hey there just wondering what type of oil you use in your cars? i have a 57 olds in my roadster and was wondering what wuold be best?getting close to firing it up thanks
Is it a fresh motor? I just run cheap WalMart oil in one for the 1st 500 miles. Then I run Castrol GTX 10W40. Mystic JT8 is good stuff if'n you can find it. I don't care for synthetics myself, but lots of guys run it.
A smart thing would be to check with the official OLDS site and see what the original equiptment recommended oil was. The older engines had more clearance in the piston to bore fit department..... I believe that if you use a modern oil it may cause it to use oil/smoke. These engines originally used a non detergent straight 30 weight oil, which were better suited to these fit issues......
Any good quality modern oil should do you well...I use 10W30 in my Nailhead...usually the local "Farm Store" brand...Ford used to recommend 10W40 in the 60's/70's but had BIG problems with the additives breaking down the oil seals on the valve stems...that's why I never use 10W40 in any engine...if you are comfortable with 30W you can use that...I really have come to respect Choprods opinions but I must respectfully disagree about using non-detergent oil...read the API label on the container and buy the best you can afford..
i hafta agree with most of this,except i like Kendall. i have a freshly rebuilt 324. my brother's 303 was brought out of a long sleep,so we just use Chevron 30wt. because we got a deal awhile back at Grocery Outlet,they were selling 1 gallon containers for $2.49 apiece.
I was having this discussion last night with a friend while we were checking out my new 303. He was saying that a high detergent oil would take away the clearances in the engine and screw it up. It's a good used engine with a bit of sludge build up but nothing serious. Should I flush the engine or not bother, and just throw in some straight 30w and go?
Sounds like complete Bullshit. Does anyone remember the "Old oil is better for old cars" and "Diesel truck oil is better for old cars" posts a couple years ago ? Lots of urban myths about how the newer oils will magically ruin older motors. I would run the thinnest oil that didn't burn off. Just makes sure the motor doesn't run too cool. It will last longer and build less sludge if the oil gets over 210 degrees regularly.. My daily driver,with over 100,00 miles,still uses 5w30.
Well it sounded kind of funny to me but ya never know. That's why I'm asking questions, I don't want to screw this thing up.
A long long time ago in organic chemistry, I read an article on why Pennsylvania crudes were better-just like they advertize. I'll have to see if I can find it. Since then, I have always used Pennzoil,usually 10W-40 changing every 3-5000 miles. Course I don't know if Pennzoil is still PA crude,nor do I know if modern addititives have erased the difference. Still,I've got 225000 on a 92 Subaru so I must be okay in the oil dpartment.
There's a lot of reading here that will keep you busy.. http://theserviceadvisor.com/fuel-oil.htm Mutt
I had a friend that rebuilt engines in a garage and would always ask about the oil used. His findings were that the cleanest engines were those that did not mix brands of oil. He also noted that Phillips Trop Artic had cleaner engines than most. A clean engine will wear less. I have always used Valvoline and had good luck. The main point is use a major brand and stick with it. good luck!
The additive that gave the problems was the part of the additive package that gave the oil the "40" in the 10W40...some of you guys may remember the bad rap that Ford V-8's got in the late 70's when they had tons of bearing problems...it was mostly caused by the oils causing the valve seals to disintergrate and the pieces would wind up in the oil screen, blocking oil flow to the pump and wiping out the bearings. I had several 302's of this vintage and I saw this firsthand many times...Ford issued a TSB advising dealers to discontinue using 10W40 oils in their shops and notified owners of the same. Here's a good article on oil from a lube engineer... www.lincolnsonline.com/article105.html
I use nothin but shell rotella 30 w hd its straight 30 w and its diesel engine oil which has much more detergent additives than regular car motor oil , aint had no problems yet 229000 miles on a ford 352 fe.
I've been using Texaco Havoline for quite a few years, no complaints. Prior to that I used Trop Artic with good results and Mobil before that. Why switch? The others just became harder to find, either because I moved or my retailer just didn't carry them. I agree that you should try to stick with the same brand. Different brands are required by certification to be chemically compatible, but that doesn't mean they work equally well together inside your engine. Modern oils are key to the tighter tolerances that are used in modern engine building. If your builder has built you a tight engine you should use modern oils. Another reason to use a detergent oil is that you'll need to change oil constantly because dirt won't stay in suspension. A buddy of mine once worked at an airplane parts supplier, which supplied him with ashless aircraft oil as a "fringe benefit". What can I say, we were young and stupid. He bragged that being aircraft quality it was the best to be had. In addition to being ashless it was also non detergent, however. Even changing oil every 3,000 miles wasn't enough to keep him from turning 2 cars into oil burners after driving each for about a year.
Steve Bolander says "Only Castrol 30 weight R. Now I've written the tire pressure and stuff on a pad in the glove box... Are you listening to me?" I use Valvoline in everything I own and only Wix filters. Clean oil in - clean oil out every 2,500 miles.
As one who has spilled more oil before breakfast than this whole board will use in their lives, here is an opinion of a grenade inspector with only forty-five years dealing with lubes. The harshest use of motor oil is in off road construction and over the road service in machines and trucks. High sulfer fuel, dust and dirt,heat and extended service time needs the best oil money can buy. A little info, single grade oil is made from a 10wt base stock, and thickeners are added to get 20---30---40 and so on single wt grades plus the additive package. If you look at the molecular structure of single wt oil, it will be round balls, like ping pong or soap bubbles. A multi-wt oil is made from a 90wt base stock and thinners are added to get down to 10w30----10w40 ect plus the additive package. Structure on these oils look like noodles or cut rubber bands. Now when shit happins, maybe heater hose, radiator, too much load, way too wild burn out on wet spot, who do you love? When that number two rod bearing is hotter than a seventeen year old on prom night, or the pressure on the thrust bearing when the pressure plate slams home on the clutch. How about those super triple doublelock springs trying to wipe the smile off the cams face, not to mention the skirt fighting black death cause the bore is not the proper distance to dance. Do you want that ping pong bubble to burst? And it will when the deal goes down. Tim to look for parts and bucks. OK, same thing with a multi-wt oil, only those noodles and rubber bands will stand way more pressure and stay in a smaller space to still have a film between surfaces. When the heat overcomes the whole shebang and things start to boil off , the oil will be down to its base. Single grades will try to go back to 10wt and multi-wt will try to go to 90wt. No brainer on the one with the best protection. Extreem, yes, but that is the rap. Series three API service,CI-4,CH-4,CF-4,CF/SL,SJ IS THE STUFF. Like URSA SUPER PLUS 15W40 (CHEVRON TEXACO) , SHELL ROTELLA 15W40 or any other brand that has same API. Pick a brand and stay with it. Old or new, lotsa miles or new rebuild, this is the best. A side note, it will turn dark, because it is holding all by products and crud in suspension so the filter can do its job. This keeps metal parts clean and will free rings in used and old engines that have sat for a time. Worn valve guides and other parts are just that ,,worn. I have had some old engines dry up after 800 to 1200 miles do to ring seal improving with this oil. If you are happy with what you are now using , stay with it.
If i could afford to do so then i would run castrol 'R' 40 but it is expensive and needs changing real regular plus i think you can only flush it out with synthetic if you want to put other oil in it.On the plus side there aint nothing more slippery and it grips to parts like nothing else (if that makes any sense at all)In other words it coats the engine to prevent friction and you have the bonus of the smell.....................Ah castrol..............Marq
I worked for Exxon Research & Engineering for 15 years, testing gasoline and oils. From what I learned there, it seems if you change the oil every 3-4000 miles, it almost doesn't matter what brand, or weight oil you use (modern multi-weights). We ran oils that supposedly had the least amount of additives in them to get SAE rating, and they showed almost NO bearing wear after 100,000 miles, the same as the oils with more additives. We even put additives in the gasoline, that were rumored to "drop out" and contaminate the oil to accelerate bearing wear. Still didn't seem to affect the bearings, as long as you followed a regular oil change schedule. This was in regular cars, running regular driving cycles, a combination of city and highway, with shutdowns, and restarts. Now, if you are really beating on them, or towing, or have super high HP engines, synthetics will offer the best protection under the higher heat/load conditions. The only ones that seemed to do better with better oils, were the turboed cars. Not changing the oil is a different story, but you guys all love your cars, and change oil, don't you?
From what I hear its the best. It's Mobil 1 synthetic finished... Supposedly the guy that was working on Mobil 1 gave a progress report to the big-wigs at Mobil and they said "hey, this is great, lets start selling it!" and he told them it wasn't finished but they went ahead with production anyway. After he quit Mobil and his intellectual property contract thing expired he made Royal Purple. I don't know how true all of that is, but I do know that we run all of our racecars on Mobil 1 and are switching over to Royal Purple. And Torco sucks, we've lost several engines because of that stuff.
oh i see. then would 20W50 that i use for my Norton have additives like that? there is an expensive Redline Synthetic that i could use, do you think that's ok? it's got a great high temperature tolerance.
"Diesel truck oil is better for old cars" posts a couple years ago ? Diesel oil is better for old cars because of its high zinc content and it has an additive package that better deals with contamination from fuel.
I use straight 30 Wolf's Head in the ol Flatty. Tried synthetic and it blew out the pipes! Just stick to the old school tried and true stuff. Nothin' fancy.
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