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F

Frontalobotomy

Donation Time
Fellow members, need help getting car started. What kind of oil is recommended for series 1 sunbeam? what kind of gas is recommended? What is the battery size? Doesn't matter if this is in the wrong forum just please answer the questions and help me out. Thank you
 
B

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
Frontalobotomy said:
Fellow members, need help getting car started. What kind of oil is recommended for series 1 sunbeam? what kind of gas is recommended? What is the battery size? Doesn't matter if this is in the wrong forum just please answer the questions and help me out. Thank you
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For summer use, 10w30 motor oil, engine and tranny. Although 30w would probably be best for the tranny. Rootes specified Shell products. Personally, I would used Rotella 15-40. It offers better cam lubrication and is a damn good oil. Easily found (Wally World) and is not expensive. DO NOT USE GEAR OIL IN THE TRANSMISSION. Gasoline, highest octane you can buy. Battery, original spec was 27F. They are next to impossible to find these days and are monsterous in size. I don't know why Rootes used such a large capacity battery, it certainly was not needed. Battery model really does not matter, use anything that fits, which is most everything. Stay with top post models so they don't short out against the battery box.

Bill
 
M

mikephillips

Donation Time
And the battery should go in the box with the terminals towards the front, si assuming you're still positive ground the positive terminal towards the outside of the car. Reason is the shelf slopes a bit and th ebox is slightly taller at the front, so if it bounces any, less chance of hitting the cover and maybe shorting.
 
T

Tom H

Platinum Level Sponsor
Regarding oil, be aware that there IS an issue about oil in our older classic cars, especially regarding the flat tappets and cam. Since 2006 or so, oils with API rating of SM or higher have less zddp in them, to reduce effect on catalytic converters, and thus offer less wear out protection on the cams and lifters. Most racing oils have the old level of zddp. I add zddp additive to mine. I am unsure if the latest diesel grades have enough zddp

Some reading material:
http://www.lnengineering.com/oil.html
http://www.ttalk.info/Zddp.htm
http://macysgarage.com/myweb6/ZDDP.htm
https://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Car_Care/AskMobil/Flat_Tappet_Engines.aspx
http://classiccarmotoroil.com/articles.html

Guys , has this issue somehow gone away? If not we should maybe have a "sticky" at the top to alert newbies.

Tom
 
B

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
The issue has not gone away. The high pressure lube requirements of Diesels, (at least the older ones) are such that any Diesel rated oil will be fine for Alpines. Engines with radical grind slider cams might need extra ZDDP.

Bill
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
rotella t 15/40 still has 1200ppm of zddp.i got this info from a call to the shell tech line for shell jobbers.
 
SIVAllan

SIVAllan

Gold Level Sponsor
ZDDP for use as an additive is also available online. I obtained a few bottles from Eastwood; Summit is another source.
 
R

robertf

Donation Time
I've been using rotella 15w40 for a while on my flat lifter v8 rovers, but I've heard recently that even the rotella at 1200ppm isn't quite what it was a few years ago so I started adding zddplus.

I'm running the same thing in the alpine, I only have 200 miles on it since the engine rebuild, too early to tell, but hopefully the camshaft stays bumpy.
 
R

robertf

Donation Time
yes, but the government also tells us 10% ethanol isn't doing anything bad to our cars. I'll keep on wearing my tinfoil hat and throwing snake oil at the car.
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
you can complain about ethanol, but without it the price of gas would be much higher. here in ohio there is very little source for conventional gas. the same for E85. as far as zddp,it is available at napa,carquest and most auto parts stores. i buy my zddp bottles at the local carquest.
 
B

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
robertf said:
yes, but the government also tells us 10% ethanol isn't doing anything bad to our cars. I'll keep on wearing my tinfoil hat and throwing snake oil at the car.
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If you wish, but Shell engineers and scientists are world experts on this subject and I doubt they really care what our government would do if they stated that 3000 ppm of ZDDP is necessary to protect Diesel engines. They have a world wide reputation to protect. A sudden thought, anyone know if the world wide formula for Rotella is different than the US formula?

But pay no attention to me. I don't believe in additives and think that OEM quality is usually better than after market. Even high performance after market.

Bill
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
if you look at any new things such as mowers ,trimmers,leaf blowers,etc you will see they are built to run on 10% E. they do have a warning label not to use E85.
 
T

Tom H

Platinum Level Sponsor
Getting back to the issue of oil for our cars, do you guys agree we should put a "sticky" at the top of this "stock" forum warning all newbies to be careful about what oil they use?

It seems this is a serious matter and a newbie could easily join our group and not learn the issue until too late!

Tom
 
Nickodell

Nickodell

Donation Time
65beam said:
you can complain about ethanol, but without it the price of gas would be much higher.
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Not when you take into consideration:

a) Ethanol is heavily subsidized from taxes (no free lunch)
b) By the time fertilizers, transportation etc. (all petroleum-derived) are included, it costs as much, or more, to produce than it's worth
c) It lowers mpg
d) The whole misbegotten program has raised the price of food, from cereals to beef

Not much of a bargain
 
R

RootesRacer

Donation Time
65beam said:
if you look at any new things such as mowers ,trimmers,leaf blowers,etc you will see they are built to run on 10% E. they do have a warning label not to use E85.
Click to expand...

Complaining that a cheap product doesnt hold up to E10 (gasahol) is pretty lame. Gasahol has been in use since the 70s and while not all areas of the US have ethanol in their fuel, for any manufacturer to ignore the possibility of ethanol being in the fuel is an egregious error.
So if the product lasted one third as long (as it should have) but cost half as much, you got screwed buying the cheap product...

Cheap products typically lack quality components and design elements found in better designed products (which are often more expensive).

We have gotten far too dependent on cheap disposable goods of marginal quality.
 
MikeH

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
That reply was in response to a comment I made about what the 10% ethanol did to my lawn equipment. Since it was distracting from the thread I deleted it. So I think the comment was directed toward me and not this thread in general.
 
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