Valvoline, Joe Gibbs, Brad Penn etc. racing oil in not sold or available in CA? Oil designed for racing/high performance is much better than oil formulated for low RPM diesel engines.
StefanS, I have a '57 235 in my T-bucket and have been using Rotella-T 15w-40 in it for years. I know everyone has their favorite oil but I'm real happy with this product. By the way, my 235 has no oil filter. I use a magnetic drain plug on the oil pan and change the oil frequently.
I have used Rotella 15w-40 in all the diesel powered vehicles I have had over the last 35 years with no lubricating related failures. It is some good stuff.
walmart conventional motor oil is $12.72 per 5 quarts....seems to work fine in all my old junk. I guess I should worry more?
I was looking at the different rotella oils and their 10/30 is a synthetic blend. Think that would be ok in the 235? With the vr1 10/30 I'm using, my oil pressure is perfect (when its full that is) so I'd hate to go to a 15/40 (unless its not that drastic of a difference). Which brings me to my next question...is there a drastic difference between the two weights?
I've never heard of an engine failure attributed to using the wrong weight oil (at least not within reasonable viscosities of typical motor oil) or the wrong brand of motor oil. Not that I believe it never happens, but I've never heard of one, which kind of says something. I have heard of failures attributed to lack of zinc.
Wal-Mart house brand is SM or SN. Of course you might be trying to tell him about the Accel brand 10W-40 SF rated oil...
I run whatever is current, it seems to work. Haven't lost a cam since 2005...but I have switched to rollers in a couple of them. The oil companies claim that they test the heck out of the new formulations to make sure they have adequate protection for flat tappets, etc. It's pretty hard to tell what's really happening when someone has problems. I've heard there was a lot of trouble with lifters around 10 or so years ago, and that the manufacturing problem has been fixed. Mostly, guys seem to be rather superstitious about oil. I guess it's just human nature.
FWIW when I got my cad about 5 months ago, there was a receipt for rotella 15w-40 in the glove box. There is plenty of sludge, but theres absolutely no telling its history or previous owners. Its the original engine
The different viscosities are intended to provide best lubrication at various ambient temperatures. Lower viscosities are intended for cold weather while higher viscosities are intended for hotter temperatures. Chances are your Caddy was run with non-detergent oil if the sludge buildup is heavy. It's also likely that it has no PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) system to help remove harmful airborn combustion byproducts and moisture from inside the engine. It is these combustion byproducts and moisture which combine to form the sludge commonly found in older engines which have only a breather tube. The breather tube allows the gasses to vent, but a properly functioning PCV system actually vacuums them out of the engine, thus keeping it much cleaner. Drop the pan and other exterior sheet metal from the engine and remove as much crud as you can by hand. The addition of a properly functioning PCV system and the use of modern detergent oils with ZDDP will help clean the remaining deposits gradually while also protecting the cam and lifters from wear.
I started using Rotella a coupe of years ago after the machine shop where I get my work done recommended it. Somebody that can go 220 MPG in 3.68 seconds in the eight mile cant be all wrong.
You might want to give this site a look: http://www.pqiamerica.com/June 2014/consolidated highmileage2014.html to compare ZDDP content, the Diesel oils are on another chart some Diesel oils are too high in detergents for use in a gas engine.
I was just looking at the chart on page 1 of this thread and from the looks of things, the rotella 15/40 covers all the temps I see in Maryland so it should be ok. I'll try it and if my oil pressure is too high I'll switch back. It wont be in there too long anyway so if I dont like it it's no big deal
If your engine is vintage and not rebuilt with modern seals, I'd stay away from anything that says synthetic. The slippery stuff is more prone to leaking and getting past your main and timing cover seals. Wont hurt your engine, but might make a mess.
I'd say that rep just sold a ton of oil. Why pay 10 bucks for the ZDDP additive if the 15 dollars a gallon oil already has it. Oils change all the time so its great to get some current specs. Thanks for the info!
If your engine is healthy, using a higher viscosity oil won't increase your oil pressure under normal operating conditions. It will however allow the oil pressure to be higher under hot conditions because the oil stays thicker. Lower viscosity oil may thin out too much under high heat conditions and result in insufficient lubrication in high-pressure points in the engine - rod bearings, cam lobes, etc.. Lower viscosity oil helps increase the cranking speed when the engine is very cold, like in the winter in northern climates. This helps the car start easier with less strain on the battery. It will lubricate just fine as it warms up because the engine never gets super-heated like they do in Arizona in the summer. As a general rule, use higher viscosity oil in the summer, lower viscosity in the winter. Don't worry about minor variations in oil pressure as long as you've got good pressure at hot idle under all conditions.
i used to use nothing but Rotella. Largely in aircooled VW engines. Rotella WAS indeed reformulated and ZDDP levels are 1/2-2/3 what they used to be at best. MANY sites have ran the independant test on all the go to oils. guys that used Rotella religously won't touch it anymore. I personally use Brad Penn racing oil and Wix filters(seen my share of shitty Fram filters burst) and yes i'm also talking about in the aircooled cars to as they get full flow treatment and an external filter when you spend $6-8k building a stroker for one of those cars. it was mentioned above Penn, Gibbs, Redline, and if those are hardish to find VR1 ain't bad. the bad all those are usually $5-9qt. if you think loosing a quart a week hurts try doing a 25 minute break in with Penn Break In Oil(oil and filter about $50) dumping that and pumping in another $50 or so in Penn Racing oil and about a week later dumping that. about $150 in oil/filters in a weeks time. oh and then about 2 weeks later guy in front of me stops short and i've got nowhere to go and totals the car i just put that $6k+ stroker in. so sick i left it sitting in the yard most of last and this year. starting fixing the damage with donor front clip a month or so ago.....
Look at it this way, if it's losing a quart a week, it will be so oily on the bottom side it won't rust out in 100 years!
I'm gonna try the Rotella T and hope my cam doesn't hate me for it. I'm thinking (hoping) the Shell guy wouldn't lie to me. If it does go bad it'll be not only a lesson learned, but a good time to throw a 261 or a Patricks cam in (looking for a silver lining here) to go with the split manifold I'm doing over the winter.
A consideration I read of years ago, where multi-weight oils were less % lubricant, and slightly? more multi-vis chemical modifiers.
The correct weight oil, for the conditions is ideal. Yet we have all had times when cold starts, or summer heat impacts a drive. I would have to guess, that a smaller multi-viscosity range, like the 5-20wt would be better than say 10-40wt, but have not seen an evaluation of the lube performance differences. Likely it's when the lube system is serving a highest HP output engine, that having premium lube quality matters.
Depends on what he's supposed to be running. The 5 means it's as thin as 5W cold, engine spec calls for thicker I'm sure. When hot it would be the same thickness as 20W witch might be right unless it calls for 30W then it'd would still be a bit thin.
When I was running my Bluebird Wanderlodge (343,000 miles) I made things simple at my place. Ran Rotella in everything on my place, lawn mower, car, pickup, 49 ford flathead. Have 65,000 on it and it still runs smooth as when it was rebuilt.
I`m the guy with the 292 powered altered, Don`t want to get into a p---ing contest, but if I can change oil for $25 plus filter, I`m there.I also ran in 7.0 pro with a 509 blown Donovan( best of 6.78) at 7 to 8 thousand rpm and had no damage on the yearly freshen up
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