How bad were oils in the 1980’s?

I friend of mine had a Suburban that used Quaker State oil. QS paid for a new engine because the engine blew up. I didn't have any problems in the 80's however I would change oil very frequently. As always it's about good maintenance. My dad had an Olds Toronado diesel that blew up at bout 80,000 miles but that was a very poor engine. He replaced it with a 350 gas engine out of a Nova.
 
Maybe in the US, not in Europe, until not very long ago it was certainly still the best seller.
The problem came from two extremely cold Winters in a row (two years) in the upper Midwest regions of the US. These cold snaps lasted for months not just days or weeks. General Motors was hit with a huge amount of warranty engine replacements and studied the problem. They discovered the problem was with 10w-40 oils.

I don't think Europe, in general, experiences these temperatures for extended lengths of time.
 
The oils in the 1980s were perfectly fine. It was mostly owner neglect that got all those oil urban legends started.

So true, I recently talked with 3 neighbors from my old neighborhood a few summers ago when we all got together. 2 of the guys did 3K OCI's, 1 used Mobil 1 , the other used Pennzoil Dino. Both of those cars were given to there family members, the 3rd guy used dino and could not remember when he changed his oil, but he had engine issues at like 60K or so, and got rid of the car.

I really think it is more about the driving habits, whether short trip or highway driving, and at what mileage interval you change your oil.

Back in the 1980's Mobil 1 was fantastic!
 
The problem came from two extremely cold Winters in a row (two years) in the upper Midwest regions of the US. These cold snaps lasted for months not just days or weeks. General Motors was hit with a huge amount of warranty engine replacements and studied the problem. They discovered the problem was with 10w-40 oils.

I don't think Europe, in general, experiences these temperatures for extended lengths of time.

Jan 1985 Popular Science says this:

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What ka9mnx is referring to is an issue with engine failures due to inadequate knowledge of how oil performs at low temperatures. This also happened in the mid-1980s and led to a revision in SAE J300 regarding the metrics used for determining an oil’s winter rating.
 
What ka9mnx is referring to is an issue with engine failures due to inadequate knowledge of how oil performs at low temperatures. This also happened in the mid-1980s and led to a revision in SAE J300 regarding the metrics used for determining an oil’s winter rating.

I can find no documentation that GM experienced a large number of warranty replacements due to 10W-40 being used in cold temperatures.

In fact, all I find is that GM's issue with 10W-40 is as described above, they believed it could cause piston ring sticking due to the use of excessive VIs.

Worth noting that the oil viscosity chart I posted above, while not allowing the use of 10W-40, does allow the use of 15W-40 which would be expected to have even worse low temperature properties compared to 10W-40.
 
I can find no documentation that GM experienced a large number of warranty replacements due to 10W-40 being used in cold temperatures.

In fact, all I find is that GM's issue with 10W-40 is as described above, they believed it could cause piston ring sticking due to the use of excessive VIs.

Worth noting that the oil viscosity chart I posted above, while not allowing the use of 10W-40, does allow the use of 15W-40 which would be expected to have even worse low temperature properties compared to 10W-40.
It wasn't related to an automobile manufacturer, it was related to the oil. Our conversation is drifting a bit here about "How bad were oils in the 1980’s" since we are talking about two different subjects. I do know about the viscosity modifier problem.

Here is some discussion on the cold-weather performance issue:

 
It wasn't related to an automobile manufacturer, it was related to the oil. Our conversation is drifting a bit here about "How bad were oils in the 1980’s" since we are talking about two different subjects. I do know about the viscosity modifier problem.

Here is some discussion on the cold-weather performance issue:


Maybe I misunderstood, but the impression I got, reading what is stated above, is that GM's issue with 10W-40 is due to inappropriate use in cold weather.
 
Maybe I misunderstood, but the impression I got, reading what is stated above, is that GM's issue with 10W-40 is due to inappropriate use in cold weather.
Back in the day CCS and MRV weren't used for cold temp performance, it was based on pour point, which proved to be wildly inaccurate in certainly situations. One of those situations was encountered during that winter that somebody recounted where, despite the oil being above its pour point, it failed to pump. I believe this was a Quaker State product IIRC. This resulted in a huge pile of failed engines.

So, the Winter rating was technically "accurate" but the method by which it was derived was insufficient. This led to an overhaul of the Winter rating system.
 
Back in the day CCS and MRV weren't used for cold temp performance, it was based on pour point, which proved to be wildly inaccurate in certainly situations. One of those situations was encountered during that winter that somebody recounted where, despite the oil being above its pour point, it failed to pump. I believe this was a Quaker State product IIRC. This resulted in a huge pile of failed engines.

What is the connection between this event and 10W-40 oil? Was that the only weight of oil affected by the problem?
 
1980s era:
Pennzoil and QS. I buy them by the box for the rebate.
Havoline & Superflo if there's a sale as well.
The oil grades were in par with the current car models during those times.
I used to buy superflo 20w-50 by the case just for the cool tiger on the bottles. And havoline sae30 because it was $.49 a qt.
 
Maybe I misunderstood, but the impression I got, reading what is stated above, is that GM's issue with 10W-40 is due to inappropriate use in cold weather.
You may be correct but I thought it was a problem with deposits and ring sticking due to high levels of poor(er) quality viscosity modifiers. The conventional base stocks of the time had a low viscosity index.
 
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As a kid, my dad bought only Castrol GTX 20W-50 from the insistence of the local Toyota dealer and never used Pennzoil.

Some 15 years later, he asked if their cars were going to blow up with Pennzoil Platinum. And they haven’t, yet.
 
The only thing I remember from back then (high school mid 70's) was not to use Pennzoil because it had wax in it.
Yep. Back in the day my neighbor said it was because Pennzoil was or was not a paraffin-base. I can't remember which.
 
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