Dad's oil practice

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You can often find 10W-30 on clearance and it is a perfectly good grade for warmer temperatures.
Heck, it used to be a perfectly good oil for all temperatures per OMs up through the early nineties for many makes other than GM and even GM recommended the 10W-30 grade for a number of applications.
This grade may use a lower VII treat rate and offer lower NOACK than a 5W-30 of the same brand and type.
No real reason to run one grade in summer and another in winter, but there may be some small advantage in doing so, so there's also no reason not to.
 
I remember when I was a kid that my dad said he always changed the filter when changing oil because “ one quart of dirty oil mixed with four quarts of fresh oil, equals five quarts of dirty oil” Just good old farmer logic.
 
My dad only used pennzoil 10w40. He would open the can by making 1 big hole then a smaller hole so it would vent when pouring it in. Didn't matter if it was an air cooled beetle,valiant or dirt bike. All got that oil.
 
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Back in the early 70s, my dad taught me oil changes. Everything got 10W-40 year round with 6K OCI, per owners' manuals recommendation. I introduced 3K OCIs when the engineers at work reported a significant difference in engine wear between 6K and 3K OCIs. Since the advent of BITOG, I've tweaked things to not waste oil. Over the years, our family cars have never had an oil-related failure.
 
Originally Posted By: Snagglefoot
Back in the day, 5W-30 wasn’t trusted for summer use and then finally the manufacturers sped’d 5-30 for year round use. Of course it coincided with improved formulations and then synthetic oil. No motor “winter” oil.


Correct; until (don't quote me) the early 2000s, 5w30 sheared much more quickly than 10w30 so there was a lot of merit in using 10w30 when there's not going to be any cold temperature starts.
 
I've considered using SAE40 in the summer and 15W/50 in the not summer, since I currently use a mixture of both all year round, but thats a lot of oil changing.
 
I did that in the 60s with straight 30 summer and 20 in the winter. Multi wt oils in those days (5-30 QS) caused my Dodge engine to sludge badly even with 2K OCIs. Nowadays, switching oil wt is of no value.
 
Way back when during simpler times my Dad put Havoline SAE 30wt in the crankcase. It didn’t matter what time if the year it was.

On the ‘54 Chevy, the oil change was a real pain in the arse as the filter arrangement was one of the worst ever. Trying to keep a small O ring on the housing while negotiating a frame member in the process kept us busy for a long time. It was frustrating to say the least.
 
Originally Posted By: PimTac
... On the ‘54 Chevy, the oil change was a real pain in the arse as the filter arrangement was one of the worst ever. Trying to keep a small O ring on the housing while negotiating a frame member in the process kept us busy for a long time. ...
That's odd, because filter changes on our '54 Chevy were easy, except for the need to suction out roughly a pint of old oil left in the filter housing after the old canister was removed. The gasket on the cover was flat, not an O-ring. The filter was clamped to the side of the intake manifold, up high where it was far from any frame member and easily accessible.

Oil filters were optional accessories back then. I believe someone said in an earlier thread that GM used more than one filter model on that engine.
 
In the bad old days, didn't a larger split between winter rating and viscosity mean more VM/VII (or whatever was used to stretch the oil)? and that stuff less likely to go long miles?

Thinner is often "nicer" in winter (faster cranking).
 
Originally Posted By: CR94
Originally Posted By: PimTac
... On the ‘54 Chevy, the oil change was a real pain in the arse as the filter arrangement was one of the worst ever. Trying to keep a small O ring on the housing while negotiating a frame member in the process kept us busy for a long time. ...
That's odd, because filter changes on our '54 Chevy were easy, except for the need to suction out roughly a pint of old oil left in the filter housing after the old canister was removed. The gasket on the cover was flat, not an O-ring. The filter was clamped to the side of the intake manifold, up high where it was far from any frame member and easily accessible.

Oil filters were optional accessories back then. I believe someone said in an earlier thread that GM used more than one filter model on that engine.




I may have my years mixed up. My brain is not so good. It could have been a 53. Four door deluxe as I recall.
 
Originally Posted By: PimTac
... I may have my years mixed up. ... It could have been a 53. Four door deluxe as I recall.
The '53 and '54 were nearly identical except a few cosmetic changes and slightly increased horsepower claim for '54. They may have had different model or brand oil filters. Was yours factory-installed or added later? Ours was AC brand, from the factory, with an orange cover (upon which my father wrote the odometer reading when he changed the oil).
 
Back in the day, we used SAE 30 in winter and SAE 40 in summer ...

Of course flathead V8's like plenty thick oil as they age
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: CR94
Originally Posted By: PimTac
... I may have my years mixed up. ... It could have been a 53. Four door deluxe as I recall.
The '53 and '54 were nearly identical except a few cosmetic changes and slightly increased horsepower claim for '54. They may have had different model or brand oil filters. Was yours factory-installed or added later? Ours was AC brand, from the factory, with an orange cover (upon which my father wrote the odometer reading when he changed the oil).




It was a canister filter ( separate filter and can with o-ring. ). I didn’t know that oil filters were a add on then for that car. I do remember the orange canister though most of the orange paint had worn off.

I also remember he had the idle set very low. That engine was a very smooth and quiet straight six.
 
yes.. i tend to follow the same chain of thought..
although both my vehicle spec 5-20 [ enter the CAFE arguments here..]

I will blend more 5-30 in summer / and then 5-20 for winter..
but thats just me..
J.
 
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