A few relics...are they worth anything or do I open and use them?

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Aug 4, 2020
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I recently did a favor for one of my part store connections and bought 7 quarts of old stock for a little over a buck a quart. Nobody else would have bought them. My question is, do I clean them up a bit and keep them unopened (maybe a collector would love these?), or do I open and use them in a very old 1970 vehicle that won't care about the oil's age? I'm leaning toward use them...

If nothing else, I thought a few people would remember these labels and get either a laugh or a feeling of dread knowing how old they're getting!

Here are the goods. Left to right are bottles with API SJ, SL, SM, SN.

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Lawnmower oil!
While this is a valid point, the only lawnmowers that I service are several zero-turns. I value these mowers too much to pour this oil into them. They get full synthetic, just like my vehicles.
 
I recently did a favor for one of my part store connections and bought 7 quarts of old stock for a little over a buck a quart. Nobody else would have bought them. My question is, do I clean them up a bit and keep them unopened (maybe a collector would love these?), or do I open and use them in a very old 1970 vehicle that won't care about the oil's age? I'm leaning toward use them...

If nothing else, I thought a few people would remember these labels and get either a laugh or a feeling of dread knowing how old they're getting!

Here are the goods. Left to right are bottles with API SJ, SL, SM, SN.

View attachment 61342

View attachment 61343
Use them . I have a 300 inline Ford F150 and if I had these they would be used for next oil change, notwithstanding that I believe Ford now specs a 5w 20 variety for these old workhorses .
 
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I'd probably just use them, plastic bottles will eventually they'll leak, they probably were spared since they sat on the shelf in a conditioned room for the last 15-25 years, but if you leave them sit around the garage a few seasons I'm sure they'll start leaking out the indicator strip like all plastic containers eventually do.
 
I'd probably just use them, plastic bottles will eventually they'll leak, they probably were spared since they sat on the shelf in a conditioned room for the last 15-25 years, but if you leave them sit around the garage a few seasons I'm sure they'll start leaking out the indicator strip like all plastic containers eventually do.
Very good point...and another vote to use.
 
Use as a flushing oil. Add a quart of kerosene or 5 minute motor flush, same thing, drain oil, replace filter, use that oil, run the engine for 5 minutes and dump the sacrificial Motorcraft 10W40.
Another decent idea, a sacrificial oil. But I have an application that would love the ZDDP content in these oils, so that's why I was leaning toward using them. It has an 8 quart sump, and I already used one bottle as a sacrificial oil. On something else, so it would have two fresh quarts along with these remaining 6.

Another use vote.
 
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