Hi All,

I've decied to have a crack at servicing my own car. Can anyone suggest a suitable brand of oil for a 97 TF 3.0L ? (247,000 km)

There seem to be so many different ones out there. We used Penrite in our commodore and it seems to be running fine. Is this suitable for a Magna?

Many thanks in advance.

I've got Penrite HPR10 in mine but it hasn't done half the km's yours has done, so maybe HPR15 for you?

I run Magnatec in mine, but some people on here absolutely hate Castrol in oils like others hate RPW in performance parts....

With 250K clicks on it (I assume it has not been rebuilt/overhauled with new pistons, rings, bearings or anthing like that yet), I would be using something a little thicker. GTX3 if you wanted castrol, Penrite is well recommended by some on here, HPR15 would be your best bet.

Some also like the Shell Helix.... I think the red bottle is thicker than the yellow (by memory). Plus you can get it at Woolies if everything else is shut.

Havent heard many using much else. Use the search feature and see what else you find. There's alot of previous threads on "what oil is good"

Unfortunately, for every person that loves one oil, there's another who hates it.

Just don't buy the no-name sh*t, get something with a reasonable name and you should be okay. Remember, with your kms, slightly thicker is good. If it blows smoke, go thicker again.

Penrite HPR 15 or even 30 depending on what your valve stem seals are like these days

Thanks for the info. How would I know what my valve seals were like?

If your car's blowing some smoke then your stem seals probably aren't too good. No smoke, no problem. Thicker oil will lessen the amount of smoke but it might still smoke anyway and it'll hurt your fuel economy a little bit, so you might be better off fixing them, but your engine might need the thicker oil anyway.

I haven't noticed it smoking at all. The engine doesn't appear to be using any oil either. I think i'll try the HP 15 and see how it goes.

Hi All,

I've decied to have a crack at servicing my own car. Can anyone suggest a suitable brand of oil for a 97 TF 3.0L ? (247,000 km)

There seem to be so many different ones out there. We used Penrite in our commodore and it seems to be running fine. Is this suitable for a Magna?

Many thanks in advance.


GO MAGNATEC ITS THE BEST PRICE PLUS ITS LOCKING AFTER YOUR ENGINE

dont go magnatec on such an old engine. Magnatec is probably a really good oil on younger engines, but on old engines the oil is far to thin and you will just burn it all up, not to mention it wont protect your engine very well. You need something thicker, i use to run HPR15 on both my old magna and commodore, and it worked an absolute gem. My old magna use to burn through castrol GTX3, but it didnt burn any of the HPR15. Its damn good oil for an older car.

dont go magnatec on such an old engine. Magnatec is probably a really good oil on younger engines, but on old engines the oil is far to thin and you will just burn it all up, not to mention it wont protect your engine very well. You need something thicker, i use to run HPR15 on both my old magna and commodore, and it worked an absolute gem. My old magna use to burn through castrol GTX3, but it didnt burn any of the HPR15. Its damn good oil for an older car.

magnatec is suited for any age kilometer engine its fine service centers reccomend it what happens if your engine isnt using any oil my te magna V6 dosent use any oil and its got 210km one it using magnatec

Is Magnatec the same viscosity as GTX3?

Was at Mitsu service desk this morning waiting for service, they had a little Castrol
display device with 2 testtubes of oil (Magnatec & GTX3) and a ballbearing in each.
Flip it and the BB in the GTX3 took 3x as long to fall thru the oil.



Castrol also had another display... tranny fluid when new (bright red),
after 30thou (darker cherry red) and 60thou (chestnut brown).

Yep, better change after every 20thou. :redface:

magnatec is suited for any age kilometer engine its fine service centers reccomend it what happens if your engine isnt using any oil my te magna V6 dosent use any oil and its got 210km one it using magnatec

yeah you can use it on any age engine, what im saying is their is better oil for older engines then magnatec. much better

magnatec = hype

yeah you can use it on any age engine, what im saying is their is better oil for older engines then magnatec. much better

magnatec = hype

magnatec-best

magnatec-best

each to his own i guess :)

i personally stay clear of magnatec i just use a synthetic 15w-40

i'm using mutol 4100 10w40.have been using it for the past 8 months... good oil.. cranks wells on cold starts
other than that i'd go penrite HPR10

just a side note, i had been running penrite HPR10 in my car, but when i got it serviced by mitsubishi they put magnatec in it. Now on mormal driving situations and stuff its impossible to note any difference, however the car does idle noticeably rougher for about 5 minutes on cold early morning starts

really am not sure what the logic is with Magnatec. Anyway I ain't going to start a debate.

I think first question is how much is your oil right now and so we can properly tell you what is the best thing you can buy with your money.

Then we go with what viscosity do you find is best for YOUR car.

lastly is do you want Semi synthetic, 100% synthetic or Ester.

Personally and from plenty of experience in the performance cars and motor sporting circles, I would recommend Motul. A couple of you has already tapped into the Motul quality. I swear by it after it saving me $1100 from having to completely change over my lifters with using Mobil 1. Then the final straw of never look at another oil again came when one of my customers actually works at an oil refinery lab tested the Motul 8100 Xcess oil he used in his turbo MR2 after I told him how good the stuff is. Let's just say he has been buying Motul from me ever since. :)

You can get Motul from selected stores like Motorquip, Autobarn and Phillcom Rally. You ain't going to find them on supermarket shelves like other brands.

If you are still wondering.... check out the oil being sold by NISMO and the Works WRC rally team, they are Motul oil. :cool:

Oils are(n't) oils. As PhilCom says, depends so much on engine.
I used Magnatec before thinking it's great. Then changed to Shell Synth Helix Ultra 5-40 and not going back. Engine runs much smoother and actually noticed improvement in throttle response (no, don't start on this one..., but other ppl discoverd similar thing when changing from MagnaTech). That is quite logical if u think of the lubricant and how it counter acts with tight engine crankshaft tolerances (different post really). Anyway.
As a basic rule, if your wallet allows, use Synth oils only. Choose visc according to wear of engine, worn engine requires higher visco oils (like 30-70 or something).
Avoid mineral oils and any cheapos. Brand it self is less relevant. Motul is good, no doubt, but so is the cost of it. Unless one races all the time one needs to consider feasibility of such cost.
Change filter every time and do oil service every 4-6 months or 5000-7000 km depending on which comes first. 10G km is way too long, no matter what the manufacturers say - sales crap only.

Oils are(n't) oils. ................

How many kilometers had your car done before you switched to full synthetic?
I had considered Motul as well, but it's too expensive for me. After some research, I thought as long as I use some good quality oil and change it every 5000k's, there won't be any major problems.

does anyone know what penrite oil is recommended for a 99 th magna with 70,000km i.e the viscosity etc? (our mitubishi dealer insists on magnatec) so yeah would appreciate help

i just done oil chane with penrite 15 30 on te auto with 220,000 o nthe cloc kand seem to run better than before it was running castrol gtx2

Killer..... not sure how much you pay for oil, and since I usually only deal with performance stuff, my value for money is probably different to yours. Anyway Motul 4100 Power is $40, Motul 8100 Xcess is $50 and Motul 300V is $75. Compared to Mobil 1, that's hardly expensive.

does anyone know what penrite oil is recommended for a 99 th magna with 70,000km i.e the viscosity etc? (our mitubishi dealer insists on magnatec) so yeah would appreciate help

penrite HPR10