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Loud tappet noise when cold after oil change?

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:07 pm
by mrbonk
Greetings,
Owing to the fact that I was unable to get my regular brand/type of oil here (Penzoil Long Life Diesel), I changed to a different brand (Penrite HPR Diesel) for my most recent change in my GQ Patrol (TD42 non turbo). Now, I'm getting rather loud tappet noise when it's cold, which I never used to get before. It takes a couple of kms of driving at 60kmh before it goes away. Any particular reason why this might be??

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:16 pm
by Rossco
Possibly the penrite is thicker than the penzoil. Use the same penzoil and the problem should stop.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:37 pm
by badger
did u change filter types too?
it is common to have these issues with some brand filters.

i run penrite hpr myself n my motor doesnt make any tappet noises
over 340 on the clock too

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:29 pm
by mrbonk
Nope...same filters as I had before. I looked and the Penrite is actually thicker. It's 20/60, whereas the Penzoil was 15/40.

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:00 pm
by dirtyGQ
chuck a bottle of moreys engine oil stabilisers in made a big difference to mine.

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 1:56 am
by lexi
I think that 20/60 may be too thick. Is 15/40 not about right for temps in Oz.That`s what I use here in Scotland. Sounds like maybe oil is not getting to valve gear quickly enough . Try the thinner oil if it don`t work then try valve clearances and check for wear.

Alex

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 12:02 pm
by mrbonk
lexi wrote:I think that 20/60 may be too thick. Is 15/40 not about right for temps in Oz.
Well I have to wonder......that Penrite HPR Diesel is what Penrite themselves recommend for my engine. Curiously enough, the Penzoil Long Life Diesel is what *Penzoil* recommend for my engine. Odd that 2 different companies would recommend different viscosity oils for the same engine??

Anyway, as soon as I can get my hands on the Penzoil again, I'll change back to that. Only reason I went with the Penrite is that, for some inadequately explained reason, no-one here keeps the Penzoil. Even the places that are supposedly Penzoil stockist didn't have it (and don't normally keep it).

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:57 pm
by lexi
The 20/60 may be ok in the heat of summer. Are temps not cooling in Ozz now? I use 15/40 but if we`re having a cold winter (minus 10s) I change to 10/40 for that 3 months. I mean 20/60 is thicker than what they use in 25yr old Rovers Just my two cents

Alex

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:20 am
by mrbonk
lexi wrote:The 20/60 may be ok in the heat of summer. Are temps not cooling in Ozz now? I use 15/40 but if we`re having a cold winter (minus 10s) I change to 10/40 for that 3 months. I mean 20/60 is thicker than what they use in 25yr old Rovers Just my two cents

Alex
Yeah, we're heading towards colder weather now. Not that it ever gets *proper* cold here though :cool: We rarely see zero where I am....most of the time it's in the high single figures at worst.

I'll leave this stuff in there now (simply can't be arsed to change it out now) and go back to the Penzoil for the next change. I'll just have to make sure I have some on hand this time. I simply didn't expect to not be able to get it here.

tappets

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:47 pm
by mav
when was the last time you checked the tappets???

Re: tappets

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:25 pm
by mrbonk
mav wrote:when was the last time you checked the tappets???
They've not been done since I've had it, but the previous owner claimed they'd been done shortly before I ended up with it. I've gotta put it in to get a gasket replaced shortly, so it might be a good chance to get them looked at at the same time.

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:00 pm
by juls
The penrite HPR 15 has a viscoscity of 144 at 40c and the pennzoil 15w40 (cant find 20w60, pennzoil au website is shite) is 118 (thinner). So who knows.

As you can see even a 15w40 oil can have very different viscosities and can still be called the same thing.

I was going to say the 20w60 could be much thicker than the 15w40 penrite that you were using but this may not necessarily be the case.

I go by the rule you get the oil with the lowest cold viscosity (the 15 part) that you can either afford, or match to the correct hot oil viscosity (the 40 part) that the car manufacturer recommends. Since there are generally quite a few oils listed within different temperature ranges in the handbook, it is up to you to choose to a large degree. You can fine tune this by watching how the oil pressure behaves at youre normal oil operating temperature (ie differs between hot/cold climates or sustained high speed driving etc)


http://www.penrite.com.au/files/JHEX6VM ... L%2015.pdf

http://www.sopus-staging.com/staging/lo ... ngLife.pdf

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:51 am
by fnqcairns
I got frustrated a couple of years ago with the information on oils to make a choice for my equipment so I spent what must be a hundred hours scouring the net to educate myself, not with peoples opinions but the science behind the oils. I was damn boring up until the first 60 hours or so then it became interesting as my understanding grew.
Today I have not much interest in learning more on oils as what I needed to know to satisy myself in my choice is enough for me.

Anyway for Australia the first numbers have not much bearing as it simply doesn't get cold enough here for 0, 5, 10, 15 or even 20 (I suspect) to make a difference to the engine in any real sense.

More important is the distance between the two numbers on the bottle the closer they are the more stable the oil structure. This becomes VERY apparent when the higher number is very high like 60 - these oils are not very shear stable as the quantiy of viscosity improvers (thickeners) needed is large.

Also a thick oil at temperature will not flow very fast through gallerys/gaps as well so pressure is up flow is down. When an oil is between the big end bearing and journal it is under great pressure, nears a solid in behaviour (more so than a liquid), the thicker the oil the more this is compounded the extra force of impact imparted on the soft metal bearings -not good!

A 60 wt oil would be best used in the summer outback where the engine idles for long periods and when it does need to rev it does it under heavy load and stays below 2-3k on the tacho BUT a GOOD 15-40 would still be a better choice for even this application.

Get that 60 out of there! (marketing sucks), and replace it with a 15-40 (numbers are close, not too much VI needed. 15wt because of our winter ambient temps being so high is a non event when compared to even 0wt (exclude say thredbo village in the middle of winter, then go 5wt)

luck fnqcairns