Oil woes!

Mildly_Miffed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82083128#Comment_82083128

Yeh, well, that's a very good indictment of the utter guff genAI will give out as if fact.

Please stop believing it.

It also comes up with tosh such as "Grade: This is usually now a Multi Grade Oil for modern cars" - the 1960s called, and want their new-fangled back.

Baldytyke88

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82083208#Comment_82083208

AI comes up with some wrong answers, but it knows more than most people.

Goudy

It's 2026 and there are new engines still using single weight oils but there aren't used in cars anymore, they tend to be used in stationary engines running things like compressors or lawn mowers and motorcycles.

There were car engines produced much later than the 1960's that took single weight oils. A lot of air/oil cooled engines used it into the 1980's and there are some motorcycle engines being built today that use a single weight engine oil.

I'm afraid AI let you down there or was it your own fallibility. Though multigrade oil might have been available in the 60's, not everything ran on it and still doesn't.

So there are a range of engines right up to modern day that use a single weight, which is why you'll still find single weight oils on the shelves of motor factors today and perhaps why one should be aware it's available when shopping for oil, even if it's just to make sure your don't pick the wrong oil up.

If you are shopping for engine oil for a modern car, you can ignore all the single weight oils.

Mildly_Miffed

Sorry, Goudy, but which "air/oil cooled" engines requiring single-weight oils in the 80s are you thinking of?

The only non-water-cooled cars I can think of on the UK market in the 80s were the Fiat 126 (until the bis in '87), the Porsche 911, very early petrol VW T3s (until the wasserboxer in '82), and the Citroen GSA and 2cv. The Beetle was dead by the mid 70s. None of those insisted on single-weight oils.

Oil for things like garden machinery are over-priced and over-marketed, and there's zero reason why you couldn't just chuck something generic in. They're rarely used over a wide ambient temp range. Who's mowing the grass in frost?

Multigrades took over rapidly after their 1950s introduction, and were ubiquitous by the late 60s.
There's no reason at all to stick to single-weight in anything post-war - apart from sheer luddism or perhaps the very odd and very exotic edge case such as a racing engine.

Goudy

So what about this Two Stroke | Langen Motorcycles

It's still being made today and the engine will only run on a single weight engine oil and nothing else. You cannot put multigrade in it's engine. The oil for these and engines like them are strictly single weight.

Similar engine bikes were still being mass produced and sold up to 2017 and I'd hardly call a Vespa a race engine or edge case, they sold hundreds of thousands of them a year. In fact on a year by year basis, they probably out sold any car model.

You are also incorrect about the Beetle, it wasn't dead by the mid 70's. Of course it was still in production in Mexico, Brazil and Nigeria until much later but I am not thinking about these.

There were several versions of the Beetle's that were still produced in Europe much later than the mid 70's and were available to order in the UK that was still being sold until the 1980's that specified a high zinc SAE 30 oil.

Of course some engines designed for a single weight oil might run okay on a multigrade but not all will which is why the likes of Opie Oils stock over 20 different single weight engine oils.

If you can "chuck something generic in" why do they sell all these and why are they all still available?

paul_c123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082283#Comment_82082283

As above, really.

Put simply, on a wetbelt engine its not enough simply to match the grade and general spec, its also important to get the right manufacturer-specific spec.

I would say this is true even if its burning a lot of oil and needs more frequent topping up, for this kind of engine.

paul_c123

Canal boat engines specifically will often use a deliberately low grade of oil, which contains few additives, because they are optimised for low power running and an older/lower spec oil doesn't cause (as much) bore glazing etc.

Iceweasel

Oh dear, maybe I've been using the wrong oil in my 1980 Wartburg 353.

paul_c123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82083894#Comment_82083894

Some cars (and other machinery, eg canal boats) need a specific oil for a specific reason. And others, don't need a specific oil so other factors (like price) can be used to determine the best "suitable" oil. These days, a synthetic oil is often cheaper than a semi or mineral oil, due to economy of scale.

Mildly_Miffed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82083894#Comment_82083894

Having helped a mate remove the engine from one of those in relatively recent times… I can confirm it was ridiculously heavy.

Yeh, we aren't talking about two-smoke oil. That's not the same thing at all.

As for air-cooled VWs, you'd be amazed at just how luddite some of their fanbois are.