
Obviously eBay etc. can supply 20w50 but always good to keep with a known brand quality wise.
Note some 15w40 available are recommended for diesels and so may contain detergents for diesel engines that may not be good for your older petrol engine.
Perhaps other Forum Members have a suggestion for what they use on classic vehicles.

 

[s130]

This is a really tricky question to answer.

There is no doubt that 202x oils of any grade are better than 198x and 199x oils.

Modern oils outperform older oils. That said some modern lower viscosity oils can find and seep out of gaskets etc. This is not a technical issue or worry but more of an annoyance,

I will go with @bugsymike in choosing a quality oil with a viscosity nearer the original spec.

I have an 80s 2L twincam 130BHP engine originally spec'd for 15W 40 non synthetic oil. I've used 5W40 fully synthetic oil for a number of years now with no issues or unexpected leaks.

If you can readily get 10W50 then this will be perfectly OK. But you may find other grades like 5W40 more readily available and cheaper.

I have a beautiful 1L tin of genuine Abarth oil in my stock and there it will remain. More pleasure from looking at the Abarth tin as opposed to treating my Abarth from a top-up

VS Corse Abarth 20W-50 - Fully Synthetic

 

[Twink80]

Hello folks

I was wondering what the current recommendations on engine oil for the classic 124 might be? I think the original spec was 20w50 - obtainable but no longer from mainstream outlets, at least round here. Do people use more modern weight and spec oils in their cars? I was wondering about Selenia Abarth 10w50, for example, but would the modern additives be a problem....?

Nick

I have a 150hp Twincam and run 10/40 semi synthetic. Originally Halfords, now use Mobil1. It depends where you live (climate temperature range, what you do with it (dawdling on a sunny day or racing) and a bit of how worn your engine is and if you have a oil cooler fitted.
If you google oil viscocity you should find a chart which lays out the temperature ranges for different viscosity
Personally I would avoid very low viscocity modern oils in an old engine design (any thing below 10) and unless you drive in cold weather a lot this wont be a problem)
I stick with Mobil 1 as its good value and I have run many engines to high mikeages (130-270k) without issue.

 

[s130]

The 500X uses 0W30 oil. A lot of modern engines go for the lower viscosities for fuel efficiency ratings. Multiair engines because of their complex fully variable hydraulic valve operation want / need these lower viscosities.

Like @Twink80 we used to run our 130TC & Uno SX on Semi-Synth till we started doing motorsport and switched to fully synthetic. Both cars have been thrashed on tracks with each covering over 6K miles each. On the Uno I also fitted a oil cooler to help keep temperature down. Without an oil cooler within two laps of basically full throttle the oil temperature shot up to worrying levels.

On older Fiats (all models) then semi synthetic is perfectly OK for normal / general motoring and faster more load driving. I would recommend going fully synthetic if you are going to really and continuously thrash your car's engine. Fully synthetic oil is more capable of handling very arduous conditions.

For all cars the general rule is "stick to what the manufacturer recommends unless you have good reasons not to". Valid reasons would be availability, operating your vehicle in a manor outside of manufacturer's normal motoring expectations, etc.

 

[124BC1]

Here's something I came across re engine oils -

Engine oil has a shelf life - some oil manufacturers say 3 years, other say 'should be fine' for 5 years.. I suspect the issue may be separation of the additives out of the base oil.
I therefore store all my oil containers upside down, so that the 'good stuff' is at the top (just like the cream on the top of the milk in the old glass milk bottles, for those old enough to remember...).

 

[124BC1]

If you want 20w/50 oil you might see if you get this - it was recently re-introduced, It was noted for being a weird green colour, so don't be spooked if it still is green, there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[Twink80]

If you want 20w/50 oil you might see if you get this - it was recently re-introduced, It was noted for being a weird green colour, so don't be spooked if it still is green, there's nothing wrong with it.

View attachment 464967

If you can remember when milk had cream on top you can probably remember Duckhams on the shelf in Halfords!

 

[bugsymike]

If you can remember when milk had cream on top you can probably remember Duckhams on the shelf in Halfords!

Sounds like Jersey Gold top milk, really creamy.
When I was at school I got the roll of milk monitor to hand out the 1/3 pint bottles of milk, we were poor, so that way I got to drink all the spare bottles, this was in the days before all the skimmed /semi skimmed rubbish. I even used to go to the local dairy after being paid for a paper round and buy a pint bottle of milk drink it straight down and hand the empty back before they had given me my change!
Many years later I learnt my second wife also got the milk monitor roll, the difference was she used it to avoid drinking the milk, guess who ended up with the worst teeth?

 

[124BC1]

If you can remember when milk had cream on top you can probably remember Duckhams on the shelf in Halfords!

I can remember a lot further back than that.

I remember the days before that new-fangled multi-grade oil was introduced, previously customers had to visit the garage for summer (SAE 40) and winter (SAE 30) oil changes...

Was around for the ads for iirc Castrol GTX talking about their oil having (iirc) 'long-chain polymers', I looked carefully, never saw any long chains of anything and anyway, wouldn't those things have clogged up the oil filter in short order...
Then they used to recommend changing the GTX oil in Mini's (the original ones) more frequently because as the engine oil also lubed the gearbox, the gears would chop up those 'long-chain polymers'. I changed the oil on lots of Mini's and never saw any chopped up 'long-chain'polymers' in the drained oil or in the paper oil filter element (no spin-off oil filter canisters then).
Also dealt with felt type oil filter elements., and changing felt seals instead of rubber-lip seals, pre-soaking leather oil seals.
Some Spark plugs could be disassembled for proper cleaning., then we got one of the new-fangled Champion spark plug cleaning machines.
Magneto's instead of coil and points ignition systems.
Fitting 'Runbaken' Oil-filled ignition coils for improved performance, back in the day.

 

[124BC1]

Sounds like Jersey Gold top milk, really creamy.
When I was at school I got the roll of milk monitor to hand out the 1/3 pint bottles of milk, we were poor, so that way I got to drink all the spare bottles, ----------------------------------------------------------

You weren't poor enough.
My younger sister and I were under strict instructions not to drink the little bottles of milk given out in school but to sneak them out of school and bring them home so that we had some milk in the house.
Toilet paper too!
I got volunteered by my mother to be an 'Altar Boy' (server at mass) so that I could bring home candles so that we'd have some light in the house.

 

[bugsymike]

You weren't poor enough.
My younger sister and I were under strict instructions not to drink the little bottles of milk given out in school but to sneak them out of school and bring them home so that we had some milk in the house.
Toilet paper too!
I got volunteered by my mother to be an 'Altar Boy' (server at mass) so that I could bring home candles so that we'd have some light in the house.

I do recall I used to walk funny on purpose so other kids wouldn't see the holes in my shoes at school and my school trousers wore so thin the seams were letting go.
Also to this day I hate football, as trying to score a goal on a greasy wet field in worn out plimsolls, sliding all over the place when your team mates had the latest colours and lovely soft leather studded boots was impossible.
My dad died when I was eight, so my mum had to bring up me and my two younger sisters on a widows pension, the local church group were trying to persuade my mum to send me off to Australia on that cheap emigration thing which was popular at the time, but later was revealed to be the cause of lots of abuse.
So grateful my mum resisted and we stood together as a family group, she gave us a good sense of values of right and wrong, although it was extremely hard for her as a young widow, especially with things like a married Boys Brigade leader who came to fit a door lock trying to hit on her etc. just weeks after burying the love of her life, after two years of administering morphine at home whilst watching him die of cancer at 48, that was the limit of palliative care in those days.