Oil and Filter Change Frequency

I was today removing the power steering reservoir from a parts P6b owned by Rover Bill to install on my own vehicle. I noted that the body number prefix was 453 which tells me it was CKD and RHD and was thus assembled here in NZ. It must have been one of the last ones as the body suffix was D. On the left hand inner guard ( wing ) was the usual maintenance instructions and I was amazed to note that the reccomended engine oil was 10W30 ! This seems to fly inthe face of the discussions which regularly appear on this forum on the types and viscosity of oils to be used the V8 engine. I also have a near new car and it requires 10W30 also. Any comments?
 
Maybe the label was meant for a car destined for a cold climate such as Norway??? but that would not explain its presence in NZ.

Maybe I should look at my label, I have never looked at it in the 24 years I have owned it :oops: Just looked in the owners manual back in 86 / 87

Graeme
 
classicus wrote,...
I was today removing the power steering reservoir from a parts P6b owned by Rover Bill to install on my own vehicle. I noted that the body number prefix was 453 which tells me it was CKD and RHD and was thus assembled here in NZ. It must have been one of the last ones as the body suffix was D. On the left hand inner guard ( wing ) was the usual maintenance instructions and I was amazed to note that the reccomended engine oil was 10W30 ! This seems to fly inthe face of the discussions which regularly appear on this forum on the types and viscosity of oils to be used the V8 engine. I also have a near new car and it requires 10W30 also. Any comments?
Click to expand...

That Rover would by the sound of it must have been a 1974 model. The last NZ assembled Rovers were suffix E from 1976, so a fair way still to go.

In the official double volume Rover workshop manual, "the oils recommended for the engine/geabox/de dion are 20W, 10W40 or 20W50, 20W30 and 20/20W. These recommendations apply to temperature climates where operational conditions may vary between 10 degrees C and 32 degrees C. For all temperature ranges multigrade 20W50 oils are recommended."

I imagine it was a time of experimentation with oil companies and car manufacturers. The car owners would be in affect the guinea pigs with the right choice seeing their engines/gearboxes etc working well over a long period of time, with a less than satisfactory outcome for those that chose or had their cars serviced differently. I think the proof of the experiement would be in the oils that were recommended for the SD1 and all subsequent Land/Range Rovers sporting Rover V8 engines with camshaft driven oil pumps....20W50!

Ron.
 
As I mentioned above I intended to cut open one of my oil filters and have a look inside. I have never done this before, so I didn't really know what I was going to find. The oil filter that I cut open is a K & N HP-2003. I fitted the filter on 26/5/2011 and removed it yesterday,..6/8/2011, during which time it saw 5,887 Miles of service.

Upon inspection the filter media appeared very clean indeed. No bits of visible metal or anything else for that matter.

P8070002.jpg


The orange rubber cup on the end is the anti drain back valve. These can be seen through the small holes around the face of the filter. The oil pushes it aside in order to enter the filter media.

Ron.
 
How does the colouration compare with a new one, Ron? I know it's expensive, but I'd be inclined to conpare with a new one soaked in new oil of the same brand. Even then, I'm not convinced you will see the effect of these filters - after all, you are looking for contamination at the micron level. At best that is going to show up as colour, perhaps not at all short of a microscope. With luck, all the visible particles will finish up as sludge in the sump!

Your thoughts?

Chris
 
Hi Chris,

I agree in that testing a new filter soaked in fresh oil would allow a colour comparison. The absence of particulate matter was especially pleasing, certainly in the visible sense.

Ron.
 
I suppose it will be difficult to determine the amount of particulate contamination you have had over your 5887miles of use judging by how your filter medium looks, unless you actually have a sample of drained oil analysed to know for sure what level of particulate you get every 5000miles, but then this comes down to cost and what exactly you are prepared to do to know how a filter is performing. I suppose it would be interesting if someone you know has one of those external wrap around magnets attached to a filter you could see some amount of metallic particulate trapped and therefore give you some idea of what is being pumped around with the oil if indeed it would not otherwise get caught by the filter, maybe you could try this for your next 5000mile interval some sort of strong magnet somewhere on your filter perhaps???
Scott
 
Hello Scott,

I have thought about using magnets on the outside surface of the oil filter, of course it will only pick up ferrous metals, but that is better than nothing. Of course any large bits will be trapped by the filter given the K & N collects from 10 microns and up. At the end of the day though I don't have a standard to compare against, so having a look inside the filter was more a learning exercise than anything more detailed and specific.

I think the best protection for any Rover V8 engine is regular oil and filter changes, and that includes time intervals too. An oil change every 6 months at the minimum even if the engine has only seen 100 miles or less in that time.

Ron.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top