Halfords 5W-50 "Race" oil

[gradeAfailure 0]

Anyone tried it? I know that Kev uses Silkolene ProS 10W-50 as it's slightly thicker than 10W-40 at 100deg and reduces oil consumption in VRs; but the Halfords stuff is £20 less for 5L. Mine doesn't use any more than average, but thought this might help reduce it even further. From what I've heard, Halfords oils are no worse than the decent branded makes...

[Supercharged 2]

I think Kev uses a 15W... 5W is to thin imo

[gradeAfailure 0]

But the 5W is only the cold rating, so surely that's better as it gets the oil round the engine faster when cold (a good thing I assume?), but when it's hot it doesn't go as thin as, say, Quantum Silver, leading to less oil useage? Seems logical to me, but then I could be completely wrong! :lol:

[Supercharged 2]

Do you use any oil at the moment? I thought the engine had been rebuilt failry recently...

[gradeAfailure 0]

She had a head rebuild at Stealth about 20K ago, but all VRs used anything up to 1L/1000miles even when new! Mine's nowhere near that, but every little helps, ya know... :)

[bcstudent 0]

You may find you get a touch more blue smoke from cold starts, but I'd say it's worth a try.

[dr_mat 0]

A touch more blue smoke indeed. Though your cylinder head has been reconditioned so shouldn't drop too much oil in the cylinders, you might just find that 5w causes a big problem. Don't forget this is 10 less than the book recommends for use in temperate climates.

I'm no expert, but I know these old engines don't like ultra-thin modern oils. You just won't get sufficient oil pressure when the engine is cold with a 5w, and if you do it'll likely piss out all over the place because the seal tolerances are just not up to it.

Try it out by all means, but keep a tin of the real stuff in the boot too ...

[bcstudent 0]

People can speculate about the consequenses 'till the cows come home. If you want to try it....try it. It sounds like you're well aware of the potential issues.

[Trig 0]

Mines actually been using more since changing to silky than it was one magnatec.

 

It is the 10w stuff that i'm using.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Supercharged, the Silkolene I use is 10W mate.

 

Grade A, I'm not sure who makes Halford's oil, but you can be sure it'll be a big player. Can't see a problem with 5/50W to be honest. 5W will pump round the engine faster when cold (than a 10) and the 50 weight at 100 deg will obviously offer more viscosity than a 40. Sounds ideal to me.

[craigowl 0]

Not suggesting kevHaywire will rush out and buy this one :shock:, but this week Lidl had 5 litres of oil for £6.95, I think.

 

I cannot recall what viscosity it was, but it was one of the common ones.

It was "made in Germany" and conformed to VW 505 00 among others.

 

Would not put it in my own VR6, but if anyone is running an oil smoker as a second car or wants to flush out an engine with a cheapo, this one could be OK.

Be good if someone in the industry could tell us exactly what "make" it is.

 

A friend of the family works in the whisky industry and tells us that the Single Malt whisky Lidl sell is actually a well known respected type fetching almost double Lidl's price.

Apparently when Lidl are making any kind of deal with the whisky distributors, they are particularly agressive in chasing after a low cost for supply..

[Rob_B 0]

Not suggesting kevHaywire will rush out and buy this one :shock:, but this week Lidl had 5 litres of oil for £6.95, I think.

 

I cannot recall what viscosity it was, but it was one of the common ones.

It was "made in Germany" and conformed to VW 505 00 among others.

 

Would not put it in my own VR6, but if anyone is running an oil smoker as a second car or wants to flush out an engine with a cheapo, this one could be OK.

Be good if someone in the industry could tell us exactly what "make" it is.

 

A friend of the family works in the whisky industry and tells us that the Single Malt whisky Lidl sell is actually a well known respected type fetching almost double Lidl's price.

Apparently when Lidl are making any kind of deal with the whisky distributors, they are particularly agressive in chasing after a low cost for supply..

 

you will find that most of the cheap stuff is made in exactly the same place as the "better", more expensive stuff

i doubt that whoever supplied lidl with their oil has their own factory to make cheap oil

[dr_mat 0]

The only concern with the pile-em-high retailers is you don't really know if the rebadged big name products are being sold by Lidl because Lidl are canny businessmen, or because the big name company decided this product failed it's own QC process and decided to dump it on the market cheap rather than disposing of or reprocessing it...

[craigowl 0]

Dr_mat quoth

The only concern with the pile-em-high retailers is you don't really know if the rebadged big name products are being sold by Lidl because Lidl are canny businessmen, or because the big name company decided this product failed it's own QC process and decided to dump it on the market cheap rather than disposing of or reprocessing it...

 

The malt whisky went down OK, as did the Port, as did the Schnapps....