Disco 2 oil question please

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westone

Active Member
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415
Location
West country
When i bought my petrol V8 Disco the garage told me to use old fashioned 20/50 basic oil as used in classic cars .They said the engine is a design going back to the 60s and its best for the engine with frequent changes.
From searching on the forum I see many people use modern synthetics or semi.
So please what is best to use?
Cheers
 
Everyone had their own opinion on this.
The pushrod v8 does indeed stem back to the 60's when the thin, synthetic oils we have now weren't available.
Land rovers opinion, a more modern, thinner oil will increase time between oil changes and impact mpg.
My opinion, these engines were designed in a different era, they are also now old and worn, as with any engine, a slightly thicker grade will benefit
I put 20/50 in my high mileage v8 engine.
If you have a bit of an oil leak now, a thin, fully synthetic oil will leak more and cost more
 
westone said:
When i bought my petrol V8 Disco the garage told me to use old fashioned 20/50 basic oil as used in classic cars .They said the engine is a design going back to the 60s and its best for the engine with frequent changes.
From searching on the forum I see many people use modern synthetics or semi.
So please what is best to use?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Ive always used 20w50 in a classic car that I have own for 42years, Castrol GTX or Duckhams Q in the old days.
My old RR was serviced by the main dealer for 10 years who used 20w50, and now In the disco for the last 17 years DIY servicing its 10w40 semi synthetic from Halfords which is from Comma but branded Halfords.
Ive added a bottle of ZX1 or two in the past, with both the RR and disco engines, stuff which impressed me as soon as I used it for the first time.
 
kermit_rr said:
Everyone had their own opinion on this.
The pushrod v8 does indeed stem back to the 60's when the thin, synthetic oils we have now weren't available.
Land rovers opinion, a more modern, thinner oil will increase time between oil changes and impact mpg.
My opinion, these engines were designed in a different era, they are also now old and worn, as with any engine, a slightly thicker grade will benefit
I put 20/50 in my high mileage v8 engine.
If you have a bit of an oil leak now, a thin, fully synthetic oil will leak more and cost more
Click to expand...
The answer is don’t use a low SAE grade of oil, I acquired some Mobile One 0w with SAE 20 which leaked from the rocker cover gaskets, so drained and refilled with SAE 40 and the leaks stopped, have always use 10w40 semi now in the disco engine.
 
Off course... the engineers who designed that engine didnt know sh*t .... IMO mileage has nothing to do with oil grade, only the attached graph is relevant...unless somebody wants to hide some noise or leaks rather than fix them .. if it will leak hard fill it with petroleum gelly :cool: ...sorry i couldnt help myself cos i have a serious hangover so my apologies :(... my grandfather smoked 3 packs of filterless russinan cigarets a day untill he died 92 years old when he felt from his house's roof while he tried to fix the antenna, he wanted to watch some porn with his 41 years old girlfriend:cool:.... it's true not a joke

so it means that smoking is healthy untill you get horny or you climb on a roof :rolleyes:

oil chart.jpg
 
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sierrafery said:
Off course... the engineers who designed that engine didnt know sh*t .... IMO mileage has nothing to do with oil grade, only the attached graph is relevant...unless somebody wants to hide some noise or leaks rather than fix them .. if it will leak hard fill it with petroleum gelly :cool: ...sorry i couldnt help myself cos i have a serious hangover so my apologies :(... my grandfather smoked 3 packs of filterless russinan cigarets a day untill he died 92 years old when he felt from his house's roof while he tried to fix the antenna, he wanted to watch some porn with his 41 years old girlfriend:cool:.... it's true not a joke

so it means that smoking is healthy untill you get horny or you climb on a roof :rolleyes:

View attachment 200791
Click to expand...
Was your granddad Rod Hull. He always was into his birds.
 
20w50 VR1..

If ya don't believe my word, ask RPI engineering - V8 developements - Turner engineering..

All specialise in the RV8 and all of them recommend a heavy grade..
 
I think the 20w50 is more protective in terms of oil pressure but from memory the 10w40 semi was reported as being good for cleaning up a gummed rv8 by folks on here.
They do suffer badly in that sense if not cared for. Poke a torch in the oil filler to look for signs of sludge. It was easy to take a rocker cover off on my old 3.9 RRC but not sure on a GEMS or Thor motor. Can help a stuck lifter also on thinner stuff. Can switch back to thicker stuff then.
 
ronsealdeath said:
I think the 20w50 is more protective in terms of oil pressure but from memory the 10w40 semi was reported as being good for cleaning up a gummed rv8 by folks on here.
They do suffer badly in that sense if not cared for. Poke a torch in the oil filler to look for signs of sludge. It was easy to take a rocker cover off on my old 3.9 RRC but not sure on a GEMS or Thor motor. Can help a stuck lifter also on thinner stuff. Can switch back to thicker stuff then.
Click to expand...

The thor has an anti splash plate inside the rocker cover so it is hard to look inside..
 
To add to the confusion, these are LR's recommended oils for the Range Rover 2000 V8 engine 99MY onward, which I believe is the same one used on the D2. @sierrafery does list the correct oil specs as per RAVE but given the limited Winter viscosity range, I'm not sure if that chart only applies to the TD5 diesel.

Capture.JPG
 
The lower viscosity oils were introduced by LR in a bid to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, not because the engine was redesigned with smaller tolerances
 
NPG said:
To add to the confusion, these are LR's recommended oils for the Range Rover 2000 V8 engine 99MY onward, which I believe is the same one used on the D2. @sierrafery does list the correct oil specs as per RAVE but given the limited Winter viscosity range, I'm not sure if that chart only applies to the TD5 diesel.

View attachment 200834
Click to expand...
Interesting that the "New Range Rover" name as on the top of that document was given for '99 P38 modells but i might be wrong, here are the captures from my '00 P38 and 02" L322 manuals ...though even according to that chart for "New RR" 20W oil can be used only where it's not a risk for the ambient temp to drop bekow 0*C, which IMO is not the case for UK, unless the owner is so scrupulous to use thick oil for summer and thinner for winter... a 20W oil would take several seconds to ''climb" from the sump when it's cold so more wear for the engine...cos that's when they wear out more, on cold starts

each for his own.... maybe i'd use 20W oil only if i lived in some tropical region

P38 lubricants.jpg
L322 lubricants.jpg
 
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The original rover v8 used a dizzy driven oil pump which was arguably not well suited to pumping heavy grade thick **** from the sump around the engine..

the Crank driven pumps on the Gems and Thor V8's is much more efficient..

If you are concerned about oil starvation when cold use a 10w50..

but in our climate 20w50 is more than adequate.
 
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