Saw the light -> My 1986 AE86 project

[Mux213]

And I was just about to post about VIN and color codes but you found it already

TACN meeting in lunteren? I don't think the wife will appreciate me going, awell maybe next time.

Hoe vind je trouwens een elford in zo'n verlaten staat zeg goed dat je daar ook mee bezig bent, die dingen zijn ubercool.

[banpei]

I didn't think it was a tacn meeting, but more or less tacn attending the Japanese classic sunday.
Too bad it is on sunday because on saturday I'll be in the neighbourhood but on sunday I have other obligations.

Edit: changed name and splitted offtopic dutch postings.

[IBMFD3S]

welke bougies raden jullie aan qua merk en warmtegraad voor in een 4age?

[banpei]

Please keep it in English because the topic is not in a regional section.

I bought standard sparkplugs from the Brezan. Just said they were supposed to be in a 4age and they gave me some Japanese sparkplugs. They were the same brand as the ones I removed from the engine. I believe I have a pic of them somewhere.

[robokill]

hey IBM we'll discuss the car when mux and I visit you. Don't worry it won't run away.

[IBMFD3S]

well. i changed the dino oil to 1/2 syn (MPM) and i'm very happy with the oil. at first the engine used some oil and after the oil change i drove the car more in the upper revs. well, strange or not, the car uses less oil!. so every ride i drive the shit out of it once on advice of robo and it seems this 311k engine is happier then/than before.

[Mux213]

Sounds good!

Usually the stories of switching from dyno to synth on old engines are the reversed with the thinner oils with cleaner additives wreaking havoc in old engines.

[IBMFD3S]

yeah, read that also but untill now everything ok. will be switching the oil again in several weeks time to optimise the lubrication. after the change i will visit Germany for a weekend, fingers crossed for that weekend. if everything is ok i will drive 2000/3000 km more and switch to full synt after a full flush of the oil system.

i wonder why engines fail after changing, i guess it has to do with the oil filter that becomes clogged? so i decided to change the oil filter every 500 km now to ensure it won't be clogged. and i'm not in the mood to saw all those filters in 1/2 to see if i'm right.

[Mux213]

Andreas,

Reasons I've heard about but haven't got any experience with are indeed mostly related to filth in the mineral oils that have gotten stuck in the engine coming loose due to the cleaning additives in the (semi) synth oils.

They could clog the filter but worse yet, as 'larger' piece come loose they can clog the smaller oil canals in your engine and slowly destroy your engine.

Also I've heard stories of engines with old gaskets that only still keep the oil in due to the filth collected in those gaskets, once the filth gets cleaned up by the better oils, the gaskets come apart and your engine starts leaking oil.

These offcourse are nightmare scenarios for which I do not know if they are likely or very unlikely and in what respect these are myths.

What I do know is that damaged and wear already done to your engine in its lifetime isn't undone by using newer oils so I really don't see much reason to switching to a much more expensive synth oil compared to a good quality mineral oil. Using mineral oil doesn't introduce new risks.

It is difficult to say now that the improvement in your engine is purely subjective or is due to the simple fact the old oil wasn't all that good to begin with and a similar effect would have been reached with a good mineral oil.

Synthetic oils are thinner and that can also cause some improvement as there is less resistance meaning a nicer reving engine, but again, keep in mind that with an old engine thats always run on mineral oils, clearances are far from factory and using thinner oils will only heighten the risk of trouble down the line.

Off course after a fresh rebuild of your engine, the story changes completely... I would always run a freshly rebuild engine on synths, here there is a definite difference between mineral and synth. Using mineral oil for rebuild engines could result in your newly build engine just wearing down quicker (all though I have heard of people using mineral oils for the brake-in of their engine because of that reason and because you don't rev a freshly rebuild engine anyway, then change to synth after brake-in, also saves you $$$).

(keep in mind, the above is my opinion after a lot of reading, but way to little practical experience, so I could be way wrong )

[Ivan141]

My current engine slowly but surely went to hell after using full synthetic oil in it.. So I would not do that again myself..just put decent semisynth in an old 4age.