rex13bt

Basically there are two types of 98 Octane fuels on the market, high aromatic and low aromatic. In high aromatic fuels the octane is raised by adding benzene derivatives such as Toluene. Low aromatic fuels are produced by refining the fuel to a higher degree so these types of octane boosters are not required. These fuels contain more aliphatic compounds. Optimax is a high aromatic fuel and BP ultimate is a low aromatic fuel. These fuels behave very differently during the combustion process. Aromatic compounds take longer to burn and tend not to completely burn during the combustion process. This is why you can see soot on the rear of you car when using high aromatic fuels.

I just replaced the SP3000's at 37 000Km. I'm fairly happy with that as it is the longest I’ve got out of a performance tyre.

I had the ECU flashed a couple of weeks ago during the last service. The only difference I have noticed is now the transmission shifts a bit better when cold. Fuel economy or performance has not changed.

I have a P4 2.4. I recently got hold of a Celeron 2.4 chip and put it in my system to see how it performed. Using benchmarking software (Sandra) I found it was only about 15-20% slower than the P4. I then overclocked it to 2.8G and there was very little difference in speed between the two chips. I’m not partial to AMD as I have fried one in the past.

My AUIII XR8 was fitted with the premium sound system. Before I got the T I was a passenger in a BA XR6 fitted with premium sound. It sounded so Cr@p I took it upon myself to play around with the setting to get some decent sound out of it. The first thing I noticed it sounded much better with DSP and CD compression off. In the end it sounded much the same as the AU premium sound, but didn’t seem to have as much Base.

The best engine would have to be in the Honda S2000. You can drive it sedately and its just like any other 2L, but when you put the boot in it takes on a completely difference character. The worst would have to be a Suzuki outboard motor. Nothing but trouble.

Ah yes, many people seem to stumble across this article. There are way too may issue with the test procedure to mention. I would not judge the performance of any oil based on these results. This test was carried out some time ago and I have spoken to technical representatives from two of the oil companies represented, one of which was present for some of the testing. At the time he did voice some of his concerns, however as the oil from his company performed quite well he didn’t push the issue.

Every 2 months, whether it needs it or not.

:lol:

Ask the dealer to check the glycol concentration of the coolant. You can do this accurately with a refractometer (they should have one and know how to use it). You will probably find the concentration is below 33% (unless they have already adjusted it). The corrosion inhibitors used in coolants are formulated to work at a minium of 33% glycol concentration, so if the glycol concentration is below 33% there is not enough corrosion inhibitors present to stop corrosion.

It is generally not a good idea to add anything to a engine oil. In most cases you are actually reducing the performance of the oil. Engine oils are formulated using a careful balance of additives and when you add something to the oil you are throwing out this balance.

http://www.autoweb.com.au/cms/A_102170/newsarticle.html

When I ran mine over a weighbridge it came in at 1780Kg with almost a full tank of fuel. I was a bit surprised as my AUIII XR8 came in at 1760Kg. Both auto’s plus all the normal bits and pieces you keep in a car.

PAO’s do have a low pour point as do most synthetics as they do not contain waxes that are present in mineral oils. I not sure what you are getting at with this comment. Most oils will swell rubber seals. A 100% pure PAO will not. However oils formulated on PAO’s will contain 10-20% ester. The ester is used to give the oil the same seal swell properties of a mineral oil as well as helping disperse additives. Esters ain’t esters. There are a number of different ester, however I am not 100% sure which one Motul use. WTF is a double ester? Here is some good information on esters. http://www.hatcocorporation.com/pages/about_esters.html The following link to motul 300v 5w40 was interesting http://home.att.net/~teaguesauto/fluids.htm It gives a detailed explanation on High Temperature High Shear viscosity, but does not state a result for the product. All they say is that a 50 or 60 grade will give the best result. Very very strange. This link confirms the API specification of the oil. http://www.motorspot.com/300v.html It’s a API SH. The latest specification is SL and SM will be out in a couple of months, so it doesn’t meet the latest API SL specification or it has not been tested for it. I would be careful quoting who uses what oil. I know what engine oil is used in a number of leading supercar teams and it is not an off the shelf product. I have no doubt the product would be able to withstand temperatures of 365°F or higher, however I would not recommend using any XXW/30 in a XR6 Turbo that is driven hard. The reason being that any 30 grade, whether it is a mineral, PAO or ester, will become very thin at 150°C and as I said before it is possible to reach this oil temperature in the T.

http://www.motul.com.au/product_line_up/4s.../4stroke05.html take a look here 0% shear loss I looked at the link. There was very little information about the product. No specifications were quoted (ACEA or API), apart from “exceeds all existing standards”. It does state “Also by carefully selecting the right polymer, “0% shear loss*” can be achieved”. Most high quantity engine oils, in particular synthetics, use shear stable polymers. I noticed this oil comes in various viscosity grades, while no HTHS is quoted, the thicker variants will have better HTHS results. This oil is formulated with a ester base oil. Esters have a number of desirable properties, such as having lower internal friction due to its low molecular weight. This will give you more power from your engine. The main disadvantage with esters is its poor Hydrolytic stability ie it reacts with water to from a acid. Every time you start a cold engine you will get condensation in your oil. I hope you are changing your oil often! Polyalphaolefins (PAO) synthetic oils have better Thermal and Hydrolytic stability and would be a better choice.

Some of you are brave, very brave. We know under extreme conditions the oil temperature in the T can reach 150°C, at which point the ECU will cut the power output. Why? Because the oil at that temperature becomes very thin and will result in more metal to metal contact, particularly with the bearings. So what oil do I use? A full synthetic 10W/60 oil. I settled on this oil after looking at the High Temperature High Shear (HTHS) viscosity of the oil. This gives an indication of how the oil performs under load at high temperatures. Oil companies can supply this information. Typically a 10W/30 has a HTHS of 3.0cP and a 15W/50 has a HTHS of 4.0cP. The 10W/60 Synthetic I use has a HTHS of 5.4cP. To put it another way the 10W/60 HTHS is 80% better than a 10W/30.

Err, they do. If one gets pranged and a police member hurt, how is the dept meeting its OHS requirements by not providing traction control? If it is standard, then it will be there. If it is optional, and its considered a "safety" item, it should be there. The only reason I can think it may not have been there is if it had just been released as an option and it had not yet been trialled by the dept. Interesting comments. I assume you are a police officer. If so you obviously have never driven a VX pursuit SS commodore. None of them in Sydney had traction control fitted. Traction control has been standard on all non cop SS’s for some time. Come to think of it you must not of ever driven a general duties car either, because they also didn't have traction control. I didn’t know that it is a OHS requirement to have traction control fitted. If it was, the police would not of been able to use AU AR8’s.

None of them were sold. The SS's were ex cop.

I would steer clear of ex cop pursuit cars. They do not have all the feature of the regular versions. A couple of years ago a friend looked at a ex chaser VX SS. They do not come with traction control, 4-channel ABS brakes and they have different instrument clusters among other things. You do get a switch on the dash that turns all the interior lights on and off. They only go for about 3K cheaper at auction than the regular versions. :o

This article rears it head every now and then. It was conducted some time ago in conjunction with Fast Fours and Rotaries magazine. I would not judge any of these oils based on this article.

It appears that the Motul 8100 X-cess 5w40 uses hydrocracked base oil, not PAO. Castrol Formula R 0W/40 uses PAO base oil and this is probably why it is much more expensive. If you wan't the equivalent Motul product go for Ester E-Tech 0W/40, even though it does not carry the latest spec's. The 4100 Turbolight 10W40 is a semi synthetic, take a look at the data sheet http://www.motul.com.au/product_line_up/4s.../4stroke12.html

I havent tryed all fuels due to Fuelcard resrictions, however in a AUI I6 I could not pick the difference between Shell 91, 95 and 98 Octane Fuel's in terms of power and fuel economy. The only difference I noticed was sometimes the car would ping on 91, but it never would on 95 or 98. I switched over to the dark side for my next car a VX V6, the company started using BP around this time. I generally used Ultimate in this as the car did seem to go better, however I could not pick a difference in fuel economy. In my current car, a AUIII XR8 I only use ultimate so I cannot comment on how the car would go on another fuel.

Sorry frank, I have very busy and I will PM you soon. The redline oil is excellent and a very worthwhile investment for the engine and complete drivetrain. Peter APS Peter, Just out of curiosity, did you conduct trials with oil analysis comparing redline oil's to similar products from other oil companies?

Thanks for your reply, I am sure who you are now and of course respect your opinion. We are all entitled to an opinion and our opinion is based on practical in field testing of the T5 transmission. If you really want to get to the GUTS of this issue, APS engineers have investigated the entire drive train issue and we have greater concerns about the strength of the CV joints than the T5 transmission. I would appreciate if you would come clean and identify yourself and your business so that your views can be seen in a totally transparent manner.I find your views interesting and quite typical of an engineer from an OEM background. Regards Peter If you know then that's ok, no need for me to say and expose myself to problems here with my Boss for a) lots of forum chat time and b) our own concerns with the drivetrain. It's irrelevant anyway, if my opinions are questioned, that's ok too - check them with someone you trust. Without having satisfactorily answered your question re identity, I'm sure others are more interested in and have greater respect for, your views than mine. To this end, I am still interested in your response to the power vs minimal torque issue and appropriate torque for the current drivetrain issue. Sincerely hoping everyone is getting something out of this, as it is very interesting, probably should have started a new drivetrain durability thread to avoid detracting in any way from what was a truely impressive feat in APS achieving 79/00 - mods ?? hv8355 I know where you are comming from with your comments and I too would be interested in what APS engineers consider appropriate torque for the current drivetrain.

Thanks WhiteTee I agree there is a lot of good information on this site. I might even trade my AUIII XR8 in on one of these beasts.