Synthetic oil

[Booger]

dino oil. semi synthetic oil (what exactly is that?) and synthetic oil. My long understanding has always been if your car has been broken in on dinosaur oil its what you stay with. 

what are the advantages of making the swap to synthetic oil? What are the risks?

[Plymouthy Adams]

here you will get opinions based on replies from only a few that will take the time to actually read a white paper...skip the middle man and search out and read an informative white paper...it is a worthy read for certain.

[Sam Buchanan]

I'm not going to engage this debate other than to suggest that ANY oil available today is far, far superior to what was used in our flatheads back in the day. Probably no need to over-think this one.

[Sniper]

I just watched a very interesting YouTube video by Lake speed Jr. He's a oil expert. He tested Havoline conventional 10w30 versus Walmart super tech synthetic 10 w30 and Valvoline VR1 10w30. They were all pretty close however the super tech brand held up to thermal oxidation the best.  The VR1 had the least amount of friction however Lake was pretty clear to say you don't want to use racing oil in your daily driver. In any case all of these differences were fairly small and any one of the three would be perfectly fine in our rides. So as Sam said today's oil is so much better than what they had back then it doesn't really matter

Edited Saturday at 09:08 PM by Sniper

[soth122003]

Plymouthy is right about reading the white paper. More knowledge about the what's and why's will help in decisions and applications of what to use. Sam is right about the oils of today being way better than the oils of yesterday.

 

With that said the big difference in oils to me, have been the detergent vs non-detergent oils. Switching from non-detergent to detergent can wash away grime and crud in critical areas the will induce slop and wear that can damage an engine. The crank bearing races especially. As well as the seal areas causing more leakage. Once an engine gets set to operating with crud that doesn't move it covers up or clogs areas that have not had proper oiling in a good while. 

 

Back in the day you could take your car to a garage and have a top end or bottom end rebuild done in an afternoon. This was done on a time chart every few years or so and the crud problem was taken care of at that time. When time and advancements in oil properties made for a longer lasting engine, these services slowly went to to wayside. Plus people were trading their cars in every 5 years or so as America became a throw away society. 

 

Now you get an old car that hasn't been maintained properly in decades or you don't know the history on the car, you put in the modern oil w/detergent and in few months to a year or so it starts making funny noises (squeals, grinding, or whines) or it starts leaking because the detergent has washed away the crud. Or you decide to stay with the non-detergent oil and the car suddenly breaks down because it has been properly lubed and you spin a bearing. 

All this is to say if you don't know the history of the car you could be taking a chance either way. Doing a bottom end or top end or total rebuild on car is not in itself hard if you have a lift or don't mind laying on your back and know what to look for. A lot of this will boil down to time and money willing to be spent to make sure the car is in good mechanical shape.  As for which oil to use well one cleans and lubes as it works and one lubes but can leave deposits that build up over time, but will require more in depth maintenence at a regular intervals (other that just an oil change). Check the back of the service manual for all the things that are supposed to be done by mileage. There is a lot more that the newer cars. engine tune up minor every 3k miles, engine tune up major every 12k miles.

 

At the time these cars were made the oil filter was an option because the mantenence was easily adhered to and done in a fairly timely manner. Now to do the required things needed to do to these old cars are done by the owner or a specialty shop that cost and are not available at many locations. These cars were made to worked on by the average person with a few mechanical abilities, but now the know how is sadly lacking as most people can't change a tire with out google telling them how and even then they get frustrated that it happened to them and they actually have to do something themselves (whiney bunch of snowflakes).

 

Anywho that's my basic rundown and understanding as well as my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

Joe Lee

 

 

[greg g]

Another expensive  vs  less expensive  illustration.   My daughter needed to replace the battery in her 2017 Honda CRV.  she called AAA, they said they could deliver one and installation in about 6 hours for about 135 bucks, she called the local Honda dealer, they said about 225 for purchase and install oh oem Honda a dranded battery.  She then called Walmart.  Everstart was around 90 bucks.  She did the no brainer deal, bought he battery.  She jumped her car, brought it here.  I supervised while she did the install.  First thing I said was take off your bracelet.  all said and done it's fixed.  At Christmas she was telling her story and my brother ( Honda tech for 10, Service manager for 30 years rolled his eyes aut buying the Walmart battery.  Did a little digging found out Johnson controls makes both Wal mart and Honda in the US and the Honda branded on is lower rated in cold cranking amps and one other spec.And warentee coverage.   When I told my brother, he put his fingers in his ears and did his I can't hear this dance.  So shopping and spec reading can do what you need to do, and leave a couple bucks in your pockets. 

[kencombs]

Not gonna give my opinion, because it only means something to me and me alone.   But I'll recommend a visit to bobistheoilguy.com   Don't go there unless you have a lot of time available to read the info though.

 

But I will say that I use detergent oil in everything, 15w-40 in some and 0w-20 in some.  Even some full synthetic.

[Booger]

yes to detergent oil. I will say one thing in conclusion, drop that oil pan if it hasnt been done in awhile youd be surprised at the gunk laying in there

 

[JBNeal]

On 1/25/2025 at 11:08 AM, Booger said:

dino oil. semi synthetic oil (what exactly is that?) and synthetic oil. My long understanding has always been if your car has been broken in on dinosaur oil its what you stay with. 

what are the advantages of making the swap to synthetic oil? What are the risks?

Your understanding is correct; the only advantage to switching to synthetic oil on an older engine is that your wallet will become lighter, which may be helpful when attempting to escape the wraith of an ornery swarm of bees 🐝

 

the most cost effective approach on older engines is to use a store brand non-racing oil, a quality filter (not fram), and a minimum of annual change...even the original shop manuals said to change annually at a minimum, especially with engines not equipped with a filter.

[desoto1939]

Basically all oil that is being sold in todays market, AutoZone, Walmart and other oil products sold on the web are detergent oil UNLESS the label states NON-DETERGENT.

 

If you read your owners manual for your older car most stated to use 20 weight oil in winter and 30 weight oil in Summer.  These oil were dinosour oils.

 

Todays products are better in design because of the better refining and the additives.

 

I currently use the Castrol Classic 20/50 weight oil in my rebuilt engine and is has one of the highest amt of ZDDP, Phosphorus and Boron in the mixture according to my discussion with the Castrol representative.

 

THe blue bottler Walmart store brand is produced and bottled at several processing plants in hte USA and this same company bottles and produces the various major other brands. 

 

So if your car has a filter, By-pass or other you are good to go. If not then I would install one on your car and start running the car with a filter. By-Pass is better then none at all.

 

The weight of the oil also depends on the age of the engine, condition od of the engine and where you are located and currently live in the USA.

 

As suggested aboe go to the webpage and read the article on oil and you will learn alot about the oils and how they have changed.

 

Rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com

 

[Booger]

I think an all- season 10/30 has served  these flatheads well all these years. what I used almost 60 yrs ago as a pump jockey at my local Chevron with my first Plymmy

thanks for all the input everyone!

[greg g]

Drop the pan.  Yup there will probably be sludge and gunk there.  As designed, much like the oil in the bottom of an oil bath air filter.   Its the entrapment media for carbon, dirt, metal leavings etc.  That's why it's at the lowest part of the system below the level of the pick up screen. That's why the pick up has a clip to keep it from going  past horizontal and into the goop.

 

 

Edited 15 hours ago by greg g