Dammit, I was just at Oriellys Sunday and need a quart or two after my dufus double gasket debacle. But I put in the "racing" VR-1 that I got from the guy at the machine shop that did my engine, dont know if they carry that stuff...
It sells for $6.99 every day at our local NAPA , never seen it on sale here just dam glad to get it . Allway's had a flat tappet cam and only use Valvoline 40 yrs
The real lesson is if you shoot off your mouth with unsubstanciated personal opinions here, you will soon be challenged by people with real facts and knowledge.
I'm on Orielys e-mailing list for just this reason, I saw the price and went to the store to check the printed flier-3.99. They ordered my 2 cases yesterday and I picked them up today!
X2 on BS posts with nothing to back it up. VR-1 has about the highest levels of Zinc and Phosphorous of any oil on the market.
249k - that is pretty good! Have you ever had the valve cover off? It would be interesting to see what it looks like in there with that mileage and 2x/yr oil changes.
Whoops, You found me out. Lent the car out and "the temp gauge went to red. What does that mean?". Last summer had to have the head shaved due to minor warpage. The head look darn good. Not brand new but pretty damn clean. All in all I'm happy and cheap. Going to run it until it commits suicide or dies from old age just to see how long it will last. Maybe it will become "on topic".
What weight are most using . I have a '50 buick straight 8 and a cpl of /6's and a cpl of '60 318's. I've been using VR-1 10w30. At this price(if I can get that price) I was going for a cpl of cases.
I run 20W40 summer and 10W30 in my small block summer and winter. This next bit of info is OT so you can stop reading here if you want. I always run 60 or 70 straight weight in my bikes.
LOL a lot of you old pan-knuck guys still run that molasses, trying to get the oil to stay on the inside It's really hard to get old-timers to accept that fact that 20-50 flows and protects just the same at operating temp as "straight" 50, and flows and protects much better when cold- some old traditions die VERY hard. Every few months somebody brings this up on the antique bike forums, and the old-timers get HOS-TILE 3-2-1...
I wouldn't get hostile about it, old habits just die hard. I am thinking of trying multi visc in my late model, by the time this one was built they shops were putting multi visc in them. Sometimes change is just fuckin hard. I was actully afraid this one was out of oil, but I found a little pee spot on my garage floor yesterday so I am good. Oh I got a shovel now and shocks, no one will recognize me.
Did you ever see that episode of American Chomper when those idjits burned up the new custom big-inch Evo-type engine? They put straight 60wt in it, from a drum sitting against the outside wall with snow on the other side of the wall, fired it up and immediately ran it on the dyno- spiraled down to crunch pretty fast. The engine builder comes over and has to maintain for the camera, takes the gravity- feed line off the oil bag, and the cold 60wt oil (molasses) won't even drip from it, let alone flow- the engine got no oil at all. 20-50 would have flowed even when that cold, and protected the engine, even from those klowns And compounding it, those v-twins hardly circulate any oil at idle anyway, so even if the engine is warm, the oil in the bag is still pretty cold for a few miles
During the summer here in Texas, my shovel makes all kinds of clattering noises if I run anything less than 60wt... it really prefers 70wt. My twin-cam gets 20w-50 year round though. I just bought some Mobile1 V-twin oil "on sale" for $8.99/qrt ... lol.
$3.99/qt right here in beautiful downtown Boise. I've been running this stuff (20W-50)in my 235 for years with no issues.
I actually sheared a pump key one winter, I noticed no oil pressure and shut it down and started inspecting things. Found the sheared key, hitch hiked to the nearest hardware shore and bought a key and then some 40 wt to get me out of the rockies. I am not up on the evo stuff, the older engines had timed oiling, we used to machine the bushing to give the constant oiling, by the later '70s someone was actually marketing a machined bushing for just that purpose. I think S&S but don't hold me to that. I see guys fire one off even car engines and hit the dyno like their life depended on it. I know that this is antiquated thinking but I still believe that you should at least get an engine close to operating temp before you hammer it. Well Gene it appears that you and I have gone completely off the reservation and drug a couple of the fellas off with us. I'll take the blame for this one if you get the next one.
Yeah that's what I got this AM. I went to O'Riellys after I read this and the jagoff told me $5.99 for VR1 20/50 Dino. The VR 1 synthetic is on sale for $4.99.
Beaner,I build Triumphs but have had a few 70's Shovelheads along the way. Last one was a hotted up 74.Used S&S cast pistons fitted to the recommended clearances. Ran 20/50 oil and the engine was no more or less clatter than other Shovels.I always used oil coolers if that matters.The all roller lower ends supposedly don't require thick oil or much oil pressure.I always drive easy on bike or auto engines until they warm up. But some guys with experience say the old stuff needs 60-70 weight for hard running on hot days....
I wasnt aware that VR1 "valvoline racing oil" came in synthetic, thats news to me... anyhow I just recently was checking on availibility of VR1 for another reason and supplies are low nation wide "in the NAPA system" dont know why or whats going on but if you can find it you better buy it,, unless your GM crazy then you might want that DELCO shit they recomend . Ed
at auto zone the other day kendall straight 50 on sale 2.99 quart i'll use it on my shovel winters only just throwin it out there if anybody could use it
Truckedup, On our hot motors we used to actually set things up to run 9 psi, constant oiling. Helped keep the gaskets intact. I have considered an oil cooler in the past, my problem used to be that I rode year around, or even in the summer I may take a mid-night ride through the mojave. Guess I could have carried a sock to cover that bugger up. My current motor is late model ('78) and by then the company was suggesting multi-visc in their motors. Maybe before hot season gets here I will give some 20/50 a try and see what pops. I may want something a little more substancial when the tripple digits hit though.
Thanks for the heads up. Picked up a couple cases. Nice, knowledgeable folks, said they always keep it in stock. Didn't even have to ask if it had A/C or P/S. LOL
The VR1 10w30 Synthetic racing oil is 4.99/qt but the sales rep. discounted it to 3.99 since I bought 24qts. I wasn't thinking because I should have bought 25. The 20w50 has the highest amt. of zddp so I'll have to add the zddp addative to my 10w30.