In my garage are four metal tins of very old Shell Super multi-grade
20/50 engine oil that I "inherited" with the house, so they must be at least 8 years old. Heaven knows which previous owner bought them and left them.The question is, once crude oil (that has been underground for millions of years) has been fractionally distilled, processed and so on, to make products such as this, is there a limit to the shelf-life? Is this oil any good? What should I do with it?
Michael
Take photographs and put them on eBay.
Seriously. Some idiot will probably pay good money for these "antique items."
Michael Kilpatrick gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
METAL tins? "At least" 8yo? And the rest!
I'm fairly sure that my parents were buying engine oil in plastic bottles in the '70s. I know I did in the '80s.
You can still buy oil in metal tins, see:-
Ian Edwards gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Oh, sure - specialist oil for the retro market.
Which ain't "Shell Super 20/50"
Can I interest you in the unopened glass bottle of "Castrol Super" which I tidied out of my late grandfather's garage?
Ian
No, I bought metal tins in the 70s and early 80s - I didn't start driving until 1980 and don't ever recall buying oil in plastic for my cars at that time. Nice old green Duckhams!
Somewhere on the tins it should give the API grade. SC..SF..SJ etc for petrol, CF etc for Diesel.
The stuff you really have to watch is gear/diff oils GL-4, GL-5 etc, some grades eat bronze parts so cause huge expense if used in gearboxes/diffs with phosphor bronze synchros or bearing cages.
Not only that, but there's a big (and potentially expensive) difference between hypoid and non-hypoid gear oils to watch out for, but it's to do with shearing action, not the materials.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Michael Kilpatrick saying something like:
Depends on what your car is. If you'r running a classic, it'll generally be ok. A more modern car that demands a 10/40 or something similar won't be very happy with a 20/50, but it would do in a get you home situation. If you've got a modern car, simply give the oil to somebody, or use it for your lawnmower - although, they too benefit from good modern oils.
I'd be happy to use that in my Scimitar, as that's what it was desingned for, but normally I'd use a modern oil to get the benefits of later tech.
Rule of thumb is; use the best and most modern oil you can afford in any vehicle - oil tech is advancing all the time and older engines can benefit from it. The exception is sometimes a full synthetic can be a waste of money on an older engine that loses and burns a bit.
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