TDV6 crankcase oil

[Tote]

What oil do you guys use in your engines? The manual refers to a specification that seems to seems to only exist in 200 litre drums. I went to the Canberra Caltex depot today to try and find some oil to top up my Disco and was firstly greeted with "its only available in 200 litre drums" and then "its a special oil, we're not allowed to sell it to you anyway" Hmmm, I only need a litre to top it up...
Land rover recommend Castrol oil but Castrol's website suggests a synthetic non - diesel oil, I'd have thought that a diesel oil would be the one to use. To add to the confusion there seems to have been a change in recommended oil between 2005/6 models and 2007/8 models.
Caltex recommend Havoline synthetic C3 5w-30 for 2007/8 models and 5w-40 synthetic for 2005/6 models

Castrol recommend Edge sport 0w -40 for 2007/8 models and Edge sport 5w-30 for 2005/2006

Shell and BP don't have a recommendation.
The manual says WSS-M2C913-B only

Ideas anyone....


Regards,
Tote

[Boris]

I will have a more detailed look tomorrow however the original spec for 05/06 was 5W/30 meeting ACEA B1 or B3. What the LR Dealers were using at least initially was Castrol of similar specs and apart from one oil change out of the 3 so far on my parked up inoperational D3 with 18,355 km on it I have supplied Castrol Oils to the dealer for the changes. Initially it was Magnetec which has been superceded by Edge.

In simple terms the consensus particularly from the UK was that for the TDV6 Engine the requirements/recommendations were

Fully Synthetic [which the Dealers use]
ACEA B1 or B3 [which many synthetics meet anyway]
and 5W/30 or appropriate for your area.

One of my other vehicles which is a V12 BMW has been running on SemiSynthetic Shell Helix for many years however recently I changed to a SemiSynthetic Elf Oil and have been quite pleased with the results so I might look at Elf assuming that I still have the laid up inoperational D3 in a few months.

Going back a very long time ago we ... my family ... ran all the vehicles on BP Vanellus Diesel Oil - C3 from memory - a mulitgrade with quite a high detergent component and that worked out well for us with minimal problems over a wide range of vehicles for many years. In fact the bodies wore out before the engines ever did.

I think the key is good quality oils meeting minimum specs, regular changes and good driving habits. I dont think the brand as long as you steer clear of the cheapies really matters although Elf which is a bit hard to find in Australia is certainly impressive in the BMW.

VR