I recommend DaVinci Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Cooks Illustrated rated it #1.

Woops, wrong forum.

Like Max said - when was the last time you ever heard of an oil related failure in an FD3S? To my knowledge, NEVER. Kind of goes to show how good the rotary really is.......

The difference in viscosity between oils is less than you think until you push it to 5W vs 50W. Run any damn brand name dino or synthetic you want as long as it meets specs and change it often, along with your filter. I can't stand changing oil every 1500 miles but I force myself to do it since I want my turbos to have clean stuff. I grew up with the mantra that changing your oil is cheaper than changing your engine.

The key is CLEAN oil, especially since our little bastards are so dirty running compared to new boingers.

I run straight 30W all year long, but I live in a warm climate. I see an average of 12 days a year below (barely) 32F. And my garage is a lot warmer than that at night. If I lived in a more temperate climate I would run 10W-30. If I lived in Minnesota I would drive a snowmobile.

The wind chill there today was -26F!!

 

10w-30 Mobil 1. Going to 10w-30 Royal Purple shortly. I would stick with the stock viscosity unless you are running higher oil pressures or have ported oil passages. You want the oil to flow to lubricate and carry away heat. Lower oil flow rate will raise oil temps. Viscosity (thicker\thinner) has nothing to do with the oil's protection qualities. Why would you want to pump molasses 20w-50 through the motor in cold temps? Can you say lubrication starvation

 

so, I guess I did good then.

 

a little off, but when the oil comes out for a change, its not really clean, its kinda dirty and dark. i will take a pic next time i change(if i remember, its going to be a while). this is with a dino oil. anyone have a pic of when they drain theirs? just wondering if i should change a little more often.

 

Here's another to throw out there - you should make more hp with lower viscosity. Has anyone actually seen a comparison which demonstrates this?

 

I work beside a high perf shop as well as doing high perf engines in the shop I work in. I was talking about this the other day with Al from the other shop and he has run different viscosity oils in engines when they are on the dyno. Running thinner oil does make a difference. Can't quite remember the exact figure but from 15w40 to 10w I think it was about 6-8 hp. Keep in mind this figure is from a 880hp straight up big block dodge ( listen to me talk piston engine huh!). Bottom line it does make a difference.

 

Are you turning on us?! j/k

 

I use Exxon regular 10w-30 but change it and the filter every 1000 miles. Never had an oil related problem with either 3rd gen I have owned.

 

do you replace filter w/ every 1k mile oil change?

 

I've been using Redline 20w50 since around 17K miles. The car & engine now have around 46K miles. The Redline has worked fine for me, but I'm buying by the case to keep the price down a bit. I may switch to Mobil 1 15w50 in the future-- it's definitely cheaper and easier to get.

 

I use Valvoline VR 50SAE........ I tried using Kendall once before but switched back to the valvoline..........

Oh and I occasionally mix it with half a quart of MMO.........

-Dan

 

just curious, can any oil treatments be used on rotaries???

 

Mobil 1 15W-50

 

I replace the filter every 1,000 miles. I figure the reason people use synthetics is because it resists breakdown better than conventional oil. But if you change every 1,000 miles then the conventional oil doesn't have time to break down. Furthermore, solids like minute metal fines, gradually build up in the oil regardless of whether it is synthetic or not. Frequent filter replacement deals with that matter. And... it is cheaper than buying synthetic, although you spend lots of time on your back under the car.

 

KDR used 10w-30

 

I use synthetic to protect the turbos from coking, not just the motor. Remember the turbos cost as much as the motor (or more). $20 an oil change for synthetic is good insurance for the turbos...

 

From my experience, I only used Castrol GTX (10W-30 fall-spring, 20W-50 summer) in my first FD. It had 70k miles on the original engine and turbos when I sold it with the motor and turbos still running strong (according to Tri-point Engineering).

I drove my car hard (up to 180mph a couple times), drag, and auto-x. I let it cool down properly and changed the oil and filter ever 2k-2.5k miles.

I had No oil leaks or oil related problems with my car(base model with one oil cooler), so I think synthetic is a waste of money.

From what I have been reading and hearing for the past 5 years, FDs rarely have engine failure or problems due to oil.

Most FDs just blow the apex seals or the O-rings inevitably go bad. I'd invest the money put into synthetic oil to tune the car or buy a knock sensor/retardation unit, so the motor does blow.