Morris Minor Owners Club

Despite being a Minor virgin and having very little mechanical know how, I let my heart rule my head last year, and bought a post-production convertible. I wish I'd done it sooner.

The car's fitted with a 1.3 Marina engine with an unleaded cylinder head, and is due a service. From experience which oil would others recommend to be used in such an engine?

In addition I've also been given a replacement sump bolt which has a valve in it. The idea seems to be that once this new bolt is in the sump, you can fix a plastic attachment into it and drain off the oil via a connected piece of tubing. This allegedly makes oil changes quicker and cleaner. Again has anyone used this kind of attachment and if so was it any good, or would I be better off simply putting in a magnetised bolt?

Thanks in advance.

Hello Milton and welcome to Minor ownership!

Oil preference is a personal thing but generally something along the lines of Castrol GTX is fine for the Minor engine.

Make sure that the ratings are 20W50, 15W50 or 15W40. Don't go lower as it will be too thin.

Also don't use very cheap £2.99 a gallon oil as it's recycled and won't protect the engine as well.

For the sump plug, just use the standard one or the one with the magnet on. I don't like the sound of the other type personally.

As they all well know on here - I use good old ASDA 20w50 at £2.75 for 4.5 litres. No problems with either my 1098 Minor or 1275 Mini after many years on this oil. Just don't expect it to last for ever - change it every 3000 miles/once per year.
Don't fancy the funny sump plug - oil change is dead easy with standard plug, and no risk of it somehow coming undone as you drive along.

what are you talking about when mentioning "funny" sump plug? I think the magnetic ones are excellent

In addition I've also been given a replacement sump bolt which has a valve in it. The idea seems to be that once this new bolt is in the sump, you can fix a plastic attachment into it and drain off the oil via a connected piece of tubing. This allegedly makes oil changes quicker and cleaner.

If such a thing was any good dont you think manufactures would have used it, as the others have said do it the correct way and the magnetic plug is not a bad idea.

For oil quality, higher price does not always mean better oil - often you pay for the name. Therefore you need to look for the ratings.
As mentioned already, viscosity is the first thing - a multigrade has 2 numbers showing what it is like when hot and cold.
The first number should be at least 15 (20 would be nice)
The second number should be at least 40 (50 would be nice)
Standard Castrol GTX is 15/40 but together with its high quality rating it is fine for an A series.

Quality ratings are done on an API spec (if there is no API rating I wouldn't even consider it)
SE - pretty low
SF - basic
SG - good
SH, SJ etc.. very good!

I've managed to get 15/40 with SH rating for £6.40 a gallon so shopping around is often worthwhile (A similar rated oil will cost £10 to £15 in most retail outlets)

You can also get a rating that looks like: A2:B2, a being the rating for petrol engines and b for diesel. 1 being the best and 3 being the worst although I believe the standards are pretty high. Duckhams (which i use) is rated A2:B2 or SH which im happy with

Asda have currently got Hovoline 15/40 SJ rated for under £8 at the moment.

There is no need for a magnetic plug in a Minor - unlike the Mini (where it is essential) there are no gears chewing away at each other in the sump!

Would it be usefull to have one in the box then?

My understanding of oil (from picking the brains of a chap who worked for a year at the Shell research labs) is that the difference between the cheap and expensive oils is the additives they put in the expensive stuff to prolong the life of the oil.

Therefore both Cam and BMCE could be right, if you want to use expensive oil and leave it in for a longer time- then fine, but if you use the cheap stuff, but change it much more often then that can work just as well. Thats possibly why that works for BMCE.

I use both strategies on oil. For example, using the cheaper stuff as a kind of "flushing" oil after engine work, then draining it off after a few 100 miles before changing it for the expensive that will be in the engine till the next service.