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View Full Version : can I use an API SF grade oil in my car for short distances?



ryan roopnarine
07-29-2006, 07:37 AM
morning everyone.

after changing my oil and parking my m50 equipped car for a few days (after weeks of driving it 200 miles a day), i had a really rough idle at start up for a few minutes. an observer outside said he observed oil smoke. part of this was because n6. coilpack had somehow worked free, part because it had been raining heavily, and n.6 always collects moisture back there, and part (i believe) because of leaking fuel injectors. no smoke at start up/acceleration. i was thinking that i should send the injectors off to be cleaned. this car uses 1 quart/3000 miles at high speed highway driving, and a significant amount of that is because of a filter canister leak. no sticky black residue in the tailpipe. i would like to do a ring cleaning, but that i've already filled the crankcase up with $2/quart motor oil that has about 1 mile on it. will it hurt anything to use the walmart $1/quart SF oil to do the solvent bath on the rings? i'll probably soak the pistons, let the solvent pass the rings, and drive it for 10-20 miles on this oil, and maybe keep the oil in a container in case i should have to do something like this again. bentley says that our cars require a minimum SG or SH oil. anybody want to comment? thanks.

Rigmaster
07-29-2006, 09:50 AM
OH NO, It'll blow up!!!! :)

Just kidding.

SF should be fine. Must have been some old stock, I thought that pretty much everything on the market today was SG or SH.


Bret.

ryan roopnarine
07-30-2006, 01:19 PM
bret, if you go to walmart and look in the oil section, you'll see "accel" brand motor oil, with grades of 5w30, 10w40,and straight 30wt. go to autozone, and you'll see "valucraft" brand oil in the same grades. the WM stuff is about $1/qt, and the autozone stuff is $1.4/qt. both are the cheapest of their respective stores, and both are graded SF (and marked "not for cars produced after 1988). i guess they make the stuff for a) people with 80s cadillacs that burn/leak oil, and b) people with modern cars that don't give a $hit about them, and only see the $1/qt. somebody is making the stuff RIGHT NOW for some reason. i think they sell re-refined SL oil at sam's club, i might just borrow my mom's membership and pick some up if it is $1/quart there.

632 Regal
07-30-2006, 02:53 PM
so your not afraid to try this stuff? I wouldnt run it in my mower personally.