Hey people, i'm restoring my car's body, done tuning the engine and tranny, car will be on the road within 3 months. I'm not planning on restoring my engine yet for a couple reasons. I won't have enough money by the time i'm done with the body, i don't know what I'll want as engine, and this one, although in a rough shape still delivers just under 400hp. (has 80 000 miles)

Let me put it this way, I take care of my cars, but I am really rough on them too. I have a true dual exhaust and i can see the engine smokes a bit on one side. I need to know what type/brand of oil i can pick up that would be best for a 350 that gets put to the test very often. My tranny is a rebuilt 700r4, same question, what type of fluid should I get for it?

 

I always ran 10-40 Valvoline in my old car, but pretty much any name brand besides pennzoil should be okay. I run syntec 10-40 in my '95 chevy truck with no problems, but it's about $5 a quart. From my experience, everyone sort of just finds their own favorite oil to use and sticks to it, I don't really think there's much science involved.

 

Well, if you want to go synthetic, get Mobil 1 at Walmart, or Royle Purple, or Amsoil. The castrol Syntec isnt real synthetic.

Another option is, and I just had a thread about this, to run a good Diesel oil in your motor. Shell Rotella, Delo 400, and Mobil Delvac are all popular for Dino. If you want a syn, Shell Rotella 5w-40 is awesome. BTW these diesel oils are SJ SL certified for Gas engines too. The big comapnies just dont want you to know. Finally, you really reallly should consider this if you have a flat tappet cam!

 

For the engine im using : AC DELCO 15W40 and oilfilter : PUROLATOR (big one)

 

Actually... you're right about that to a certain extent. I've seen facts about that as well. It depends on your engine's wear...Here's one thing that may cause me issues, especially considering the fact that I have an older engine which already smokes as it is... An engine which has always or mostly used fossil fuel will have had a life with more friction, deteriorating the engine parts a little more than if it used synthetic oils. What happens then is oil/dirt seeps into the imperfections, and stays there to create a bit of sludge around all the seals. So, if you suddenly use synthetic oil which is a lower friction and cleaner product, it will clean away all the sludgy areas and open up all the imperfections around the seals making your cars burn a hell of a lot more oil. If your car has always used synthetics, then it's used to less wear, less friction, less deterioration. Putting fossil oils in it will increase friction and heat which makes old engines and seals more vulnerable.

Apparently even staying with the same type of oil but changing to a different brand may cause some slight differences in what an engine is used to. MY problem is this... The guy who used it before me had it for 4 months, and the retard used that cheap crap at wal-mart for 75 cents/quart. He had no idea what was in it before. So, i'll try synthetic, if it burns up too quickly, i'll use a thicker oil, and if i still have issues, then maybe i'll have no choice but to work on the engine a bit. It really steams me off about how he beat the hell out of this engine and didn't take care of it. Before i customized my own true dual exhaust a week after i bought it, he'd drag race this thing with a section he repaired which was single 2 inch wide pipe that had a section which was bent in 90 degrees, leaving maybe a fifth of an inch for air flow. I remembered when he'd start it, it would stall, he told me it was just the carburetor not adjusted. When i bought it and noticed that bend, I completely removed the headers and exhaust, the damn car ran perfectly. I fear the reason the car has a problems with the seals is because of all the back-pressure which was being cause by the lack of airflow.

But hey, I learnt a lot today just by surfing for an hour. I'll see if mobil1 synthetic will work out or not. I hope it does.

 

The other thing to think about is, if the car always been running on one brand and one type of oil, then stick with that brand and oil its the best to do for the engine, Im using AC DELCO just because ts always been used in that car

 

Actually... you're right about that to a certain extent. I've seen facts about that as well. It depends on your engine's wear...Here's one thing that may cause me issues, especially considering the fact that I have an older engine which already smokes as it is... An engine which has always or mostly used fossil fuel will have had a life with more friction, deteriorating the engine parts a little more than if it used synthetic oils. What happens then is oil/dirt seeps into the imperfections, and stays there to create a bit of sludge around all the seals. So, if you suddenly use synthetic oil which is a lower friction and cleaner product, it will clean away all the sludgy areas and open up all the imperfections around the seals making your cars burn a hell of a lot more oil. If your car has always used synthetics, then it's used to less wear, less friction, less deterioration. Putting fossil oils in it will increase friction and heat which makes old engines and seals more vulnerable.

Apparently even staying with the same type of oil but changing to a different brand may cause some slight differences in what an engine is used to. MY problem is this... The guy who used it before me had it for 4 months, and the retard used that cheap crap at wal-mart for 75 cents/quart. He had no idea what was in it before. So, i'll try synthetic, if it burns up too quickly, i'll use a thicker oil, and if i still have issues, then maybe i'll have no choice but to work on the engine a bit. It really steams me off about how he beat the hell out of this engine and didn't take care of it. Before i customized my own true dual exhaust a week after i bought it, he'd drag race this thing with a section he repaired which was single 2 inch wide pipe that had a section which was bent in 90 degrees, leaving maybe a fifth of an inch for air flow. I remembered when he'd start it, it would stall, he told me it was just the carburetor not adjusted. When i bought it and noticed that bend, I completely removed the headers and exhaust, the damn car ran perfectly. I fear the reason the car has a problems with the seals is because of all the back-pressure which was being cause by the lack of airflow.

But hey, I learnt a lot today just by surfing for an hour. I'll see if mobil1 synthetic will work out or not. I hope it does.

 

and rule number 2, change often. I change my oil every year, its a cheap insurance to have new/clean and fresh oil in the system, always changed engineoil every year. Just to know its good oil in the system And every time ive changed the oil have looked nice and smelled good.

Just changed transmission oil to, last year in May so now it will run for many years before I have to change it again

 

i would go with mobile 1 synthetic, i have always used that and it has always done me well. i change every three thousand or three months.

i would never go a year without changing my oil, even if it is not driven often. i am just overly cautious about my car though.

 

Since you say its in rough shape I would use any brand of 15W40. People worry too much about oil.

 

I cringe every time I see a topic like this, because I know it will be chock full of misinformation.

This one is no exception.

Engines don't get "used" to a particular type or brand of oil. The batch-to-batch variation in the formulation and quality of the typical oil itself makes that a non-issue. It's the worst in products that are labeled for a company that doesn't actually make the oil, such as AC Delco, Harley Davidson, etc. You might as well go to K-Mart and buy their brand of oil.

Most any synthetic, whether "real" or not, will be better than a petroleum-based oil. But, it isn't wise to paint with too broad of a brush, because it's too easy to call something "synthetic" these days. Group 3 synthetics are the ones that get by stealing the name, as they are just highly refined petroleum. Group 4 are the PAO oils, which are typically better. But, you won't know by reading the label, because they aren't required to tell you what it is.

Mobil 1 and AMSOIL both make Group 3 products, so know what you're getting.

The "issue" with flat tappet cams is the reduction in phosphorus and zinc anti-wear additives in ILSAC GF-4 oils. Diesel oils won't be rated GF-4, but may or may not have the desired anti-wear additives. AMSOIL will tell you even their GF-4 oils are fine for flat tappets in the proper grade, and they don't make recommendations lightly.

I've been using AMSOIL products since 1983, and I've followed their recommendations, including the one-year/25k mile oil change interval. Like I said, they don't make recommendations lightly.