Rauhbatz

One other question to toss out for 190 drivers...

My 1991 has 212K miles and have been running the Valvoline High Mileage oil over the past several years...changed at 2K intervals.

Any favoritie oil for high time MB 190s?

DRACO

It depends on your climate, refer to the owners manual for recommend oils for ambient temps.

I recently placed Conventional Valvoline 20W50, SoCal never gets below 32F unless you are up in the local mountains skiing. No worries not going to go up there in here any time soon.

Take care not to go to thin or synthetic, you may develop leaks.

Heck I run 20W50 VR1 in my 911

Rauhbatz

Hi Draco...here in frosty ( and it is today!) Ohio the temps always seem to be around 32 and lower!

Im going with a Valvoline High Mileage 5 - 30 W as I want to get the oil up the cam tower to keep the top end nice and lubed...

In a perfect world I would fit a pre-oiler to the engine just like we have on our CAF museum P-51 Mustang; turn it on and run the oil thru for a few mins...

DRACO

No Problem Brother! In dought, check owners manual :-)

I was killing myself to find the right oil until I re-read the manual, so much easier.

Backup

Synthetic 15W50.

henryfurland

switching from conventional to synthetic oil at that mileage would cause some gnarly leakage.

If your climate is pretty temperate, like between 30 and 90 Fahrenheit, conventional 10w-40 oil should be fine. Just remember to change it every 3,000 miles

henryfurland

I found this information after a quick google search.

Mixing Mineral and Synthetic oils - current thinking

Here's the current thinking on the subject of mixing mineral and synthetic oils. This information is based on the answer to a technical question posed on the Shell Oil website.
There is no scientific data to support the idea that mixing mineral and synthetic oils will damage your engine. When switching from a mineral oil to a synthetic, or vice versa, you will potentially leave a small amount of residual oil in the engine. That's perfectly okay because synthetic oil and mineral-based motor oil are, for the most part, compatible with each other. (The exception is pure synthetics. Polyglycols don't mix with normal mineral oils.)
There is also no problem with switching back and forth between synthetic and mineral based oils. In fact, people who are "in the know" and who operate engines in areas where temperature fluctuations can be especially extreme, switch from mineral oil to synthetic oil for the colder months. They then switch back to mineral oil during the warmer months.
There was a time, years ago, when switching between synthetic oils and mineral oils was not recommended if you had used one product or the other for a long period of time. People experienced problems with seals leaking and high oil consumption but changes in additive chemistry and seal material have taken care of those issues. And that's an important caveat. New seal technology is great, but if you're still driving around in a car from the 80's with its original seals, then this argument becomes a bit of a moot point - your seals are still going to be subject to the old leakage problems no matter what newfangled additives the oil companies are putting in their products.

DRACO

Well, try what ever you want, it is your car do what you will with her.

In my experience, on my '85 911, I went from a partial synthetic 20w50 to conventional high zinc 20w50, leaks stopped. On my 96 Lexus, went from recommend 5w30 full synthetic to 10w30 Toyota Conventional, leaks stopped.

Maybe I am just lucky

Rauhbatz

Just went with Valvoline Max Life 5-30 for the cold Ohio weather...

Also had the rear flex plate changed out....drives like a dream!

Thanks to all MBworld posters!

lsboogy

Synthetics are graded by group - III is just dino oil that has been hydocracked - just a purer cheap oil (but still has ash and sulphur, just like any dino oil - bad stuff for your motor). Group IV is PAO (Polyalphalophen), and Group V is the stuff you will leak with (mostly esters). The leaks in early synthetics were from the additives, not the base oil, unless you got you hands on Group V stuff (not likely unless you ran in aerospace crowd). Mobil 1, Redline, and Amsoil are Group IV, most of the rest are Group III. I run Mobil 1 in most of my cars, including my daughters 190E, no leaks in any of them. Been running it in MB, Porsche, and drag cars (my street and strip Mustangs both ran Mobil 1 this year).

Tribology is best left to those who delve in it deeply - I work with some of them, and they all run Group IV oils in all their cars. I follow their advice -- my daughter's car just got changed over to Mobil 1 0W-40 for winter in Minnesota, and my CLK55 and E350 both run it year round. Ran it in my old E320 for 10 years with no problems - daughter learned to drive in that car, miss it very much.