What oil should you use

[Jennison]

I attended a meet of the Sthn Tablelands Auto Restorers last nite and was lucky to be there for a really interesting presentation from the Aust National Museums head curator in charge of restoration, storage and MAINTENANCE of their industrial technology dept which primarily deals with cars, steam engines and the like.
Apart from the photos of all their old vehicles in storage(from the prototype FX to the first car to travel around Aust, the menzies bentley and so many others) their maintenance program is world leading with reps from all the big car museums around the world coming to study and learn. Even the war memorial is revising its "mothballing" policy on their military vehicle collection because of this research.
Their no 1 policy is "USE EM OR LOSE EM"!!!
They annually hire Oran park for example and run up around 100k on ea to keep them in good working order.
Anyway, he talked quite a bit about what oils etc to use on these old vehicles which are started every 3 to 6 months(depends on vehicle) and as I said driven about once a year.
They have scientists , laboratories and the likes and have done extensive laboratory testing on which oils provide the best lasting protection on the engine working parts between uses and have some amazing results.
THE NO 1 OIL FOR KEEPING A LASTING PROTECTIVE COATING ON WORKING PARTS BETWEEN USES IS......
the Australian made PENRITE SHELSEA AND CLASSIC CAR car oils.
Believe it or not, and he showed the graphs etc, the shelsea oil came in on the graph at 10,000....yes 10,000 times more effective than the nearest other oil!
This was very interesting to know as I have 3 "club" cars on historic plates and I hate the rattles as they build up oil pressure on their routine but still occasional start ups or runs for events.
He also pointed out that even that is not so much a problem as the rust that forms on internal working parts - which works better than valve grinding paste to destroy old motors - hence their interest in which oil provides the best"between use " protection.
This is especially important info to you coastal types!! and not so much a problem here near ACT.
The best and least corrosive brake fluid for older vehicles is also a penrite oil - DOT 3.
I thought this may be of interest to many of us with our old towcars.
PS Sorry moderators can you swap this to the tech section(I'm too slow a typist to do it again!!!!)
regards to all
jennison

[minicamper]

Hey Jeff,

I agree. I've been using and excuse the correction, but it's Penrite Shelsley Oils in all my cars for some years now.
We Model T owners have gone through the oil debate over and over again and came to the same conclusion. The Americans go on and on about oils and all the science and chemicals and never come up with a solution.. T models have some pretty unique needs..

Shelsley comes in 3 main "grades", light medium and heavy. They also have quite a few other products as well such as gear oil and diff oil/grease, SU carby oil, shocker oils, water pump greases.
Good stuff.

Your local parts supplier probably won't carry it, but can easily order it. It should come in at around $50 a 5 ltr bottle, but they have to order in boxes of 4.
Easy for my supplier as I have multiple cars that use it..

Here's a link to their info:

www.penriteoil.com.au/products/classic-car-oil/shelsey_engine_oil_medium

Cheers
Chris

[morry]

You can always rely on someone here on the forum to give you "the good oil" - sorry I couldn't help it

[Jennison]

yep Chris its certainly the go and amazing enough my local car parts man carries the stuff!! I picked up 2 x5L for less than $40 ea though today, so it seems I have done OK.
He is ordering more for me so I'll see what his price is next time around!!
You could have parked a MAC truck between the shelseys line on the graph and the nearest line of all the other stuff!!!!
regards