Anyone here who drove in the 1970's NOT use 10W-40?

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Circa 1972 I commuted to the local JC in a 1965 Plymouth Fury station wagon. Virtually every gasket and seal leaked (transmission and steering, too!). I bought the house brand 10w40 at K-Mart and IIRC it cost 33 cents quart, or was it 25 cents? Same price as a gallon of gas or a pack of smokes.
 
toocrazy-I did the on-base auto shop thing too! NAS Albany, Ga., we didn't anything as big as that but it was still pretty handy. I miss the Exchange prices too, but I'll bet they aren't near what we remember.
Presently around 65K on the Accent, very pleased with it, bought it cheap to supplement my van, sold my van, put on some roof carrier brackets and built a trailer hitch, now it does the heavy hauling when I go to my Antique Outboard club meets. I have the old school 12V. 1.5, seems pretty torqey, and empty and speeds around 65 mph. I'm getting just over 40 mpg. Life is good!
 
Back in the 70's the 10w-30 was considered "better" and the 10w-40 "best" and the prices reflected it at the island (gas station retail). I think we sold 5 variations. 30 weight non-detergent Oilex, I'm unsure of the other names ..but it was SAE 30, 20w-30, 10w-30, and 10w-40 (EXXON).

I used them all at one time or another. My boss used only two weights SAE 20 in the winter and SAE 30 the rest of the year. Now I know how smart he was given how multivisc oil was back then.
 
Over in England for almost all the '70s, I used Duckhams Q 20w50. Events included a blown water hose unnoticed on a high-speed country road, leading to the engine paint crisping off the engine. Oil was fine and engine undamaged...
 
If I remember correctly, the Duster, the Volare wagon, and the Fury II in my family all ran on 10W30. Can you tell there was a Chrysler dealer in the family?
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I was the first to use 10W40 (in my Bimmer) in about 1994.
 
Bought my grandmother's 73 Pontiac le mans. She worked at a medium -town dealership. Used nothing but straight detergent QS 30 weight its entire life in that car since the mechanics at the dealer told her what to use and after i got it saw no reason to change something that was working. small block 350 engine I recall, still running strong when sold with about 90K on it.
 
I never once used 10W-40 until I went synthetic in the late 90's.

1970's? - The ONLY oil I ever used until about 1988 was dino 20W-50 and mostly if not almost always Castrol. I am NOT joking or kidding or selling.

My engines would grunge up, burn a lot of oil, etc. I thought this was normal and there was no better viscosity or brand. I remember even a couple trips to the mountain snow. Engines would barely turn over. I thought this was normal!
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I clearly was not a sharp youth like Mike Wan.
 
Like Johnny, I've never used 10W-40s, always 10W-30 (or remember 10W-20W-30 QS?) for normal transportation or odd grades for exotics: AGIP 15W-50, Castrol 10W-50, and Kendall 20W-40 for 60s-70s Alfas, straight 30 for Beetles and straight 40 for an old V-12 Ferrari.
 
I used a lot of 30 weight in the summer and 10 or 20 weight in the winter. I still have some cans of Valvoline 10 weight under the work bench and a can puncher spout to go with them. kwg
 
Started in '68 with a Morris Minor (all of 1098cc) and used 20w/50 mostly, at each fuel stop, to fill up the gaps at the top of the cylinders:) Nope, that didn't work- so it was nearly a total-loss system. But the rust in the sills got to it before the engine gave up entirely.
 
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