Let’s talk motor oils

[Deleted member 21878]

Ray
Thanks. my pressure is back fine. it really did not drop a lot. but it seemed to not be quite as high as the beginning. i would say it just looked to be 4-5 psi lower. i checked with a tester gauge and it seemed to show about the same... maybe a couple lbs higher than the car's gauge. but since i did those things, it is right back where it was. pegs the 60 psi until really warmed up.


i also read some more info on the syn oils and break-in periods. i am going to stay with what i have thru the break-in. it seems some think the syn oil is too slick and slows down the seating process.

 

[DTDuck]

OK, here is my 2 cents...
Based on my (10-20) years racing Spridgets and Mini's in SCCA road racing I long ago came to the conclusion that for these engines (British iron engineered in the '30's or '40's) that synthetics, while wonderful in some respects (bearing wear & operating temperature for example) they also have dome significant drawbacks, the most glaring of which is that the oil seals and tolerances were not engineered for synthetics making it extremely difficult if not impossible to keep these engines from leaking profusely. I say this from actual experience since I did use synthetics (Red Line Racing oil) for a period of time with less than satisfactory results. My long term conclusion was to switch back to Valvoline Racing oil (Now VR1) for racing applications we used straight 50w but for a street car I now use 20/50w both in the engine and gearbox although I am switching to Valvoline Synthetic for the Diff as I think the seals are robust enough and the higher viscosity to keep the oil on the inside where it belongs. So in summary I only use Valvoline VR1 20/50w for the engine & Gearbox although Castrol GTX would be my backup plan. I would also say that I have never had an oil related failure since switching to VR1. Hope this is helpful.

Cheers,
Dan M.

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Have used mineral oil--20W-50; Castrol, Chevron and now VR-1--since I bought it at 64K miles. Just had engine rebuilt at 194K miles and, to my surprise, the crank was still STD (I'd bought 20-under bearings figuring it would need to be reground; someone on the email list got a good deal on those).

 

[steveg]

Comparing two Blackstone reports on newly rebuilt engines:

This oil was my first oil change 2300 miles after changing out my break-in oil. Will get another report done after next oil change.

Bob S - Helpful to be able to compare with yours as we got our engines done at approximately the same time, though you have a lot more miles by now.

 

[Randy Forbes]

Once I can figure out how to open the pdf and edit it, I'll post my most recent Blackstone analysis report up, showing a trend from the last five (5) oil changes. It's only a couple-few weeks old__the report, not the rebuild.