What's the current thinking on motor oils for "not older but better" engines?

Dear V-8 Buick engine caregivers,

Motor oil is one of those products were it is extremely difficult to separate the actual product specs from the hype. There have been some good reviews of what we should be looking for in a good motor oil for our 1960s and 1970s Buick engines. Here is a link to an informative online article series that was posted here a while back:

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?295674-The-Truth-About-Oil-article

Here is a posting that Jim made for us making similar points:

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?222499-New-Oil-tech

I decided to look into motor oil to see if anything had changed. I got a pointer to look into synthetic blends, but I couldn't find a blend specifically intended for older engines. I simply may not have looked hard enough though. What I did find is that oils with ZDDP are going mainstream. For example Royal Purple and Castrol now make formulations with extra ZDDP.

None of this seemed compelling enough for me to change brands. I'm inclined to stick with Joe Gibbs simply because they started this sort of specialty oil and so I hope they will continue to make a quality product in order to satisfy customers like me.

Everybody has their brand loyalty, so no reason to quibble over that. However, I would be interested to know of any changes in oil technology that we should be aware of. Can anyone point out something that goes beyond the pieces above?

Curious minds want to know!

Cheers, Edouard :beer

 

I am no expert by any means, but I have used full synthetic on my classics since my first (57 Chevy with 265 L6 back in 2006). I always look into new oils with the hope it will decrease wear and tear on my cars. At first I heard that once you switch to a synthetic you can't go back to conventional due to the greater seep quality of synthetic and you would burn up bearings. I later found out that is bogus. Seems there is alot of urban legend with motor oils, but 1 thing I firmly believe is that there really isn't much difference for most of them.

I read up on http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/ that with most oil brands they use the same additives, but the amount of certain additives differ by brand and even different oils in the same brand (High Mileage and extended performance Mobile 1 oils for example). A full synthetic is nothing more then a well refined conventional oil that has more of the impurities taken out, and more additives put in to sell as a 'wonder oil'. I do believe all full synthetic oils are better then MOST conventional oils because many times after switching the oil seems to find every pinhole in every seal to leak out of (good way to check to see if you need to regasket your motor) :laugh:.

Now I use Pennzoil Platinum Full Synthetic with Pure Plus Technology. Its basically a motor oil made from natural gas. No impurities and has amazing cold flow characteristics that most oils can only dream of. Here is a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWO_S_SE-u4

I get it at Walmart for $35 for 5 quarts. I do add a little ZDDP to the oil, but not to much as to much ZDDP causes a chemical reaction that harms your engine. I am not brand loyal, but I use this oil in my 70 Electra and 02 Rendezvous and it does work great! To great in my 70 as I found a few more leaks :laugh:.

 

With a roller cam. Don't idle your engine for extended periods. When you drive it, drive it long enough to get the engine hot. Change the oil regularly. Do these three things and odds are it doesn't really matter what oil you use. One of my mechanical engineer friends runs bargain Walmart oil in his 9 and 10 second cars, changes the oil on 2,000-3,000 mile intervals AND periodically sends his oil in for analysis and guess what? Always comes back minty clean with no concerns identified by the analytical lab. I've heard it said "Its funny, the folks that recommend the Walmart oil always have data and the folks that always run high dollar fancy oil always have marketing information".

If you really want to know, send in your oil for analysis!! The thing that concerns me about most high dollar fancy oil (Brad Penn, Royal Purple, etc) is I've heard repeatedly that their oils are great for racing but their additives quickly break down, so with normal driving your oil change intervals should be 500-1000 miles. Sounds expensive to me....

I run generic NAPA brand and occasionally standard Valvoline oil in my cars. I upgrade to slightly heavier VR1 oil for Drag Week, just for extra piece of mind, but go right back to NAPA brand or standard Valvoline.

This is why I trust the guy:

He's driven it across the country, and put around 12,000 miles on it in 1.5 years.

http://www.hotrod.com/features/1605-9-second-altered-wheelbase-chevy-ii/


And he's been driving his '55 blown Chevy since the mid-90's and he finally did an engine re-fresh when it dropped an intake valve in 2012 (2013?). Got lucky and didn't do anything but tweak the valve and the bottom end of the engine still looked minty new after like 90,000-100,000 miles on it.

 

Precisely why I asked! (Re: What's the current thinking on motor oils?)

Dear JayZee88, Randal, and "give 'em lots of 'luv" V-8 Buick engine caregivers,

Thanks for your thoughts, that's precisely why I was asking in the first place. Synthetics really aren't intended for engines designed and built in the 1960-70s, so there is good reason to believe they won't offer much in the way of advantages. That's why synthetic blends sounded like an interesting idea. They provide many of the advantages of synthetics at a much lower cost.

Hmm, I wasn't aware of this. I agree with you. That doesn't sound like a reasonable proposition given that my trusty wagon really is nothing more than a 51 year old family wagon and she will just do the round town driving that conventional oils have always been formulated to deal with.

Okay, so I need to do some more research. I really need an oil intended for a classic engine instead of specifically formulated for racing.

Thanks guys! Exactly the info I needed!

Cheers, Edouard :beer

 

Change the oil AND filter every 3000 or so& use a good 10/40 & it'll probably live forever with everyday use. It has always made sense to me that if you're draining the old stuff out on a regular basis & putting on a new filter, you're going to keep most of the crap out of the system. I like the 10/40 for it's cold/hot properties.

 

Need to run another 1000 miles first. (Re: Oils for "not older but better" engines?)

Dear 51Wood and V-8 Buick "gotta 'luv your engine types,"

I called Mike Tomaszewski at TA-Performance and he recommended that I stick to conventional oils for at least another 1000 miles to give the engine time to fully break in, so I started this thread too early as it turns out. I'm leaning right now more toward Brad Penn's semi-synthetic oils. That seems like a reasonable compromise.

Cheers, Edouard

 

Classic Car Club of Indiana sells oil made specifically for our cars. Featured in a Hagerty newsletter article a while back.Comparatively reasonable prices.