Oil Ignorant - Help!

[Pablo]

Originally Posted By: The_Saabster
¿ACD? I guess eventually it will dawn on me what ACD is. Is that an Amsoil acronym?


Sorry about that. It's a product code. All Amsoil products have 3 letter product code. It's the 10W-30 recommended above. Click on the link above and see the specifications.

Originally Posted By: pablonator
For a lower cost, super heavy duty 10W-30 synthetic oil, I recommend: Amsoil ACD 10W-30.

 

[The_Saabster]

Originally Posted By: saaber1
Bier brothers performance in Ofallon (where is that?) has it but don't know the cost. Amsoil seems to be available in every other little independent repair and quick lube place here and also some Napa auto parts stores so it may be easier to find.

I would guess that M1 15w40 is probably a stout oil (don't know anything about it) but isn't that a bit thick for out there especially as lubrication to the turbo at startup is important for turbo longevity? Just asking as I don't know anything about that oil.


Are you asking about O'Fallon, Mo.? That's just a little west of St.L. Practically a suburb now.

I was actually going to put the M1 15w40 in my 87 900's tranny. But I think I'll return as I'm on my way to O'Reilly's right now to get the OBD-II reader to diagnose a code on my son's F-250. I think I'll trade the M1 for a 10W-30 syn like the book says.

Both of my turbos are the Mitsubishi water cooled ones and my wife and I are easy drivers, so we don't need high performance oils. Like I said at the beginning of this post, I just want to get the 2008 oil that's appropriate for my cars as opposed to the factory spec that's 20 yrs old.

I'm going to check out the Amsoil. I was an Amsoil dealer or member back in 1982. I built a motorhome out of a diesel powered bus with a Detroit 6-V 71 series engine and I swapped in a 10 speed Road Ranger tranny. Nice

I bought the stuff by the gallon, since the Detroit held 5 gal. At that time Amsoil was saying 100k mi. OCI on that engine, which happened to be the factory OCI too. (I was new to Detroits back then.) The reality was that those 2 cycle diesels used / leaked a gallon of oil every 2k-3k mi. so you constantly were adding oil, and their 100k mi. boast was meaningless. I felt kind of bamboozled by Amsoil and have resented it ever since. But time heals wounds and I'm going to give them another chance. More reading to do.

Steve

 

[The_Saabster]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
Originally Posted By: The_Saabster
¿ACD? I guess eventually it will dawn on me what ACD is. Is that an Amsoil acronym?


Sorry about that. It's a product code. All Amsoil products have 3 letter product code. It's the 10W-30 recommended above. Click on the link above and see the specifications.

Originally Posted By: pablonator
For a lower cost, super heavy duty 10W-30 synthetic oil, I recommend: Amsoil ACD 10W-30.


Good, good. Thanks.

More reading.

Steve

 

[mechtech2]

Turbos get some VERY hot spots, and a full synthetic is smart for them.
Otherwise, synthetics are mainly for longer oil change intervals.

 

[INDYMAC]

I think the Schaeffers warehouse is located in St. Louis. They make excellent products too. Maybe Salesrep can hook you up with a great deal on some of their 9000 series HDEO.
I agree with a previous poster that recommended doing a Auto Rx treatment before using the expensive stuff in your Saabs though.

 

[The_Saabster]

Originally Posted By: INDYMAC
I think the Schaeffers warehouse is located in St. Louis. They make excellent products too. Maybe Salesrep can hook you up with a great deal on some of their 9000 series HDEO.
I agree with a previous poster that recommended doing a Auto Rx treatment before using the expensive stuff in your Saabs though.


You're right, Schaeffers is here in St.L. I'm going to call them tomorrow and see who handles their products locally, or maybe I can buy straight from. I know right where Benton St. is.

I was mistaken about the M-1 diesel oil. It was 5W-40; not 15w40. But I exchanged it anyway for M1 10W-30 syn (Saab factory viscosity) for gasoline engines. I plan to use it in my 300k+ mi. Saab 900's 5 spd. transmission. Any objections?

 

[INDYMAC]

If you decide to try Schaeffers, why don't you buy from one of our site sponsors? Place your order through Salesrep and then save on S&H buy picking it up at the local warehouse.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
I recommend staying with the recommended 10W-30.


+1

 

[virginoil]

Welcome. If you are going to switch from a mineral to synthetic oil or brand do a couple of extra oil filter changes. Then change the oil and filter at 3000 miles.

Then go 1500 miles and change oil filter only
Full oil and filter change at 3000 miles.

Then go into nornal oil intervals.

Cheap insurance for the aged vehicles.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: saaber1
Amsoil @ $6.60/qt - other synthetic @ 4.50?/qt = 2.10 premium X 4 qts = 8.40 = cost of lunch = 15-20% of the cost of one tank of gas

Redline @ $8/qt = $14 = cost of a little better lunch, etc.

That is not much of a premium especially for the amsoil (note I may not be right on the 4.50 for other synthetic, what does PP cost on sale?)



PP is a good synthetic oil and easy to find. Pep-Boys is running 5 Qts and a Pure-One filter for $22.99, Auto Zone just ran 5 qts and a Fram TG filter for $19.99. You mentioned shopping in Walmart they run some good prices as well.

JMO,
Frank D

 

[Audi Junkie]

As far as visc, any oil runs through a vast range of visc that will overlap w/ other grades at whatever temps. So the 30 is just as thick as the 40 at a few degrees cooler, etc. urbos run a lil hotter and there are special thicker "Euro" Xw-30 oils that are closer to the typical 5w-40 Euro Synth visc at operating temp, where the visc is measured, +100c. "Regular" 30 weight, inc synth, is on the thin end of the 30 range, very close to 20 weight. That's ok in a newer engine, but olde ones seem to like a lil thicker. that's where HM oils come in, even the dino versions are a bit thicker than average 30, kinda like the Euro oils.

 

[Gillsy]

Originally Posted By: saaber1
Oil - I've had over 40+ of the classic 900's both turbo and non turbo. Also around 20 or so 9000's which is the same engine (my neighbors used to accuse me of having a saab farm ha ha). Have tried many kinds of oil over hundreds of thousands of miles and I have had the best results with redline and amsoil. Have had one 900 turbo with 318k on it when I sold it and it ran as new. That car always had redline. I don't have UOA's to back up my preference but I have the experience of changing the oil myself and seeing the condition as well as engine reliability in the long tun. These are good engines and any oil probably does ok in them but I have had some with incredibly high miles that ran literally like new when using redline and amsoil.

Tranny - Have used redline in some of the manual trannys with astounding improvements including one 96 9000CS (super CS which is actually just a dressed up base version) that at 23k completely changed the shifting from rubbery and somewhat notchy to liquid smooth. If you talk to specialty parts places they will tell you the thing to use is redline MTL for manual trannys.

I have no idea on Automatics because I have always used M1 or Amsoil ATF and it never made any difference. I don't have that much faith in the classic 900 trannys actually - have had to milk too many of them for too many miles. The automatics aren't bad necessarily, they just don't last as long as the manuals in my experience.

If I were in your situation I would do an autorx treatment acoording to the directions with dino oil including rinse phases on each car and then run redline. I believe this will give you the most longevity possible on these cars. I know I sound like a redline fanboy here but from my experience it works amazingly well in these saabs compared to other oils (excluding amsoil which I have also had good luck with).
I bought a 2000 Civic brand new. I was unhappy with the tempermental manual transmission. I replaced the stock fluid Redline MTL. The difference was just incredible.

 

[The_Saabster]

All,

I appreciate all the information and help. It was kind of everyone to take the time to answer my question. Now I just need to to digest it all and explore the possibilities. I'll be checking BITOG later to learn more.

Thanks again,

Steve

 

[Drivebelt]

Quote:
But I exchanged it anyway for M1 10W-30 syn (Saab factory viscosity) for gasoline engines. I plan to use it in my 300k+ mi. Saab 900's 5 spd. transmission. Any objections?

In some cases on older cars (the gasket seals) don't take too well to PAO synthetics. When I put a PAO based Gear oil in the transmission (5 spd manual) of my 1987 Jetta, it caused a small constant drip in the seal between the transmission and engine. Had to eventually drain it and replace it with a conventional gear oil. You may not have problems with M1 (it has PAO in it) -- but it is something to be aware of.

Also, what type of oil and OCI (oil-change-intervals) have you been doing up to now with your SAAB's?

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
Saab recommends 10W-30. Besides extreme temperature conditions, which I uderstand but don't have, why else would I want to depart from that viscosity? In other words, what happens when I put a 5W-40 in my car and why would anyone want to do it?


IMO, the reason 5w-40 gets whipped out with such ease is that there are all kinds of 10w-30 oils out there ..some wimpy ..some very robust ..but 5w-40 synthetics are almost exclusively used in two segments of demanding performance. One is high speed Euro-alloy and the other is in over the road and off road heavy duty diesel service. They tend to jump through many hoops and also tend to lean more towards bullet proof than vulnerable to insult. There are great 10w-30 oils ..and some of them are spec'd for use in the same or similar services, but they're not in wider distribution.