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As a side note, 10w-30 ist by far the most uncommon viscosity grade in Germany. It is only popular here for marine and garden equipment. Because of this, most german S2000 owners use 5w-40.
If you look at the bearing clearances, the engine is clearly desigend for a -30, max. -40 oil. Therefore I use Shell Helix Ultra 5w-40 wich is a very thin, almost -30 oil. Best compromise in my opinion and this oil gives very good used oil analysis, according to oil forums. It should be the same as the Pennzoil / Quaker state 5w-40 Euro you can buy in the US.
Very impressive. Did you upgrade the oil banjo bolts? Retainers? Did you reinforce your front upper control arms? Rear bump steer correction?
Originally Posted by engifineer
That is a big question on a car forum Lots of brand loyalty and snake oil opinions. But here you go.
Filter there is no argument on really. Use the one from Honda. They recently change the part number on it so someone will post that up I am sure. And you NEED to torque it the way it says on the filter. This is one car you do not want to hand tighten the filter on like you do on other cars. It can spin off and burn the car down if not torqued enough. There are instructions right on the honda filter for using a torque wrench and reference numbers on the filter if you dont use a tq wrench.
Now for the fun part ... oil. Everyone has these opinions here. For weight, use what they recommend, which is 10W-30 (or I think 0W-30 for some years but someone will chime in on that here or I willl look it up). I run Mobile 1 10W-30 and have since I bought it and last owner did too as far as I know.
Now the real part people get all crazy on is brand. To be honest, any reputable brand is just fine. Some claim brand X will have less oil consumption than others. I personally have not seen this in other cars when people claimed the same thing, but some swear it does. Fine, again, it will not cause your car more damage unless you are using some pretty bad oil. Some also will say "Mobile 1 sucks! or brand X sucks!" etc but that is bs. Nothing wrong with M1, Amsoil, Castrol, Penzoil, etc in terms of protection to your engine. In terms of synth or not, I prefer synthetic personally but a quality conventional oil is just fine if you change it when you should. The main difference in reality is how long your change intervals can be. Synth supports longer change intervals. Even the folks at Blackstone labs say this and even say many of them run conventional oil.
As for perspective, my S2k is at 154,000 miles and has been an autox car and track toy much of its life. I bought it at 100,000 miles and have run probably 60 autox events and 20 track days in it so far running 10w-30 M1 and Honda filters, changed properly. I change mine more often if running track days but on years I just did autox just changed every 6000 miles.
Both 10W-30 and 5W-40 are listed in the USA owner's manual. The number before the W can be 10 or less as even 10 grade is too thick when starting the car. I run full synthetic 5W-30 only because 0W-30 is not available in my favorite motor oil color. I would not go over 40 in other than a niche, probably racing application where the oil gets excessively hot.
As for "marine and garden equipment" I run the same full synthetic 5W-30 out of the same bottle that I use in the cars. Simplifies oil purchases. Honda outboard, Honda generator, (some) Honda lawn and garden equipment, and lots of other motorized lawn stuff. (And my wife's Subaru.)
10W-30 is for practical purposes the universal motor oil.
Very impressive. Did you upgrade the oil banjo bolts? Retainers? Did you reinforce your front upper control arms? Rear bump steer correction?
A bit off topic The local track this car sees has no kerbing and is a relatively short course for reference, but likely will start hitting BIR and other larger tracks with it if time allows or if I reduce the number of autox events I run. I have not upgraded banjo bolts (but am going to as I do plan to hit more tracks in upcoming years). It does have AP2 retainers. Upper control arms were welded by previous owner to avoid the issues there known with the AP1. No bumpsteer correction since this car was my autox car up until 1.5 years ago (co drive an ND nowadays for most events) and bumpsteer correction is not allowed in ST* classes in SCCA Solo since it effectively changes the suspension pickup points which is not allowed. Not sure if I will touch that at all really.
LOL, my bad to the OP for going off topic. Thanks for responding to my inquiries.
If it helps, i have been running Valvoline Synpower 5W-30 for the past 6-8 years. No issues but it's also doesn't see much mileage.
Originally Posted by engifineer
A bit off topic The local track this car sees has no kerbing and is a relatively short course for reference, but likely will start hitting BIR and other larger tracks with it if time allows or if I reduce the number of autox events I run. I have not upgraded banjo bolts (but am going to as I do plan to hit more tracks in upcoming years). It does have AP2 retainers. Upper control arms were welded by previous owner to avoid the issues there known with the AP1. No bumpsteer correction since this car was my autox car up until 1.5 years ago (co drive an ND nowadays for most events) and bumpsteer correction is not allowed in ST* classes in SCCA Solo since it effectively changes the suspension pickup points which is not allowed. Not sure if I will touch that at all really.
Most wear occurs on cold engine. Even 0W oils are thicker than ideal when cold. Cold being lower than operating temp, not freezing temps (though freezing temps are even worse). So the lower the first number the better, pretty much universally.
Its not always easy to get that first number low, especially with higher grade oils (-50 weight, etc). But first number lower is better.
Cold wear is also why its stupid to idle to warm an engine, as it takes so much longer to reach operating temp at idle, so more wear if you idle to warm vs drive gently to warm.
Wow - thanks all - I've received an education! I picked up a 15400-PCX-004 filter at my local dealer today. I noticed a metal washer that was taped to the outside of the shrink wrap (see pic). Any idea what that is? Is that the 'O' ring they are referring to when they say 'make sure old O ring is removed' on the filter label? Thanks!
Yeah that is for the sump plug
The "O-ring" sits in a groove on the filter, if you are unlucky it can stick to the engine side when you remove the old filter.
If you don't pay attention and notice this you could install the new filter on top of it and end up with a big oil leak.
04-26-2021, 09:27 PM
Lots of brand loyalty and snake oil opinions. But here you go.
The local track this car sees has no kerbing and is a relatively short course for reference, but likely will start hitting BIR and other larger tracks with it if time allows or if I reduce the number of autox events I run. I have not upgraded banjo bolts (but am going to as I do plan to hit more tracks in upcoming years). It does have AP2 retainers. Upper control arms were welded by previous owner to avoid the issues there known with the AP1. No bumpsteer correction since this car was my autox car up until 1.5 years ago (co drive an ND nowadays for most events) and bumpsteer correction is not allowed in ST* classes in SCCA Solo since it effectively changes the suspension pickup points which is not allowed. Not sure if I will touch that at all really.
