The previous owner of my 78 (61K Miles L-82) said he used straight 30W because the car was so old. I’m going to do an oil change and I think I should use 10W-30. Climate: Tennessee, super hot summers, mild winters.
Recommendations, Comments?

 

Do a "search" on the subject..Youll find alot of threads regarding that... :cheers:

 

There are lots of threads on this. On the presumption your car is fairly stock and not using oil excessively, I'd agree with your idea on going with 10W30.

 

My personal recommendation would be to swith to Pennzoil 10/40 year round. Remember you will no get 100 percent of the old oil out first change so some oil clashing might occur making it seem to burn oil or other symptoms. Second change will get the deal back in order.

The reason I suggest the Pennzoil is right now there is alot of movement in the oil industry. What is in a Havoline bottle today might not be the same tomorrow just for an example because of Shells buyout and other mergers like Phillips/Conoco

Pennzoil has a Hydrocracked base and is very pure,,they stand alone in that nobody is going to buy them out and change their formulation. The Pennzoil I speak of has a flash point of around 410 degress and truly is a great oil.

Off topic but I get a kick out of when a guy swithches to a different oil and "scientifically :D " looks at the dip stick and says man I don't like this oil I am changing back,it gets dirty too quick! The oil might just be doing a better job in cleaning and holding the smaller contaminates in suspenision as it was designed to to

I also like the mechanic that gives a oil a bad reputation because he is ignorant of how a oil works or what can happen to an engine in it's lifetime. Two examples is a guy told of Pennzoil gunking up two motors he had tore down, I asked what was the service life of the motors. One was a small block Chevy that the water pump went out on and the guy drove it until the engine siezed! Now the oil was blamed for the way it looked inside after grossly overheated. The other explanation was a lady had bought a new car in 1961 an only drove it to church and the grocery store but it was sludged up and rusty inside because of the oil? Nope,driving habits and the fact that oil up until the SE designation was really not to good a quality yet especially the multi grades,,todays oils are much better but the EPA is jacking with the formulations or rather causing the oil companies to reformulate to meet a new GF3 std,,some of the good things like Zinc are now in not so high of a amount especially for those running big cams with heavy springs pressures but there are certainly ways around this,,still some good oils available but come in very surprising packages or names
A typical GF3 oil will have around 100 parts per million on ZDDP "Zinc" where a the earlier oils had 1.4-1.6 parts per million

Now they are wanting a GF4 which will eliminate all Zinc but a soluable Moly has not yet been proven for the long haul other than in Deisel motors. Those guys will come up with something,just a matter of time


[Modified by mountainmotor, 10:02 AM 7/4/2002]

 

I have never seen in my own vechicles of any type a dime's worth of differance in pressures or performance for any 'weight' variations on oil installed...after been in there a few days, that is....fresh oil allways seems to give better pressure readings.....of course I do filter also...maybe that's it.....

BUT, BUT, allways a big BUT in there somewhere.....I am told the typical oil filters go to filter bypass, being clogged, after as little as 1500 miles, and as much as 2500 miles.....but in fact engines running without filter changes longer than that, are not seeing any oil filtration action for the balance of miles....makes sense to me....
so the question is....if that's the case....how in hell can any car company recommend 6k miles between changes????
and if we change oil and filter say every 3000 miles, what is the advantage of spend 5 times as muchmoney on synthetic oil....especially when I have seen personally engines with good maintantnce run 300,000 miles and more????
at some point, I think it's a waste of money....

SO, some years ago, I quit with the synthetic oils, dropped my thermostats to 180f and change at 3000 miles.....maybe a compromise decision, but I"m looking at lowering overall costs....and I think I"m right....

GENE

 

I use Mobil 10W-30 in my '77, seems to work just fine as far as pressure, etc. I have to agree though that mixing different oils is not a good idea.

 

A slight exception here... Oil specs are very clear, a havoline product must meet it's recipe requirements regardless of who owns the recipe and blends it. We bring in thousands of gallons each week where I work. We have both Shell branded bulk and Havoline bulk/package. The Texaco brand stands behind its product. With a factory warranty hanging in the balance no one will monkey with the product quality. Havoline is still the factory fill in GM vehicles right down to the antifreeze. Feel confident Shell will take care of your favorite oil even with their recent (March) purchase of Penzoil-Quaker State just as ChevronTexaco is with Havoline. And by the way...movement afoot??? One thing you can count on in the oil industry is they move very slowly. Now on the fuel side TEXACO BLACK/RED stations will be turning into bright yellow very soon and the completion date on that project is 3 years out.

Both Shell Oil founded in 1892 and TEXACO founded in 1901 take great pride in their comittment to the oil industry in passenger cars and industrial needs. Nothing will be changing there... quality oils from quality companies.