oil in my 215!

All inline 6 guys, i've got a 215. I just bought a car over the winter and was curious as to what weight oil I should run in it?

 

what is a 215? I've heard of a 216 chevy....

you can run 10W40 in most engines under most conditions.

 

if its like every 216 ive owned, you should use 60w with stp

riverrat

 

Pretty sure 215s came in older '60s Fords, and I know a 215-six came in '64 -'65 Pontiac Tempest/Lemans cars as the standard powerplant (same exact engine as a 230 Chevy with a smaller 3.75" bore).

Would be nice if the original poster would ID his car and engine.

 

30W in winter. 40W in summer. (factory advice.)
10W30 in winter. 10W40 in summer.
Traveling down to Texas this summer, 20W50 should keep you going.

 

Considering the zinc situation, 15W-40 diesel oil.

 

its in a 53 ford customline!

 

i thought those were 223's. is it ohv or flathead? 30 wt. should get you going.

 

ohv

 

thanks, I learned something...52-53 OHV 6 Fords were 215s, 54 they went to the 223.

 

i was wondering sqiurrel! whats with the deisel 15w-40 george?

 

If you haven't been following the oil quality & dead cam threads...There has been a massive reduction in zinc anti-wear components in car oil vs oil from the early 80s. It's been found that the zinc was contributing to emissions, & wasn't nessesary with the newer factory roller cam engines. The new oil isn't all that good for engines w/o roller cams, especially those that don't have PCV systems. Diesel oil has a lot of anti-wear additives. Diesel oil with a 4 or 4+ rating is recommended. There is new grade 5 diesel oil with reduced anti-wear additives out. No word on if it is as reduced to the same level as the car oil. The low additive thing may be contributing to a rash of failures of high lift cams recently. Hot Rod Mag. has done a story on this a while back.

 

george what are you running with the deisel?

 

what about adding lucas oil additive ?

 

None of mine have roller cams, so.... 331 Hemi, a couple of Clevelands, an AMC 6, & a 318.

 

There was a comment in a thread about how someone put a drill motor on the 4 gear demo thing & spun it up. Repotedly it foamed real bad. No report what else would do that under those conditions, or if it was realisticly shows what could happen in an engine. How fast was the drill motor turning? As far as anti wear additives is concerned I haven't seen any comments if Lucas, STP or other additives would help, other than GM EOS. That is supposed to be for break in only.