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Suitable oils for Volvo 240

B

blueinportland

New member
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Okay, so we've always used Pennzoil 10w30 in the 240 but now they seem to have new cleaning additives that I'm not too fond of, so for this change I'm going to use the normal Mann oil filter but switch to Napa 10w30, which I have heard is made by Valvoline. Any thoughts on this oil? Don't really want to switch to synthetic with 199,000 miles on it. What do you guys use?
 
Delo 15-40 is my personal preference. It's recommended by experienced individuals on here, as well as my machinist in light of many of the old additives being removed from oil.

Not ATF.
 
i've found anything that remotely lubricates works in a b230.

it really is the most forgiving engine. use whatever oil you want but you can go a million miles on one using the cheapest thing on the shelf. i've seen it done.

i am baffled when i see people using royal purple and mobil 1 in their b230, it's like using johnny walker blue to feed a teenage party when a bunch of cases of natural light does the same thing.
 
500dollar744ti said:
i've found anything that remotely lubricates works in a b230.

it really is the most forgiving engine. use whatever oil you want but you can go a million miles on one using the cheapest thing on the shelf. i've seen it done.
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This is true as well. My dad ran the cheapest 10w-30 he could find and a fram filter on my car til I started driving it, and it didn't seem to hurt the life expectancy in it. I recently pulled my 4-500k+ B21F apart, and aside from normal wear, everything looked good. Granted, the bearings were veeery worn, but I'd expect that from such a high mileage motor.
 
If hot climate the manual reccomends 15w-40, cold climates 10w-30.

BUT, todays better modern oils with new viscosity modifiers in 5w-40 have replaced nearly across the board all 15w-40, so I would say use any 5w-40 or cold climates 5w-30. Unfortunately most if not all 5w-40 formulations are full synthetic anc cost a lot more. Valvoline makes it in a semi-synthetic at a reasonable price (replaced the 15w-40 DuraBlend) if you can find it, usually at NAPA.

IMHO, the best top 3 are Valvoline SynPower, Rotella T6 synthetic and Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel synthetic in 5w-40 and they go in my B230F all the time. Cost? The $10 difference of an oil change is worth it.
 
I just don't have the money to spend $9 or $10 a quart on oil, I've heard some bad things about Pennzoil lately like extra wax buildup, so I was just making sure there were no major drawbacks to the Napa oil anyone had heard of.
 
vvpete said:
If hot climate the manual reccomends 15w-40, cold climates 10w-30.

BUT, todays better modern oils with new viscosity modifiers in 5w-40 have replaced nearly across the board all 15w-40, so I would say use any 5w-40 or cold climates 5w-30. Unfortunately most if not all 5w-40 formulations are full synthetic anc cost a lot more. Valvoline makes it in a semi-synthetic at a reasonable price (replaced the 15w-40 DuraBlend) if you can find it, usually at NAPA.

IMHO, the best top 3 are Valvoline SynPower, Rotella T6 synthetic and Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel synthetic in 5w-40 and they go in my B230F all the time. Cost? The $10 difference of an oil change is worth it.
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I'm just not sure it would be good to run synthetic in an engine that's used standard 10w30 it's whole life, which is the weight the Bentley manual recommends.
 
blueinportland said:
I just don't have the money to spend $9 or $10 a quart on oil, I've heard some bad things about Pennzoil lately like extra wax buildup, so I was just making sure there were no major drawbacks to the Napa oil anyone had heard of.
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Napa Oil is actually the same oil as Valvoline...they are both made by Ashland. I run Napa oil, or Valvoline oil, which ever one is cheaper. But I also go for the Napa Gold filter, which is made by Wix.
 
Glad to hear someone has run it without issue. I'm still going to run the Mann oil filter though, just cause IPD says it's good.:)
 
It all depends how long you plan to run/own the car, and how much $$ you do or do not want to spend. Zinc additive is mostly for pushrod engines anyway. Notice all new cars are using non zinc oils?

And the zinc additive depletes from the oil very quickly too. Articles I've read said by 2000 miles or less they were already gone. Hence why some new zinc oil maufacturers are putting in a lot more zinc. These oils are rather expensive too.

With B230's moderate valve spring pressures, I'd doubt zinc is even needed. Although it probably won't hurt it. Will shorten life of the cat con though.

But I did prove to myself that syn oil reduces quite a lot more wear in engines than dino oil. Therefore I use it in my 91 244 as I plan to drive it..well. forever.
 
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smokeyfan1000 said:
It all depends how long you plan to run/own the car, and how much $$ you do or do not want to spend. Zinc additive is mostly for pushrod engines anyway. Notice all new cars are using non zinc oils?

And the zinc additive depletes from the oil very quickly too. Articles I've read said by 2000 miles or less they were already gone. Hence why some new zinc oil maufacturers are putting in a lot more zinc. These oils are rather expensive too.

With B230's moderate valve spring pressures, I'd doubt zinc is even needed. Although it probably won't hurt it. Will shorten life of the cat con though.

But I did prove to myself that syn oil reduces quite a lot more wear in engines than dino oil. Therefore I use it in my 91 244 as I plan to drive it..well. forever.
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I may switch to synthetic the next time I change the oil then.
 
That doesn't change the fact syn oil reduces more wear than dino. Like I said, depends on how much $$ ya want to spend, and what shape ya want your brgs/engine parts.bores to be in at 500,000. Never said motor wouldn't last 500,000 with dino. it'll just have more wear compared to a syn oiled engine.

FWIW my 180,000 ile 240 sedan uses no oil in 3000-3800 mile oil change intervals
 
Switching to a good oil is something i hope to do once I have some other issues bolted down. Right now I am running super cheap oil out of necessity more than anything. Really cheap oil. Wolf brand 2.49 a quart I got at the corner C-store because I about freaked out at the price of good dino-oil these days at the parts store, much less the synthetics.. My N/a doesn't seem to care or at least I don't care that much yet to spend $30 bucks on oil alone. I do, however, always use a new Mann filter, and change it at 3k OR once it looks ready. Once it's stage 0+ I plan to use/have used Castrol GTX high-mile, valvolene and or pennzoil (middle-shelf). For the turbo, I apply similar thinking, but one step better- right now I get good middle-shelf stuff (GTX hi-mile? I like it) usually 10-30, but plan to switch to synthetics for it once I get it dialed in a bit or start to really push it.
 
Keep some clean half decent oil in the pan. Mann/oe filters work well. At that there you are ahead of most everybody and probably won't have or create any serious malady.

Penzoil breaks down into carbon sludge quickly with all the paraffin in it. It works If changed often on a decent running engine.

Delo400le15-40 has worked real well for me for average/neglected/unknown history/average pnw climate doesn't sludge up, doesn't cost a million dollars, doesn't wind up all over the driveway if every seal and gasket isn't 100%.

Doing more than the first line in this post is more picky. If you make it to the second line or use synth or very good oil from nearly say one, you shouldn't ever have any dirty throttle bodies, crankcase vents, crusty rings, or serious wear of any kind.
 
945ti said:
Doing more than the first line in this post is more picky. If you make it to the second line or use synth or very good oil from nearly say one, you shouldn't ever have any dirty throttle bodies, crankcase vents, crusty rings, or serious wear of any kind.
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This is a definite positive when using synthetics - my throttle body is spotless (cleaned it 40-50,000 miles ago), breather box is empty, flame trap is clear, and theres not a puddle of fluid at the bottom of the accordian MAF tube.
 
i use castrol semi-synthetic high mileage a middle of the road fram filter. about $25 and oil change every 4-5k. overkill for my 80k b230, but i'd pay $25 to take it to jiffy lube and get whatever barrel oil they had in stock and a crappy filter so IMO $$ well spent. i also use 89 octane, don't know if it makes a difference but it makes sense in my head. last time i had the flame trap replaced it had been 15k and it was still relatively clean.....
 
mtd240 said:
This is a definite positive when using synthetics - my throttle body is spotless (cleaned it 40-50,000 miles ago), breather box is empty, flame trap is clear, and theres not a puddle of fluid at the bottom of the accordian MAF tube.
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Amen to that! Took out the TB, Idle air Motor, and IC tubing, and there was barely any oil residue. Just a bit of 'gunk' on the walls of the IAM. Not to mention they are better for resisting coking in the turbo lines. Might be a bit "overkill", but I like the fact they keep things cleaner.

Will be trying out Vavoline synth along with the STP additive this weekend.
 
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