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Castrol and Penrite will both be good.

Putting oil on the street is dangerous.

Oil for engine use - Mobil1is the great but there's cheap oils that do the job. It depends which engine you've got an how many kms she's run.

gearbox - Redline MT90 (or MTL if you're that way inclined)
and diff - Redline 75W90 (depends what diff you have)

GTX3 would prolly be ok. If you have noisy lifters on start up......Try the mobil 1. Whenever mine get noisy its time to change anyway.

Castrol seem to think it's fine.

I know this will probably open a can of worms, and some people will disagree, but full synthetic oils aren't \"necessary\" for these engines, and can often do more harm than good.

Let me explain Full synthetic oils such as mobil 1 are designed for engines built to extremely fine tolerances. An MX5, and most other mass produced cars aren't built to ultra fine tolerances, so don't need such a thin oil. Thin oils can just glaze the bores, and cause oil consumption as a result. My other car lived on a diet of mobil 1 for 40,000kms (changed every 5000km) before requiring new rings and re-honing of the cylinders. This was 40,000kms after a full rebuild.

Full synthetics are great for the latest hi-tech engines, made from trick alloys, but otherwise can be a very false economy. I wouldn't use a full synthetic in an MX5, I use a semi synthetic...

just my 2c worth

I agree with NMX516 regarding synthetics. There are quite a few older MX-5s around here using oil now because the owner changed to synthetic.

what would you guys recommend for short trips

Just change the oil more often as this is a severe condition

dont want to use magnatec, imo it'll attract lil metal particles too

All oil collects small metal particles. The oil filter collects them. The \"theory\" behind Magnatec is it sticks to the metal parts of the engine.

I just changed my tranny & diff oil the other day. Boy does it make alot of difference. Shifting gears is alot easier and smoother now. I use to have alot of troubles getting into first especially when the cars cold, now it slips right in there without a problem.

You have the 1.6 so i'd say it's the BKR6E-11 or BKR6EIX-11 for the Iridium IX.

For the 1.8 it's the BKR5E-11 and BKR5EIX-11 for the Iridium IX, spark gap is 1.1

Here's some older research I did

http://www.aus-cartalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=195759&sid=aaf1f141e39902a66bb247ee2aea363c

lam.666 wrote:what spark plugs does everyone use

i can see NGK has 3 types

bkr5e-11
bkr6e-11
bkr7e-11

which one do i pick?

With NGK the higher the number eg, BKR7E-11 the colder runing the plug is.

I used Motul 300V Chrono in my car a couple times, not a bad oil but nowhere worth the money they charge for it.

Lately i have been using Nulon Synthetic hi-tech fast flowing 10w-40, and i cant fault it.. The engine feels much more responsive running this compared to the Motul. I have tried soo many different types of synthetic oils, Mobil 1, Motul etc.. and this oil is the best one i have used to date.. Priced at about $65 for 5l, its quite cheap too.

http://www.nulon.com.au/products.php?productId=syn10w40#