Oil Change

[domtoni]

Guys,

My car needs an oil change, its a 1969 2.0E.

Currently running Shell multigrade (don't remember what) mineral based.

What is currently recommended?

Dom

[911hillclimber]

FWIW:
I've used Shell Gemini/ Helix HX7 10/40 for 30 years in the 911 in all it's 3 engines.

Be ready for a 1000 different opinions!

[bjmullan]

Be ready for a 1000 different opinions!

[JA51ON W]

I use valvoline vr1 20/50 in my 2.0e

[domtoni]

I understood from my pals at Two plus Two that Valvoline 20-50 VR1 is the hot set up.

Was curious about what else is out there. I don't expect any oil is bad.

[911hillclimber]

Bob Watson told me to use the Shell oil.
Today you can at times buy it for 1/2 retail fron ECP.

[Lightweight_911]

.

I used Valvoline VR1 20/50 in all of my early Porsches* - I used to stock up whenever it was on special offer ...

*I think it was originally (15+ yrs ago) following a recommendation by Neil Bainbridge


.

[hot66]

Valvoline here too....

[mycar]

[DarthMJH]

Valvoline here too....

Me too

[jb]

Valvoline here too....

Me too

me too

[911hillclimber]

As ever, nobody knows what is the best oil, just that they have never had a failure while using the brand they have most faith in.

I've used the same Shell oil since Bob advised me to.
Hillclimb for 13 years, 60K road miles in the 911, 3 very hard years with the same spec oil in my Impreza, and 10 years in my Lola (flat 6).

None of the engines have failed due to oil issues, thus I have faith in the spec and brand.

Unless you take one engine in known condition and run it with a Brand of oil and strip it after big miles or application and measure the engine for wear you can never know if it is any good/better than another brand.
One fact you can take is Porsche state an oil/spec for their products in period just like they did for the (say) 915 gearbox, so to use the closest to the spec is good, but as Dom said, nobody makes a bad oil if to a Spec. Brake fluid is the same.

Major factor for engine longevity is the frequency of oil changes for a given application imho despite what the manufacturer says, so for me (the 911, the Lola and the Boxster) is an oil/filter change each year no matter the miles I cover (about 2K, 100, 5K respectively).

Out of interest, what spec is the Shell, the Valvolene and the Porsche oil made to?

[hot66]

Re hillclimbers post ... the guy who recommended Valvoline to me was actually an aircooled Vw drag race engine builder ... he had his own 600 Bhp turbo flat 4 and built a lot of the fast motors for the U.K. Vw drag scene ... he rebuilt these same motors as a matter of course regularly as you do with highly stressed motors. What he was seeing was fairly high wear rates on previous oils... when he swapped over to valvoline and in his opinion the motors showed less wear etc.

I followed his advice ... it was then only a few months later I got the same advice for Neil Bainbridge too .

Either way, I’ve been running with valvoline ever since

[bjmullan]

Since the middle of 2018 I have been using Mobil 1 full synthetic 10W60. Never needed to top up and no leaks or other issues. Not big mileage but hard use as among other things I hillclimb the car. Will continue to use, much to the disapprove of others (Mike Bainbridge ).

[Saxon46]

Ecp doing 50% discount at the mo......5l shell helix £15