60’000 miles on cheap supermarket oil...

[Steve Jones]

Good try, Ian, but I think Alan's sussed you!

Steve

[Ian Williams]

Isn't Dave Wortley correct that is is ring and groove wear leading to the land breaking between rings?

[Tony Griffiths]

Impressive results - the 2000-mile oil change interval might have assisted of course. Unfortunately, our Sevens cannot emulate the modern car with its potential for 20,000 to 25,000 oil-change intervals (or computer allocated distanced based on driving styles and journey types). Long gaps between changes are, of course, driven by fleets reducing servicing costs and helped by special oils and modern engines with minimal piston blow-by, highly efficient air and oil cleaners, tightly controlled running temperatures, a very quick warm-up from cold, precisely-metered fuel injection, a large sump and long, steady-speed motorway journeys.
There was talk at one time of engines never needing an oil change but one of my ex-pupils, who'd worked on this problem at Ricardo during the 1980s, said it was hopeless and they could never make it work satisfactorily. I asked her which engine maker had commissioned the work, but she grinned and said, "That's a secret, but we did get up to over 100,000 miles with an automatic top-up system. Unfortunately, the target was 250,000 for a vehicle running short journeys in cold conditions."
Today I hear that some truck engines (they do have large sumps) can manage 50,000 miles per oil change and with modern oils, one wonders if a car could, too? Probably not: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC-SxrsgEwo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po00OqaMIQ8

[Charles P]

My "modern", with 18,000 mile service intervals gets the oil changed every 9,000. I'm not a fleet manager so go for maintenance over penny pinching, but I don't use supermarket 20/50!
As for the "sealed for life" auto box, what a load of rubbish. Change the fluid every 40k

Ruairidh's 60k, by way of 30 oil changes, shows the simple value of frequent oil changes

[squeak]

Rory is there a crack in the top deck of the crankcase in picture 4, top left? Would that be a concern?  regards  Russell

[Parazine]

A certain friend of mine claimed that he never bothered to change the oil in his A7 engines because he had to top them up so frequently that the oil changed itself every 200 miles!

I change my oil frequently and also use cheap, supermarket quality 20/50. This tactic has worked well for the last forty years and will probably see me out......

[Bob Culver]

Cheap supermarket oil is vastly superior to the non additve oils of the 20s, early 30s, hugely superior to the mild additive API SB, SC oils of the 1950s and superior to the SDs etc of the 1960s since when engine wear has been hugely reduced generally.

For an engine which does not ping broken lands unusual. After that mileage the ring gaps hardly too tight. Unusual for 2nd ring to fail and not a top ring.Has it ever locked up with water?

[AustinWood]

I think any oil available nowadays will be better than any available when the car was new.
I suspect the viscosity affects the performance slightly. I was using straight 30, but my car seemed a bit less lively when I was using up my various part filled tins of 20/50. I'm now using 5/30 and the car is much livelier.

[Martin Prior]

I'm too lazy to change my oil regularly, so I use the good stuff (currently Morris') and go about 10,000 miles between changes.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

   

I forgot the sump pic.