Morris Minor Owners Club

hi

this 1970 traveller is going lovely but it is using much more oil and petrol than my ex 2 door , it has a servo fitted to the brakes, which surprisingly (to me) is run off the inlet manifold - the tick over is quite fast, but when its warming up if you put the brakes on it can stall the engine - is it affecting the vacuum from the engine and will that upset things ?

ive noticed the oil is dirty, i believe from the manual this might block up the oil return channels from the cylinders so it cant get out and gets burnt instead

is it better to use proper sae 30 oil - halfords have some for garden machinery, but its a fiver a litre or shall i stick to this 20-50 which is only a fiver a gallon - after it may have killed my 2 door (see me other post) im a little apprehensive

cheers
grainger

hi Grainger,

The servo should run off the inlet manifold.
Have you replaced the air filter yet. This maybe causing your problems.

Iam running 15w - 40w Oil with no problems. Remeber use real oil not synthetic.

First job on any car I buy is todo a full service, plugs, points ,oil ect. Generally have a good poke around.

I will help you to become familiar with car and if problems occur the you have a better starting point to work from. If the person you have bought the car from has said it been service recently, still do it yourself, then you know it's right.

I have only used the 'cheap' 20-50 once. The can said 'specially formulated for high mileage engines. On the first long journey (and many times after) the oil light came on at tickover. Nuff said.

The next month I replaced the oil with Castrol 15-50 and I never saw the oil pressure light again.
These days you can only get Castrol 15-40 but its never given me a problem, and it's only about a tenner at Halfords.

Hi all,
I believe you can still get Castrol 20/50 from certain outlets sold under the "Classic" banner.

Hi Grainger
2 other oils to look out for are Penrite make to classic spec and the more common Comma Premium 20/50, this is generally available from smaller outlets and motor factors and is even sold by Bull Motif in the club mag for £6.95 + vat, or try their web site http://www.commaoil.com/Commasite.htm
or you can email them to find your nearest supplier
webmaster@commaoil.com
and their oil is much better than the ordinary cheap stuff which is missing lots of important adititives
Kevin

I can not remember the brand name of the oil ( 15w - 40w ) Iam currently using. I have used two different one badged Ford the other Commer both under £10 ( £6 - £7 ). I have always used thick oil on older cars with no problems even in a 2.8 Granada.

James.

Anyone seen any Castrol 20-50 recently?? I'd feel much better using that than 15-40.
I've not seen it for a couple of years, but as I don't stray far from my usual 3 parts suppliers, that may be the reason.

hi james, ray and all

oil must be a pretty important engine component and as i say, i cant be sure this cheap 20 - 50 didnt finish off my engine, i have plenty of that left to do an oil change

but would it be better to get some 30 sae oil - besides the halfords lawnmower oil, esm has castrol classic sae 30 for about 15 quid a gallon - with postage and vat, thats going to be £20 each if i bought a couple, is it worth that to give it the lubrication that it was made for ?

ps anyone know which screw on cartridge is usually used on oil filter conversions, this one is unreadable

thanks for the help

grainger