Recommended engine oil and gearbox oil NA

[rougerules]

Hi..me again

Thinking about servicing my car, doing a Oil change and Gearbox Oil change .

Was wondering what the recommended Oils are, also any other advice greatly appreciated

Lotus Esprit 1989 NA 2.2

[Bibs]

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/EGuides/ETechnical/oil.html

 

[rougerules]

Thanks Bibs...Has Castrol Taf X been discontinued?

[Barrykearley]

Yes it has. I most certainly could not obtain it a few months ago.

i had to use and equivalent that complied with the same chemical standard thingys......

[Jacques]

Long talks about this earlier on.

Taf-x is very hard to obtain these days - there are still a few small amounts in stock here and there. But they may be old by now. And degraded a bit over time, not to mention if they have been exposed to frost, which is bad for oils. I have found a few bottles, but declined because of age of the product.

So: Lotus Recommends, after testing, Castrol fully synthetic engine oil and gearbox oil. Now, not any oil, but in it's present forms, the engine oil is Castrol  Edge FST Ti 10W60 (titanium particle additive) and Castrol Syntrans Transaxle 75W-90. Be aware that there are many similar sounding versions. Only this one is tested and approved.

That's what I use, and others may prefer other oils, of course. I called Castrol UK and had a good long talk with them, and amongst other questions, they said that if storing the car over Winter or other periods, change the oils, and take a good long'ish drive in it, before putting it away. Reason is the additives are a bit agressive in the beginning. They also said don't use flush oils. If you want to flush out other previous used oils or of other reasons wants to flush the engine oilways, use the same (expensive) oil as you want to pour into the engine afterwards. So I did. Castrol also told me, that the Ti version of their Edge FST oil, is fully compatible with Edge FST and Edge Sport and won't make any "funny" sludge or similar, if mixed. Castrol also told me how a good engine oil degrades if exposed to frost - it minimizes the lubrication additives to be rather low and the oil molecules to be of a lesser structure. That is also why they recommended me to change oils before the Winter and after the Winter, if exposed to (rather hard) frost (which it is not; allways over 12 deg. cel.). If not exposed to (rather hard) frost, change before Winter storage or 10.000 km or once per year, whatever comes first. I change every year, every 5.000km or if exposed to (rather hard) frost. Thae same goes for gear oil, brake fluid etc. Notoriously. Religiously. No exception, apart from being on a holida trip across Europe, in ehich case the oil burns so fine and free in one long period, that I can just keep an eye on the oil level during the vacation. I did change the engine oil etc, between two trips of 5.000 km each, though, as I was home two days before leaving for the second trip.

Finally, this is on my own, I've seen quite many high tech audi and vw engines running long-life oils from approved brands and quality, and what this does to an engine. In short: nothing good. It created sludge and every single time caused lesser lubrication in the engine(s). This is my personal advice: steer clear of long life oils.

Now I know, that you did not mention oilfilters, but feel free to take a look on the web on oil filters being cut open and examined how well and how they Work. I only use genuine Lotus oil filters. Nuff' said.

That is my (hysterical) take on the subject

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[rougerules]

Thanks Jacques for your information.

[Choppa]

When I collected my gearbox from Harry Martens he  recommended I use Red Line MT-90 75w90