yesterday and today, i was/am helping a friend tear down his 350 in his 77 camaro to turn it into a 383. we put this 350 in his car about 120k miles ago and we prepped the block ourselves. when we tore the engine down it was still running like the day we first fired it over, he just bought some +.030 pistons and a stroker crankshaft and wanted some more power. when we started to pull apart the motor, we were amazed several times. the first surprise was when we took off the valve covers. anyone who has taken off the valve covers after using regular dino oil would know that there is usually a bit of sludge buildup on top of the heads. we took the valve covers off the heads and to my surprise, there was absolutely NO buildup at all. as a matter of fact, i took a rag, and lightly wiped it in one small spot and the metal looked just like the day we put the engine together. once we got the heads of this is where we were surprised, i honed this block myself about a few years ago, and when we took off the heads, i could still lightly see the hone marks that i had made. talk about your friction modifier. this thing hadnt even worn down the block. i bet this engine couldve easily made it to 250-300k miles the way it was drivin. the only oil ever used was mobil 1 10W-30, changed every 3k miles. the rod and main bearings still looked great and looked like they had ALOT of life left in them. we started this engine off with mobil 1 even for the breakin period and the rings sat just fine. im sold on this stuff for life now after seeing this. ill take some pictures of this later before we have the block bored for the stroker.

 

Ive seen the same thing using regular ol Valvoline and regular oil changes at 3000 miles. The engine never used any oil and didnt even discolor it. I think its more proper maintenance than the type of oil.

Synthetic does work better, but most of us dont keep our engines or cars long enough to justify the extra price. I have a car I use it on and a car I dont, one of those being a car I plan on just driving every day without doing any mods ever and I really dont want to have to do anything to the engine, the other I know will be torn down before it will see any wear anyway so I dont waste the cash on the synthetic. Its already been apart once anyway, it will for sure happen again. Gotta love toys, just cant leave them alone.

 

actually, valvoline is one of the better dino oils you can use if you are going to go with dino oil. they have additives in them to prevent sludging and crap build up. i hear you on the cant keep from tearing the toys apart though, i know how that feels. weve already had this motor apart once before. its like deja vu

 

humm. All the more reason to switch heh

[This message has been edited by un4givin89 (edited August 05, 2001).]

 

yep, that is what I plan on using in my brand new 305 ( has 8 miles, a school mechanic shop closed down and they gave a engine guy I then I bought it for 900 with a Cat(not legaly), all the accetories, a TBI injection system (which is for sale), Air punp, water pump, alt, compresor, power steering, man o man, i could not beleave my eyes when I took of the valve cover to set the timeing, nothing but clean shiny metal. It feels good to have a new engine. any way, I plan on 10-30 in summer and 5-30 in winter.

 

yep we've all seen or read of first hand accounts of the virtues of (insert oil brand name here)and horror stories of using (insert oil brand name here). there's a lot more to long engine life beside the oil in the pan.

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