Official "What oil / additives should I use" topic

[glutamodo]

[s60088]

I found Valvoline 20W50 and will use this in my 71.

[Lingwendil]

[Frodge]

I live in the NYC metro area. What grade oil would you suggest. I'm looking at Brad Penn and Vr-1. 10w30, 10w40 or 20w50?

[Lingwendil]

[Frodge]

Thanks. I don't have a new engine. I have the original engine in my 70 with original 73000 miles. Runs well. So I wouldn't say tired, but definitely not new.

[Frodge]

So my motor is original to the car. It has 74k on it, runs strong and well. Has a couple drips on shut down here and there. Nothing major. I've read thus whole thread and have decided as stated above between brad Penn and valvoline race. Given the mileage on my car, I don't want to blow seals or anything with a really heavy or low weight oil etc. The brad Penn 10w30 is semi synthetic, so I'd like to avoid that. The brad Penn 10w40 doesn't state whether it is semi synthetic, if its full Dino, this is a food option I think.
The valvoline race comes in 10w30 and 20w50 or straight 40. 10w30 may be too light? 40 isn't a multigrade etc. 20w50, never have run that type weight oil. Is that really heavy? Looking for a good option here
It has also been brought to my attention about regular valvoline 10w40? Does this have sufficient zinc?

[heimlich]

Unless it says it has zinc consider it a mystery. Both VR1 and Brad Green Penn state they have Zinc.

[Frodge]

So the question is whether brad Penn 10w40 is semi synthetic. Their 10w30 is. What does that even mean.

Then in the valvoline side there is 10w30, 20w50 or straight 40. I really am not sure which to use.

[Wildthings]

[Frodge]

What other options are there for high zing other than vr1 and brad Penn? Vr1 doesn't make a 10w40 and brad Penn is kind of difficult to find. How does this stuff fair when using with a regular oil?
http://www.bughaus.com/Zinc_Additive.htm

[rockerarm]

[vwracerdave]

[modok]

Well, that is debatable.
I say it's OK to mix different wights of the same product line, in MOST cases.

Joe Gibbs says it's ok also

It could be a bad idea in some cases, but I've never heard of a problem actually happening. While on the other hand, I have heard of a few cases of additives being not compatible with each other and causing foam or something. They sure do sell a lot of oil additives, bunch of snake oil, should be avoided.......but IMO, adding oil to oil is usually just fine.

[heimlich]

If you have an M35 you can put everything in it.

[mark tucker]

I mix my brands and weights I always have and always will.with the crank&rods&heads in my 2028 having well over 130000 miles on them and still std sizes,the main bearings have well over 110000 as does the cam&lifters&gears.as assembled now they have around 80000 miles on them. so...mixing dont hurt. in tech schools the oil company reps for that manufacture stated."we make the oil for the big 3 manufactures" it is all diferent additive packages min the same oil to address the issues each manufacture saw a issue in. and additive's took care of the issue's. mix and you get the best of the best. I like the quaker state defy/highmilage semi syn it has zinc in it although they forgot to add that to the packaging when they changed this labeling this year.I contacted them and they did not change the oil just labeling as was not aware that was left off..... I mix it with castrol syn,penisynthetc,valvoline syn and even sometimes mobile...Im not a fan of mobile oil but it may have atleast 1 good thing in it so i do use it too. I will not use any racing oil in a motor that is not a dedicated race engine. no snake oil shit, no lucas mucas shit.

[heimlich]

Mark,

Sounds similar to gas. It is all the same (except for octane) at the pump except what the tanker adds to it when they fill it at the pipe.

[vwracerdave]

[heimlich]

So, you are telling me there are 175 different pipelines where that truck driver picks up the gas? There is probably only a fraction of that and they are mixed accordingly.

[EverettB]