Oil question.

My stock 1981, has 80,000 miles.

I live in California so its never too cold. Drive it a few times a month.

Getting ready to change the oil.

Should I go full synthetic? High mileage or not? What do you run?

 

I’ve been running 5W-30 Full Synthetic on my 76. And the engine has 2000 miles on it. It’s a new engine. But I run 5W-30 on my other gm trucks and they got 230,000 miles on one of them and 180,000 on the other, still run the, 5W-30. Let the fire roar on this thread.

 

AND, here we go!

 

Ok, you've uncorked the "best oil" devils out of the bottle forum.

Here's my take ..do whatever you want, probably isn't going to make a difference.

I have full synthetic (Mobil 1) in a different GM muscle car (not vette). Doesn't get driven much each year. I change it about every 5-6 years.. lol. I need to add a qt to it every now and then, but it's always been like that. If I drove it more I would change it more. My snow plow Jeep, I run full synthetic in that (Citgo ..the inexpensive farm & barn synthetic), and change that about every 5 years or so, or whenever I feel like it. I drive it around during the winter ...it usually needs a qt or two each winter so there's some re-plenishment going on. I use a good filter ("What a good filter brand??" LOL ..I think it's a Bosch, NAPA or Mopar). The snow plow rig is a beater so I'm less concerned about it. Of course the forum knee-jerk response is "You GOTTA change it every year dude!" I used to change oil in my TDI diesel @12k intervals forever (using Rotella T6). Lot of guys go 10k between changes on diesels. Yeah it took a couple quarts between changes too. 275k miles later she still runs great no engine-related issues. Had the cam inspected not long ago (perfect).

I've been doing it like this for many many years (decades?). These are stock engines. I don't really care what the ZDDP levels are... Everything runs great, nothing's died or burns excessive oil, no cams have been wiped-out. Don't use fuel or oil additives, no stupid 'catch can', remote filters, pyramids placed over the engine, or other youtube miracle engine cures. Guess what, the sun still comes up in the east, sets in the west (around here anyway) and my DD engines usually go 270-300+ miles till the vehicles get replaced.

Owners get way overworked on oil/filters and there are no shortage of annoying 'oil/filter experts' on any car forum. Whatever direction you take is probably not going to make a huge difference as long as your oil change strategy is within accordance of your use. But, overall, if you use synthetic, I definitely wouldn't change it as frequently as dino-oil.

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I run 20/50 full syn since car was new.

 

Sunflower said it best.
This should probably be done over at “Bob Is The Oil Guy” forum. If you go there you can get sucked in for weeks!!!

Our 80’s motors, from my understanding, should use a ZDDP oil due to internal parts. (Zinc content) Not sure how much impact this has long term.

I started using AMSOIL Z-Rod 10w-30 in my stock 82. Of course, I will be scolded as an idiot by some; heralded as a genius by others.

Do your homework. Make your choice. Slick is slick….

 

There are two stickies at the top of the page on oil goes into some pretty good detail. With that said it’s always good to update what’s been available on the market in the past and what’s available now. For me Walmart mobile one 15–50 full synthetic with a lot of zinc in it is the best most economical for me. I drive about about 5000 miles a year and change it about every 3000 miles and I go through about a quart in between. My engine has 43,000 miles on it now.

 

I bought mine new & I'm the only person who's ever changed the oil in my Vette.
Since it's parked in the winter I used Valvoline 20w50 racing from day one until Maxlife came out about 20 years ago.
It's semi synthetic & I changed to 10w40. Right away I noticed less "morning puff" at cold start up.
I'm at 78k now....really happy with Maxlife...