For all the British vehicle experts/nuts

[jdmcm]

Gentlemen

As you can probably tell from recent posts we are ass deep in a Centurion tank at the moment, and one of the things that comes to mind is what are we going to use to maintain this thing oil wise...near as I can tell the Meteor calls for a straight non detergent 30W...but I am not close to convinced, so I thought I would ask the experts who have been running and maintaining these vehicles. Is there a cross reference that is reliable for UK specified oils North American equivalents? I was just reading a post today about a modern gear oil eating a fellow MLU members bronze bushings and it has put the fear of god (MOD?) in me. Any guidance or help would be appreciated.

Regards
John

[rob love]

There are plenty of charts giving the UK to NATO to North American specifications, but it won't be as simple as that. Oil specifications constantly change. You may have to look at what era your vehicle last ran, and on what oil was likely in there at that time.

Considerations include the detergent/non detergent criteria, and that oils are now different for diesel or gasoline. The removal of the zinc is a big one for flat tappet engines. With a lot of these older engines, either running diesel oil or else adding a ZDDP additive is likely necessary.

From my own experience, we changed from the straight weights to the multi weights pre 1980ish, and then went to the 15W40 on most of the fleets in the mid 80s, which we are still running for the most part.

[jdmcm]

Thanks Rob!

[maple_leaf_eh]

The biggest operator of Merlins in Canada is arguably Vintage Wings in Gatineau. If you contact Nick at the Cold War Collection he will introduce you to their maintainers. Kindred spirits like to help, but being presented as a friend will be better received. The Collection's principle and Vintage's principle share similar excitements from old equipment.

[jdmcm]

Thanks Terry, great idea


John

[Mike Cecil]

John,

Malcolm Towrie in Ontario has just worked his way through the same lubrication dilemma/problem before firing up the ORM's reconditioned Meteor Mk4B. He was assisted by communications with John Blackwell, ex-RAEME tech working on 169005's engine re-installation at Puckapunyal.

Maybe communicate with Malcolm in the first instance?

Best regards

Mike