1971 Jaguar E-Type 4.2L I-6

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Anyone own one of these? What's the consensus for oil? The builders plate recommends pretty much anything from SAE 30, all the way up to 20W-50, from various manufacturers. Its most recent oil change was 20 years ago....so its time for a change :).

It takes 14L of oil. I'm assuming that I want something that's ZDDP-rich, and not merely a modern off-the-shelf petrol-rated motor oil.

Don't know if I really want to toss a case of XD-3 0W-30 at it either.. Not that spending $80 on oil is a big deal, but with synth, the seals, and all the folklore surrounding that....
 
I'd be using an xW-40 or xW-50, and if it was mine I'd be using a 5/10/15W-40 diesel oil for the heavier duty ad pack.

I just ran it through the selectors from Mobil and Castrol here and they either recommend an oil with either of the above viscosity ranges too, and funnily enough Castrol Tection 15W-40 was one of the recommendations which is a mid ash HD diesel oil.
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http://www.datateck.com.au/lube/mobil_au/default.asp
http://www.datateck.com.au/lube/castr_au/default.asp
 
I think the older Jaguar XK engine, in any of its displacements, could pretty much care less about the oil viscosity.

I think anything from a 10/30 to a 15/50 or 20/50 would be fine.

When I had Xj6's, I ran whatever I had on hand. I put 238K miles on one AJ6 engine - the last 150K or so on Wal Mart Supertech. It still ran like a horse when I was just flat out tired of the car.

jag-lovers.org is the source for all things Jaguar on the internet. There is a sub forum for the XK engine, and for the E-type.

Congrats on the E type by the way, I've always wanted a series I, but just never got around to it.

edit: I seem to recall something about the XK engine needing to have some spreaders or stiffeners or something about the cams flexing, some retrofit part installed for best longevity - if this car has had no service for twenty years you may want to check into this.
 
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Originally Posted By: Johnny
Pick your favorite brand of 15W-40. Now, we need pictures of that beauty.


Hehe, its dissassembled, in pieces, with a coat of primer on it, rescued from being stored in a garage after the owner was going to refurbish it, but lost interest. Found a retired gentleman who's doing all the work (he's done 17 similar vehicles so far) and whose skill level and knowledge certainly exceeds mine by an extremely large margin.
 
My dad had a 71 XKE 4.2L convertible (yellow/black). I don't remember it being it too fussy about oil. I only remember him using QS Deluxe 10W-40 in it over the years he had it. The hardest thing for the car was him letting me drive it. I can remember cracking the Abarth exhaust system a couple of times on speed bumps. They were very low pipes. Even though the car was rust prone, the engine was tough to tune (the Encyclopedia Brittanica of maintenance manuals), the synchro's weren't that great, and I got several tickets and license suspensions from driving it, this was one of my favorite cars of all time. I even liked it better than the GTO's.
 
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