Thinking back to when I started motoring in the late 50s, you were lucky to get 40,000 miles out of an engine before it needed a re-bore and new pistons.   There were load of firms around offering this service.   My last Fiesta, an '06 1.4 Ghia which I passed on to my son, has now done getting on for 120,000 miles and is still going strong.   Something has obviously changed dramatically since the 50s.   Is it the metal used to make the cylinder blocks or is it the advances in oil technology or possibly a combination of both?

Better design, more accurate machining, better materials, better lubricants, better everything.

We were always having to adjust the tappets in those days too.   I had a Ford 100E and the tappets needed adjusting about every 1000 miles.   And what a job.   It was a side valve engine and you needed to be able to stand on your head and have ten fingers on each hand.   (1200cc producing 36 BHP - you youngsters don't know you're born  )

Remember the days of switching oil between Summer and Winter, and a shot of Redex  at the petrol station? Happy days.

Redex. I remember working at a village petrol station on saturdays and school hols serving fuel with redex shots, and 2stroke oil shots for the motorbikes. Got it wrong quite often not that anyone knew.

We were always having to adjust the tappets in those days too.   I had a Ford 100E and the tappets needed adjusting about every 1000 miles.   And what a job.   It was a side valve engine and you needed to be able to stand on your head and have ten fingers on each hand.   (1200cc producing 36 BHP - you youngsters don't know you're born  )

I was still doing tappet adjustments daily until the Ka stopped using the endura engine and that age of Ka stopped coming to main dealer for servicing.

Ye Gods, I'm sure Ford intended the Endura engined KAck to be disposable.  I mean, that oil filter was surely never intended to actually be accessible...

i was still doing points and condensors until 2000 ish on suzuki cars!

Cars run on fully synthetic nowadays. Less oil changes, less maintenance overall. Engines are better built too now, tighter tolerances and that. I mean I believe F1 engines have to be rebuilt after every race, not to mention the fact they have to be warmed up before you can even crank them over the tolerances are that tight.

57 minutes ago, Luke4efc said:

Cars run on fully synthetic nowadays. Less oil changes, less maintenance overall. Engines are better built too now, tighter tolerances and that. I mean I believe F1 engines have to be rebuilt after every race, not to mention the fact they have to be warmed up before you can even crank them over the tolerances are that tight.

Used to be but now they are meant to make 4 to 5 engines last a season 

They are no longer made by bored and fractious humans on low wages but by a machine that reproduces the methods of a clever person on a proper salary.

 

What fully synthetic oil are you using in your fiesta?

On 28/06/2017 at 10:45 PM, Luke4efc said:

Cars run on fully synthetic nowadays. Less oil changes, less maintenance overall. Engines are better built too now, tighter tolerances and that. I mean I believe F1 engines have to be rebuilt after every race, not to mention the fact they have to be warmed up before you can even crank them over the tolerances are that tight.

1 hour ago, Ad@m said:

What fully synthetic oil are you using in your fiesta?

5w30, but not all Fiestas are the same. Some are recommended to use 5w20, and I believe diesels are different.

Ok :)

If you said Castrol Magnatec for example, this isn't a fully synthetic oil unless you live in the world of marketing.It is very refined crude oil, so refined that they are legally entitled to market it as synthetic. As a result these oils have less impurities compared to many many years ago, more stable at higher temps, additives to keep the engine cleaner etc benefiting your engine. So whilst I agree with you point, just want to emphasize that we need to be careful when using the term "fully synthetic" because it can be misleading.

Its the case that "fully synthetic" actually encompasses oils from various sources.  Magnatec is full synthetic, and the hydrocarbon molecules are much the same, but they were derived from heavily processed mineral base stock instead of raw chemical compound base stock.  Its not worth getting too excited over, as the definition of 'mineral' is "naturally occurring chemical compound."

 

From our perspective as road car owners its the same material but derived via a different route.  If you were lubricating liquid fuel rocket motor turbo pumps then it might matter, but for us going to the shops or even racing it doesn't matter.  Ignore certain lube retailers who sign up to multiple car forums and tell us how crap they are - they almost universally are not.  Indeed, one of them didn't know what kinematic viscosity was when I asked them...

Magnatec has between no less than 50% to no more than 75% hydrotreated oil content. My view of fully synthetic would be something made from a PAO base oil, this isn't but for arguments sake lets agree it is fully synthetic. Legally they can sell you a bottle that might only have 50% fully synthetic content. Not sure I would be willing to call that fully synthetic...

 

17 hours ago, Jethro_Tull said:

Its the case that "fully synthetic" actually encompasses oils from various sources.  Magnatec is full synthetic, and the hydrocarbon molecules are much the same, but they were derived from heavily processed mineral base stock instead of raw chemical compound base stock.  Its not worth getting too excited over, as the definition of 'mineral' is "naturally occurring chemical compound."

 

From our perspective as road car owners its the same material but derived via a different route.  If you were lubricating liquid fuel rocket motor turbo pumps then it might matter, but for us going to the shops or even racing it doesn't matter.  Ignore certain lube retailers who sign up to multiple car forums and tell us how crap they are - they almost universally are not.  Indeed, one of them didn't know what kinematic viscosity was when I asked them...

Then we agree to differ, Sir! 

Did my degree in automotive science and engineering, and was quite startled about how little one of these forum oil retail reps actually knew about the subject, despite the lengthy essays they like to churn out.