Thread: Good Value Oil for TD5 Owners

Excellent pricing, however....

That oil, and it's 5W-40 brother are C3 rated oils which are low SAPS (C= catalyst compatible)

The phosphorous level in that oil is only 0.08% with an overall sulphated ash level of 0.8%

These are low levels and there may not be quite enough protection for the cam lobes running the unit injectors which run under high load. (unless other anti-wear and extreme pressure additives are employed)
There have been problems with lobe failures in the past, (Often using Mobil 1 5W-30) and I don't know whether this was an oil or metallurgy failure.
All the modern small catalyst equipped diesels these days are common rail, not unit injector. I also notice that on the PDS it doesn't mention small commercial diesels, only passenger car and light duty diesels, but that may just be a typo. [edit] It does say meets ACEA B4-04, which is good, (B3 and B4 include VW specific piston cleanliness tests and have a higher HTHS spec than B1 or B5) but the ACEA have updated specs since then and i don't have the earlier specs sheet here.

I'd double check with Caltex first, and of the 5W-30 and 5W-40 I'd go with the slightly heavier oil in a hard working TD5.

Have a read of the PDF below.
It is from a rival oil company and I'm not advocating their product at all, but it is an interesting read.

[edit] Price up some of this next time http://www.caltex.com.au/ProductsAnd...n.aspx?ID=1734
It's designed for Euro II/III spec diesel engines. (E4)
Don't be put off by the 10W-40 grade, it's a full synthetic and will flow more than enough in any winter temp Australia will see and i'm guessing will have a much lower NOACK # (measurement of an oils volatility) than most all 5W-40's and shear less too.

Hmmm interesting. Thanks Rick30 that was a good post.

You would think that a company as big as caltex would suggest the correct oil which is the oil I have purchased, Havoline Synthetic C3 5w-30. I wonder why they have not suggested the Delo XLD multigrade 10W-40 as you have suggested Rick. Surely there is some reason, its just so hard to tell these days with so many options. I just went with what the oil company recommended.

Might be a big call even to suggest that Mobil 1 might be responsible for cam lobe failures. Might have been a metalurgy failure as you also suggested, a bad batch or something of that nature. I have seen this with camshafts, lifters (polished hardened surfaces mass produced) etc on other vehicles and once replaced problems would not re-occure. Even with same oil used after repair.

You have obviously done some research into oils. Would the Havoline synthetic C3 5w30 not be a better oil than the Castrol Magnatech which is what alot of the Landrover dealers use or Penrite diesel5 which is what penrite recommend. These are both only semi-synthetic?

The Havoline Synthetic C3 5w-30 meets all of the requirements specified by Landrover. Have 20 litres of it now so I am going to give it a go.

Thanks for your reply. Oil is always a good discussion.

If Caltex recommend it, it should be fine.

As I said, some C2/C3/C4 oils aren't really backward compatible, it just depends on what EP/AW additives are used to replace the ZDDP type additive that is reduced/removed.

There are some brilliant (and expensive) additives to replace the old standbys like ZDDP and Texaco are world leaders on borate ester EP additives which they hold a number of patents on, and which I've been led to believe are superior to most of the old additive technology.

Having said that I really like heavy duty diesel oils in 4Wd engines, having had good success with oils like Delvac 1 5W-40 in the past in several engine types.

Thanks Rick
Excellent advice as usual.
Now Im a 2 TD5 owner I will be looking into 20lt drums as it will certainly be cost effective now.
Until now Ive been using Castrol Edge 5w30,just waited till Supercrapp had a good special and bought 2x5l.
Andrew

Originally Posted by davrac

[snip]

Would the Havoline synthetic C3 5w30 not be a better oil than the Castrol Magnatech which is what alot of the Landrover dealers use or Penrite diesel5 which is what penrite recommend. These are both only semi-synthetic?

Not necessarily.

I'd actually personally pick an oil like Penrite Diesel 5 over, say, Mobil 1 5W-30 even though the M1 is primarily a PAO syn base and marketed as a full synthetic.

M1 5W-30 or 10W-30 as both are A5/B5, ILSAC GF-4 oils which only have a High Temperature/High Shear (HTHS) viscosity of 3.09mPa and 3.14mPa respectively.
They are primarily designed as 'fuel economy' oils, whereas the Diesel 5's HTHS # is greater than the minimum demanded for ACEA B4 at 3.5mPa (actually 3.8)
That oil also meets the more demanding ACEA E4 specification (for heavy duty diesels) as well as the API CH-4 spec compared to the API CF spec of most full syn petrol biased oils, and FWIW the Diesel 5 is a mix of Group II/III and IV oils, so is no slouch in the base oil department either.

Generally speaking heavy duty diesel oils use superior additive packages to petrol engine biased oils and therefore provide greater protection in hard worked engines, and to my mind a Tdi or TD5 is working hard most of the time pushing 2.5 tonnes around from only 2.5 litres of swept volume.

Originally Posted by davrac

The Havoline Synthetic C3 5w-30 meets all of the requirements specified by Landrover. Have 20 litres of it now so I am going to give it a go.

Thanks for your reply. Oil is always a good discussion.

The TD5 arrived in '98 and oils have come a long way since then. The ACEA A1/B1 spec is pretty ordinary these days and the Havoline 5W-30 you are using exceeds that easily meeting the B3-04 (now obsolete) and B4-04 specs.
If Caltex recommend it, and it easily exceeds Land Rovers pretty average specs, It'll be fine.

So what about my Mobil E7/E6 oil then???

http://www.allianceparts.com.au/Medi...979dc80391.pdf

I'm using the Delvac1 10-40 off our bulk but I have the E7/E6 in 20L drums and have looked at it for the next change. I have a sneaking suspicion its the same oil.....

Cheers

Andrew

Originally Posted by LOVEMYRANGIE

So what about my Mobil E7/E6 oil then???

http://www.allianceparts.com.au/Medi...979dc80391.pdf

I'm using the Delvac1 10-40 off our bulk but I have the E7/E6 in 20L drums and have looked at it for the next change. I have a sneaking suspicion its the same oil.....

Cheers

Andrew

I'm running a similar specced low SAPS oil (E4/E6/E7) in the 300Tdi and Nissan TD42T.

I probably shouldn't use it in the Japanese engine as they generally require a mid-ash oil but the rest of the specs are so robust and those specs are for the latest Euro heavy diesels, with the E7 spec indicating a long life oil, up to 100,000km with UOA's in the big MB engines.
They are also backwards compatible for the older MB engines like the Actros too, so I'd reckon we're pretty safe using them.

I haven't done any oil tests for the 18 months I've been using it and I really should. I have a fresh 20l drum in the shed, the Patrol's due again, guess what I'll be doing later today.......

12 months on and ????

c'mon Rick!

we are all sitting on the edge of our seats here--