Experiment for Miata owners

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

I have no idea how bad it is to have all that HLA clatter at start-up, but I tried something that I'm curious if works on other Miatas. No matter how many times I hear 'that's normal' I still cringe at the noise.

Bump the starter 2-3 times before actually starting the car (I mean just turn the key enough to have the starter engage for a fraction of a sec) - then see if the valvetrain noise is any less.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Nov 10, 2010 5:39 pm

Have you taken them out and replaced with new ones (kia) and/or cleaned them in gas/carb cleaner?

Neal Harrington · **Joined:** Thu Sep 04, 2003 4:29 pm **Posts:** 106

Many of the club's 1st Gen Miata drivers did away with the clatter by using 5W50 Castrol Syntec oil. I haven't heard about the latest model. Unfortunately, 5W50 is getting hard to find, since too many people don't understand cold/hot viscosity.

Frank Catena · **Joined:** Wed Aug 27, 2003 1:08 pm **Posts:** 418

The Rotella T6 5W-40 has worked well in both our NA miatas.

Frank

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:38 pm

Yet another reason to swap in a NB engine Kendt.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Wed Nov 10, 2010 9:51 pm

Frank Catena wrote:

The Rotella T6 5W-40 has worked well in both our NA miatas.

Frank

Same here, I use it all of my cars, its good stuff

Sean O'Connell · **Posted:** Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:39 pm

rotella is diesel oil no? i'm not really sure that makes diesel oil different but why would you want to use it in a gasoline engine?

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 7:27 am

I thought the same thing about rotella. Except the owner of the salvage yard I work at swears by that stuff in our delivery trucks, and most of them are 300k + so.........

Frank Catena · **Joined:** Wed Aug 27, 2003 1:08 pm **Posts:** 418

Sean O'Connell wrote:

rotella is diesel oil no? i'm not really sure that makes diesel oil different but why would you want to use it in a gasoline engine?

It is marketed as a diesel oil but carries the SM rating too.

Available in Walmart and auto parts stores for under $20 gallon.

Frank

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:27 am

Sean O'Connell wrote:

rotella is diesel oil no? i'm not really sure that makes diesel oil different but why would you want to use it in a gasoline engine?

Bob is the oil guy.com

Plus, when I started using it it was $13.99/gal, so it was by far the CHEAPEST full synthetic I could find. Now its $19.99/gal, that's still cheaper than M1

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:27 am

+1 for the Rotella. I've been running it in my Integra ever since I started doing track stuff and never had any issues. Got about 295k on the clock now.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 10:26 am

Sean, an HDEO or diesel oil is going to have a much higher TBN, more ZDDP, be more shear stable, very high HTHS viscosity (won't carry ACEA A3 ratings since that is for gas oils, but the equivalent diesel rating E9 exceeds A3 anyway), and have pretty low NOACK volatility.

All around good choice for a gas engine that is driven hard. Particularly turbo engines. The only issue is for engine that consume a lot. The additional ZDDP in the oil can hurt your catalytic converter over time if your engine burns a lot of oil.

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

several of the spec e30 guys run rotella in their race cars. i'll probably start using it instead of mobil1 since i always have it on hand for my diesel truck anyway.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:06 pm

Jason Tower wrote:

several of the spec e30 guys run rotella in their race cars. i'll probably start using it instead of mobil1 since i always have it on hand for my diesel truck anyway.

I run it in two of my street cars and we also use it in our Lemons Prelude. I miss the $13/gallon price it started at though. The last gallon I bought was $19.50 at the evil empire.

For reference, what do you guys (who use Rotella) use as your OCI?

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:33 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

For reference, what do you guys (who use Rotella) use as your OCI?

Every 6 months for me (which is usually 2-3 track events).

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Experiment for Miata owners

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