Castrol RS 10/60 and tappets...

[dan_b]

Ok, did an oil change about a month ago to the elixir or engine health, Castrol RS 10/60. Had previously been using Synta Gold 10/40 - was seeing hot oil pressures at idle of about 1.5BAR, and at the track day at Northampton, had oil temps of about 140C, and pressures dropping, and oil spitting out the exhaust on full throttle changes.....

Anyway, now at the 10/60 as recommended by everyone. It's thick stuff for sure, but oil pressure at idle is now up to about 2BAR, and all looks better on the gauges.

However, I've now noticed that at start up, I'm fairly regularly now getting noise from the tappets, which usually lasts about 2-3 secs before going away. Surely that can't be good? I thought this stuff was supposed to be better for the engine?

I remember that Lee was getting noisy tappets at the track day and I think he'd got another brand of 10/60 oil in. Is 10/60 too thick?

[Doug_RS2]

Make sure the oil is up at the top mark on your dipstick.

Thin oil will run out of tappets and cause ticking on startup.

I am gettting this now - I have had Mobil 1 15W50 in the car for 4500 miles - it has gone very thin. I'll be going back to RS 10W60 very soon.

I thought Synta Gold was 5W40.

[Jamo]

I've just changed to 10W60 Castrol RS and it's great stuff so far. My engine noises have gone, the old oil after 6k miles was very thin and black, i think because i town drive alot this doesn't help.

If you look in the S2 owners manual 10W60 is a recommended oil on the chart.

[blu_s2]

yep synta gold is 5/40.
I thought i read somewhere never to have the oil above 3/4 on the dipstick?

[s2driveruk]

@Jim....really? What was the reason for that....?

[blu_s2]

[can't track down the comment but something to do with overpressurising the system

[Jamo]

You can over fill the car with oil and it will cause oil vapour to go into the exhaust system which in turn f.u.b.a.r the cats.

But the dipstick on the S2 has a level on it and you should fill the oil to the top of the criss-cross section on the stick.

[zlobo]

I am using castrol 10/60 tws and it works fine

[dan_b]

I filled the oil to the top notch on the dipstick, which was a little more than 4.5l when I looked at how much I'd used. It may be that I've just not been using the car very much in the last few weeks so it's been standing for long periods and has had time and gravity to drain the tappets?
I don't have any cats to fubar, hee hee.

[karlblues2]

Hmmmm
I used to use Mobil 1 5w40 here before last month changing to the new Fuchs Titan GT1 at......wait for it 0w 20 !!!!! Now I'm TOLD that this new formula is perfect for my car I'm not yet convinced. Has anyone any counter to this argument. Although I live in Oz, I am in Canberra where the climate ranges from -8 degrees C in winter up to + 40 degrees C in summer with very little humidity. Any thoughts

[DAVIDP20V]

i have been using magnatec 10w-40 for ages but when the old girl gets a thrashing the tappets start ticking and tapping.
i am also going to move over to castrol rs 10w-60 like you lot,
where do you all get it ?
and anything i have to do while converting as i thought magnatec was a semi synth ? is here any known mixing issues with this ?
obviously i am going to change the oil filter and drain the sump when converting, but is there a need to use an engine flush ?
cheers guys

sorry for the hijack

[audiman]

If any car with hyd. tappets has been left standing for a while the tappets will tap for a few secs. It casues NO damage to the engine just sounds annoying. 0-20w oil!!!! I would change that before it does some damage

MY tappets will 'tick' after doing track days until the oil has cooled back down. But 140 degs is too hot. That will make the oil 'break down', meaning its lubricity will be affected. ALWAYS change engine oil after getting that hot. Oil and filter costs £20, a recon engine is a bit more.