Just something dredged up after discussions with brother in law in defense of 3k oil changes. Seems that engine developments in Europe in the late seventies required oils not represented by American standards at the time. Consequently manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes would recommend their own specification of oils to backup and ensure engine life guarantees. At the times North American oils contained high amounts of ash (?).

If you are still not bored, read the following:

The North American habit of having oil changed in the engine every 3000 miles has its roots in past far ago, when the API SC, CB oils were the norm. Those had reserve alkalinity and buffering ability only sourced from the bulk mass of the fresh base stock and offered very, very little in terms of surface protection in corrosion or mechanical resistance. With better lubricants in the beginning of the 1980s, in Europe longer service intervals became the norm, with 10,000 miles in standard car use as the typical value in the 1990s.

Many service technicians still recommend 3000 or 5000 km service intervals in the conservative North American market, as it suits them as a source of revenue and also there is less of a need to provide top quality lubricants.

Because of the need for motor oils with unique qualities, many modern cars for the European market will demand a specific OEM-only oil standard. As a result, it may make no reference at all to ACEA or API standards. This is in the case of VW pumpe-düse diesel engines, as the manufacturer cannot guarantee longevity and reliability of a certain engine component without adherence to the specification. While it may be confusing that the standard may not specify SAE viscosity, it is not the important parameter. Wear protection and HTHS viscosity are important parameters and are not specified in the SAE viscosity standard. Additionally, the API tests are performed on engines subjected to far lighter loads and shears. The reason for current development of new OEM standards is that in the 1970s to 1980s when the SAE and API refused to develop standards for characterising oils by their HTHS viscosity or by their lubricating properties, because 'some products would be looking bad even if they were completely OK

Quote from ASTM report on the matter: "The rapid growth of non-Newtonian multigraded oils has rendered kinematic viscosity as a nearly useless parameter for characterising "real" viscosity in critical zones of an engine.

... There are those who are disappointed that the twelve-year effort has not resulted in a redefinition of the SAE J300 Engine Oil Viscosity Classification document so as to express high-temperature viscosity of the various grades ...

... In the view of this writer, this redefinition did not occur because the automotive lubricant market knows of no field failures unambiguously attributable to insufficient HTHS oil viscosity."

Since low and high quality oils conformed to the same standard which did not mandate critical parameters, engine manufacturers were forced to develop their own standards and tests, as the lubricant providers did not manufacture lubricants with guaranteed minimal lubricity under real world stress conditions at the time of the development of engines conforming to new legislation. As new lubricant standards were only always introduced after lengthy proceedings to arrive barely in time with the new generation of engines, users were always left in the dark when comparing various oil brands and products which all conformed to the same maximum specification, even if particular products could perform far better than others.

All this could have been prevented 40 years ago when inclusion of HTHS standards was demanded by lubrication experts into any known standard.

Thus users today who want to top up or change engine oil need to pay close attention to the list of certificates on the oil label (on the back side), and gain understanding of the specific manufacturer designation meaning, which number signifies petrol engine, which diesel engine. Which number marks suitability for a turbocharged engine, etc.



http://en.wikipedia.org

 

Good thing my AC Delco 214-552 rochester valve didn't arrive this past Friday and I am thoroughly bored
In a nut shell, use an oil that meets the European ACEA A3 standard and all is well. In the US if you purchase the Jaguar oil from dealership you will get a low viscosity oil developed to satisfy the EPA fuel mileage bureaucracy and not an oil that provides the best protection for the engine. Example- the owners manual for my XFR specifies SAE 5W-20. To my knowledge this low viscosity grade is specified only for North American market. Rest of World is ACEA A3, which I can only find in synthetic 5w-40 and numericly higher SAE, with the exception of Mobil 1 High Mileage 10w-30.

 

A few observations based on the replies to my post on the economics of oil changes.
1. Oil is a lot more expensive in the UK, as is petrol!
2. The original specification was for semi synthetic, so I was not loading the dice by costing for semi synthetic.
3. Dust is not a factor in considering oil change intervals. If you are worried about dust, I would be inclined to worry a lot more about my air filter.
4. 3000 mile service intervals are a throwback to the 1970s and earlier. Modern lubricants are infinitely more sophisticated, as are automotive designs generally.
If cars really needed 3000 mile oil changes, the roadside would be littered with seized engines, and the scrapyards full of worn out engines. The reality is that cars are driven for much higher mileages now, and when they are scrapped, it is usually due to some non engine related issue, often electrical. In the good old days, cars burning oil were a frequent sight, and every motor factor made a living out of selling decoke sets and body filler, but thankfully things have moved on.

 

Spot on. There's every bit of evidence to indicate that these engines are quite robust.

I believe the cars sold in North America had no requirement for semi-synthetic or synthetic oils. We've recently established several data points indicating that dealers here did not use or promote synthetics oils until not all that long ago. I know for a fact that Jag would only pay for non-synth while my car was under the 'free maintenance' package when new.

 

Castrol 10-40 lower mileage. 10-40 mix with half 20-50 higher mileage.Change every 5,000 miles using WIX oil filter.

 

The owner information that came with my 1995 VDP includes a "Passport to Service, 1995 Jaguar" booklet that specifies engine oil & filter changes at 7,500 mile intervals for XJ6 &XJS equipped with either the 4.0L, including supercharged version XJR, as well as the 6.0L V-12.
That's what I've used. Shell Rotella T6; acquired the car in 2010 with 63k miles, now has 196k, no lubrication-related problems.

 

It costs less to change too early than to change too late.

#1 toyota - con rod through side of the block
#2 acura - popped oil relief spring leading to seized cams

fixed #2, donated #1

 

You are mixing up SAE viscosity measurement and API standards.

SAE J300, the standard for measuring viscosity is included by reference
in the ACEA standards.

Neither API nor ACEA imply any particular specification. It is when SAE J300
is combined with either spec that some parts are modified. For example,
for xW40 API oils only, there is a break in required viscosity at 100*C at
below and at or above 15W40.

I have no disagreement with your suggestion that a oil meeting A3/B4
ACEA spec is a very good oil.

 

Apples to Oranges. Neither car equipped with an AJ16 and no mention of OCI or grade used. Toyota and Honda are both know for "reliability" but I have seen more of both brands driving around belching oil smoke than any other modern vehicle.
I would throw an AJ16 engine against any other in terms of mechanical reliability and bet my money on the AJ16. The X300 XJ6 I owned before never once saw a tow truck in 160k miles, throw in another 80k for the next owner, add the 106k prior to my purchase and that is nearly 350k miles with no major engine fault. Heck, besides an ignition module failure my old 91 XJS never laid down on me either. I don't care what folks think of Japanese cars, heritage Jag engines don't break if properly maintained.

 

I have been looking at the 15w50 Mobil 1 since my "old school" Jaguar mechanic recommended 20w50 conventional to stop my tensioner rattle, which it did.

But I'm also interested in trying the 10w40 Mobil 1 High Mileage since they don't make it in the 15w50 weight. Will have to see if it causes the rattles I heard with the 10w30 conventional I had used in the past.

.

 

Yes sir. I was stating that I have not been able to locate an ACEA A3 oil with SAE viscosity below 5W-40 besides the Mobil 1 High Mileage 10w-30. For my 2011 XFR Jag says to use their *******-2 in North America and *******-3 ROW, they don't publish what the SAE is for those oils(that I have been able to locate), they do recommend ACEA A3 for ROW.
I enjoy good fuel economy, but not at the expense of engine life. US EPA bureaucrats have little care for engine life.

 

And how does

contradict that?

Too early is unknown, and too late is about 1 second after the engine blows,
whatever the mileage.

 

Like I said, I don't disagree on the base premise. Only that SAE is limited to viscosity.

Look at who started this thread:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...highlight=acea

 

FWIW, when I sold my 1995 XJR last year it had 171000 miles, the engine ran quietly and sweet as a nut, and used but a mere 1 quart of oil every 4000 miles.

My absolute hard and fast rule ....I was viciously adamant about this....was to use whatever name brand oil was on sale that day

Cheers
DD

 

Another rule is plenty of dirty oil is better than
too little clean oil.

In one of my cars, oil "changes" consisted of adding a
quart before each long trip. This was to makeup for the
oil lost to the automatic rust spray system that coated
the underside of the vehicle. Twenty year old car, rust
free and it ran hard at sale time. Wish I had it back.

 

HA! That is similar to the schedule I use on my 91 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, except it is a quart per fuel stop.
I should stop modding the Jags and replace the rear main seal on that old beast soon.

 

So now that we confirmed that the factory OCI is 10,000 miles for the X300, which BTW for a car in the mid 1990s seems like it was way before its time and perhaps accounts for why we have such a large 8-9Qt oil capacity...... should it be safe to assume that that the associated factory Jaguar EBC9658 oil filter is designed for that same 10,000 mile OCI?

I would say "yes" as I've seen no other guidance to change the filter more frequently, and if so that also would suggest that especially for a circa mid-1990s oil filter the Jaguar filter was way ahead of its time too.

While researching this, I was looking at using the Purolator PureOne PL15317 (correct PN for the X300) which is now rated for 10,000 miles OCI, and is a well known very good filter. But as reported in other threads that mention the PureOne, it is suspiciously a lot smaller than the Jaguar filter, although to be fair the size of the filter really isn't very meaningful.

But if the Jaguar unit is truly designed for the AJ16 and 10,000 mile OCI, it may just be the better bet to use OEM?

The perceived advantage of the Purolator is that it is explicitly rated for 10,000 mile OCIs, well known as a superior filter (to most competitors, as compared to the Jaguar filter... unknown), and is 1/3 the cost of the Jaguar filter.

With those potential advantages I considered the Purolator if the Jaguar filter really wasn't up to going a full 10,000 miles.... even though my plan was to really stick between 5-7,500 miles anyway.

So, has anyone taken the time to look into the Jaguar filter's construction or had experience running them to the 10,000 mile OCI and checked out the condition of the filter afterwards, analyzed their oil, etc?

Any experience running the PureOne on the X300, especially with longer OCIs such as 5-10k miles, and if the drainback valve worked as well as the Jaguar filter in keeping startup chain tensioner slap eliminated?

The Jaguar filter clearly does an excellent job maintaining anti drainback as I experienced a lot of issues with the updated upper tensioner clattering upon startup with off-brand cheap filters, but was eliminated upon using the Jaguar filter. Hence my question.


.

 

The Jaguar filter should be fine, my backup if one isn't available is WIX. Those have a better filter media (and more of it) than most filters.

Filters are not rated by miles, they are rated by the size of particles they can trap. They might plug up in the first mile or the last, it totally depends upon how contaminated the oil is. That can depend on a number of factors.

When I was working with large industrial engines, the oil change interval is never specified as a certain number of hours. It was specified as properties in relation to new oil, or certain minimum criteria, such as pH, or nitration levels. I had one instillation where the contamination limits could be reached in 100 hours of running, and another in 9,000 hours. The difference was fuel quality; one site's fuel was appallingly bad, and the other was very good.

I suppose a parallel is to ask how many gallons could you run through a water filter to make drinking water? Depends if your feedstock is clear mountain water, or muddy farm field run off.

 

Thanks, very true. I also have an email out to Purolator to confirm the model number and support for a given OCI.

 

If I were to use a 7500 or 10000 mile oil changes, I would run a quart of Rislone through the engine once in a while. It's a detergent that cleans out the sludge from carbonized (burned) oil. I had great results with it, and I run it through all of the used cars after purchase. The engines tend to run smoother and quieter after Rislone. Just my $0.02