I have to change the oil (360 GLT); what do you recommand?

FULL synthetic oil or not?

It's for a normal use (town & motorway) and normal temperatures (not sooo cold in Belgium > 10w40 seems to be good)

The engine has 165.000 km

I use the Castrol GTX now labelled 'high mileage'. I also run an additive for worn engines, (STP or similar), to help quiet down my rattley engine. Works a treat

full synthetic every time MOBIL 1 if you can afford it , there aint no better oil , also the synthetic stays on the movable parts when the engine is stopped and dosent all drain down to the sump so protects the engine parts on cold start up when they are most vunerable

i'm on full synthetic, i went and got some oil flush, put it in, idled for about 10 mins, unfortunately i went driving when the crap was in there so i could buy something to loosen the drain plug. let it all drain, put the new oil/filter in and done, 15w-40. Apparently you can do more harm than good sometimes with the flush, uncloging deposits and so forth that have actually become part of the seals and so forth, but i've not had that prob. I would have swapped to mobil 1 if i could afford it, its way dear thou.

I find amazing that Volvo made no differences between the engines, the recommandations in the instructions book are the same for all the engines! But from my point of view, a B200 may need a better oil quality than a B14 (or not?)

Volvo mention 'SE' or 'SF' for the Api specifications. Is it easy to find when it's full synthetic? (for example, the Mobile 1 is SE or SF?) And what's the best choice between SE and SF?

Any synthetic must be like champagne to our old engines LOL

Yeah but an oil that is "too good" and made for very modern engines isn't maybe the best oil for our old engines... (just my opinion)

If ur gonna be changing oils say u have a 25w-50 AF as the reccomended oil, ur best off changing 1 thing at a time, unless u intend on driving the car harder and have mods on it, u wont need higher than 50, so ur gonna do the engine more good by reducing the winter rating, ie go from 25w to 20w to 15w, as this will reduce wear from cold starting. The AF ratings shouldnt have as much impact on ur vehicle other than being more refined. Cant remember off my head what the 360 is supposed to take, but i've got shell helix in there, its like 10w-40 AP, its almost due for another change, but i had no trouble with it, no leaks, no oil burning. If you change 1 thing at a time, and do regular changes, there should be no problems.

I'm a bit bemused by the 'high mileage' stuff....your car is only on 74k!? I'd probably look for the problem elsewhere before putting uber-thick oil in the car.

cheers

James

i just use part-synthetic 15w40 halfords stuff in my cars - its what they reccomend for cars from the 80s

Yes, I'd add to Hugh's comments that I'd be a little concerned about using fully synthetic oil in an older NA non-performance engine...if anything you want to go slightly thicker than uber-thin.

cheers

James