Its 1955. What oil are you using?

Probably whatever was available. Some of the old timers have told me back in the 1900s-70s in shops they just had bulk barrel oil that went in everything it was just what they had at the shop. No specific ratings or whatever it was just what is in the barrel. Or you could buy cans of whatever at the store. I’d probably use Castrol or Valvoline possibly Pennzoil if it was the 1950s and I was doing it on my own.
 
chevy made a crude OHV V8 for a while
Yeah I've read a little on the 1918 V8. I used to have better knowledge of the Chevy inline six, but the last time I actually did anything to one but change the oil was probably the late 80s. I've worked on too many of these new tangled cars 😉 and forgot everything.
 
Probably whatever was available. Some of the old timers have told me back in the 1900s-70s in shops they just had bulk barrel oil that went in everything it was just what they had at the shop. No specific ratings or whatever it was just what is in the barrel. Or you could buy cans of whatever at the store. I’d probably use Castrol or Valvoline possibly Pennzoil if it was the 1950s and I was doing it on my own.
Come on, pick something more obscure. 😉😀
 
In New Zealand it would be Castrol...no matter what brand name was on the can. Castrol held the import license for oil, everyone else got it from them.
ahh.. I figured you were going to say it was where the one brand name became so synonymous with the product, that the they all get called that brand.
Like Band-Aids, and Q-tips, or Kleenex. or my favorite...

when my brother First Moved to Dallas, he quickly noticed that "coke" was the local name for any softdrink.
the way most places in the US use the words "pop", or "soda", they used "coke"
for example, if you wanted an orange soda, you asked for an orange coke.
 
About when I was born. My earliest memories of my frugal fathers auto servicing area of the basement was Havoline in cans was always on the shelf. He would turn oil cans upside down for weeks to get the few drops that came out. He used it in the squeeze trigger oil squirt gun.
 
The first oil I have a clear memory of using was Quaker State 20W-40. It was after the fall of 1957.
When I started to drive in 1970 my Ford straight six got a steady diet of Havoline 30 wt. 20 weight in winter. Still in cans for <49¢ a quart. Nice memories
 
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About when I was born. My earliest memories of my frugal fathers auto servicing area of the basement was Havoline in cans was always on the shelf. He would turn oil cans upside down for weeks to get the few drops that came out. He used it in the squeeze trigger oil squirt gun.
I know a guy that did that with left over quarts he found in trash cans to. He eventually had enough to change oil in his car. He was a lil crazy old man that would stretch a dollar as far as he could. He changed the filter every other oil change and used fram.
 
Probably whatever was available. Some of the old timers have told me back in the 1900s-70s in shops they just had bulk barrel oil that went in everything it was just what they had at the shop. No specific ratings or whatever it was just what is in the barrel. Or you could buy cans of whatever at the store. I’d probably use Castrol or Valvoline possibly Pennzoil if it was the 1950s and I was doing it on my own.
MOBIL 0
 
By the late 40s, you would have had conventional shell bearings. Still a flathead, of course, but with modern bearings.

Lots of cars had overhead valves in the late 1940s, even well before that. Of course in 1955 flatheads would still be around in large numbers but overhead valve V8s were all the rage and there were OHV sixes as well. The last new car sold in the U.S. with a flathead engine was in 1965.

I remember brands like Valvoline, Quaker State, and Wolf's Head being popular and the gas station chains had their own brands as well. Multi-grade oils debuted in the early 1950s but straight-weight was most commonly used, changed to appropriate weight as seasons required.
 
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