synthiac oil

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macswoods
Posts: 313
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 1:20 pm
Body Type: 82-A
Model Year: 1929
Location: Wilhoit, Arizona

synthiac oil

Post by macswoods »

I was talking to the guys at our local car club about oils in our old autos/trucks.
Subject came up in regards to synthic oil. Some say it is the best, "the racers use it "!!
Some say NOT in our old engines. Only if you start out with a newly rebuilt engine.
Any opinions? ? Don't want to ruin the engine, even if the oil does last longer, they
cost TOO much to have rebuilt. Mac...
Stakebed
Posts: 1223
Joined: June 14th, 2007, 7:29 pm
Body Type: Grainbox
Model Year: 1929
Location: Illinois

Re: synthiac oil

Post by Stakebed »

Well this is a very sharp double edged sword (possibly a quadruple edged sword) within the model A community but i will share my take on it:

Way back when the model A was new oil at that time varied greatly and was utter crap compared to the last 40 years of oil.

So that being said ANYTHING you use nowadays, conventional, full synthetic, partial synthetic, $30 a qt stuff to $2 a qt stuff it will all be better than stuff 80 years ago. Now in my opinion you should be using DETERGENT oil, it has this great thing of NOT creating sludge unlike non detergent. The only argument ive ever heard of using NON detergent oil is "well thats what henry used" - while true thats all henry had available to him at the time and all that technology allowed and is about one notch higher than ox cart grease...

Multi weight oils are an excellent thing nowadays too, nomore lighting fires under the oil pan to get the oil thin enough to start in the winter! its thinner as its colder and flows easier meaning less wear on your bearings.

Another thing to consider is the model A doesn't have an oil filter and rather open oiling system when compared to today cars. So once again in my opinion changing the oil once it gets dark AFTER 1,000 miles would be my way to do things, i dont believe oil goes bad sitting for 3 months like the oil companies want you to believe.(yes it has to do with acids forming and such but if you DRIVE your car for miles on end those acids burn off)

Now over the last 20 or so years EPA has required less and less zinc (or ZDDP on the back of the bottle) in the oils. Modern cars use roller lifters aginst the lobes of the cam and is not affected, however some of our engines (like jeep 4.0L, chevette 1.6L, model A's, and may other older cars) use flat lifters (or tappets) and subject to cam lobe wear and HIGHLY recommend you dump a bottle of STP oil treatment in the crankcase - it adds the ZDDP back in and makes the oil a bit clingier and slicker and greatly minimizes cam wear. Now I have heard an argument against what i just said and it does make sense: The model A valve springs are nowhere near as stout/stiff as "modern" engines due to low compression and no need to a super hard closing valve and wont see any benefit to using STP. To each their own and use it if you want ($3 for the little blue bottle)

What i have sitting in my engine is 10-40w castrol GTX conventional. its like $15-$20 for a 5 qt jug at wally world.

once again the above is my opinion and like i said its a very touchy subject among the model A community, everyones got thier ways and believes and are entitled to them. agree if you want dissagree if you want.
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1crosscut
Posts: 877
Joined: December 25th, 2010, 7:22 pm
Body Type: 82-A
Model Year: 1929
Location: Lincoln, NE

Re: synthiac oil

Post by 1crosscut »

Save your money and pass on the synthetic oils.
Use a standard multi weight detergent oil and change it around 750 -1000 miles. A bit longer in between oil changes if you generally do longer trips instead of a lot of short trips.
If you drive a lot of gravel roads change it every 500 miles and consider using an air filter.
------------
Dave
KimVanOrder
Posts: 753
Joined: August 11th, 2013, 4:25 pm
Body Type: 82-A Platform
Model Year: 1928
Location: Hamilton, Mich.

Re: synthiac oil

Post by KimVanOrder »

1crosscut wrote:Save your money and pass on the synthetic oils.
Use a standard multi weight detergent oil and change it around 750 -1000 miles. A bit longer in between oil changes if you generally do longer trips instead of a lot of short trips.
If you drive a lot of gravel roads change it every 500 miles and consider using an air filter.

Dave. Yup.

KVO
KVO
Dec. '28 AA
Jim_M
Posts: 10
Joined: February 24th, 2014, 11:04 pm
Body Type: 82-A
Model Year: 1930
Location: Alaska

Re: synthiac oil

Post by Jim_M »

I drive my truck mainly on gravel roads so I change my oil more frequently than folks in the lower 48. My oil preference is a high-zink formula used in racing motor oil so I use Valvoline VR1. This is probably an overkill, but it works for me.
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tiredtruckrestorer
Posts: 338
Joined: April 20th, 2003, 7:09 pm
Model Year: 1931
Location: Orwigsburg, PA

Re: synthiac oil

Post by tiredtruckrestorer »

Our local Model A engine rebuilder recommends using a 15W40 diesel engine oil. These oils have additive packages to withstand the high pressures encountered in diesel engines and would be more than sufficient protection for a Model A engine. Since they are a high detergent oil you'll want to change them frequently, depending on your driving conditions. I do not use 15W40 in my older engines that haven't been rebuilt or at least the pan and valve chamber cleaned out good, because the detergents job is to pick up the dirt and circulate it through the engine for the oil filter to catch. Oh, so if there is no oil filter to catch the crud, it just gets circulated around in the engine. For my older running engines I just use a Non-detergent 40 weight in summer and 30 weight for winter driving. It's normally hard to keep a Model A engine oil from leaking a little oil so as it is, but I'll think you'll find out with synthetic oils you will find more leaks too.

Keith
ModelAkid
Posts: 478
Joined: June 3rd, 2013, 6:15 pm
Body Type: 186-B stake
Model Year: 1931
Location: LHC Arizona & UP Michigan

Re: synthiac oil

Post by ModelAkid »

I agree with Keith: for years I have been using 15w-40 in all my tractors and old cars & trucks. I buy it in 5 gallon buckets. The tractors I change every 100 engine-hours. Old cars & trucks when it looks dirty. As Keith said: don't put detergent oil in an engine unless it has been thoroughly cleaned out.
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spectria
Posts: 1874
Joined: May 15th, 2008, 9:53 pm
Body Type: Mail Truck, Stakebed
Model Year: 1931
Location: Quincy, Ca.

Re: Synthetic oil

Post by spectria »

ModelAkid wrote:I agree with Keith: for years I have been using 15w-40 in all my tractors and old cars & trucks. I buy it in 5 gallon buckets. The tractors I change every 100 engine-hours. Old cars & trucks when it looks dirty. As Keith said: don't put detergent oil in an engine unless it has been thoroughly cleaned out.
What Keith and Curt said...
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