Oil for an 85 Dodge pickup with 318 engine

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need to change the oil in the old work horse around the farm, its an 85 dodge ram 2500 with the 318 engine, engine has somewhere over 400000km's on it so we were told when we aquired it, (resets every 100k)

it has 10w-30 dino in it right now, it leaks a small amount and also burns a small amount of oil, however working the truck hard in the bush today in very hot weather it seems to be blowing alot more smoke than usual....as well as the oil presure seems to be very slow to come up on hot starts.

what grade of oil would work best? im thinking of using GTX 20w-50 to try for more oil presure and less burn? make sense?
 
You could try it. Of course, you'd need to put in something thinner before winter.

How about some 10W40 HM oil?
 
Get yourself some Quaker State 'Defy' 10W-30 in the red bottle. See if it slows down the problem.
 
I had a '79 318 Dodge pickup. We used to run 15W-40 diesel engine oil in it with reasonable success. It would run extremely hot in the summer as I remember.

In the last year I owned it, I replaced the valve guide seals (not a hard job on this engine) and oil consumption dropped by 2/3.
 
My brother has an 87 Dodge van with the 318ci in it his oil of choice is plain Rotella T3 15w-40 easily obtained at Tractor Supply or Walmart with good results i might add.
 
I'd definatly stay with a higher ZDDP oil. I've seen 318 and 360's lose cam lobes.

I'd try a 15w40 before going with a 20w50.

Are you relying on the stock oil pressure guage or light? If so those are not very accurate.
 
87 d150 318 2bbl w 727 3sp auto, with 28k on long block. it runs very warm in summer. we ran rotella t 15w40 some 500 miles to flush out the rebuild gunk and breik-in wear. at 350miles switched to castrol syntec 5w50, first oci @5k. changed at 10k to 25k, dumded in wolfshead synblend 10w30 to flush out fuel from bad carb.
 
i have learned from a man that have owned 225 and 318's for 35+yrs. for 17yrs he drove 125k+ a yr working general contrctor supervisor position, can you say loyal million mile customer. for 15 yrs we bought a new truck every 100-125k, every 8-10months, never traded in. all run 200+k with qs 20w-20 winter/yeararound, qs hd30wt.
above man , 70yr old gramps. multi-million mile on qs in mopar two engine failures both at over the 180k mark. 5-7k+ oci's grease and filter at half oci interals. change the filter and get a cleaner oil and engine. cant aurgue with that.

kc
 
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318's are tough engines.15w 40 should be no problem.If you can find it MaxLife in 10w30 or 10w40 ,I used Max in a 82 D100 with a slant six that smoked slightly on startup.Max cured that in about 3 weeks of use.
 
Originally Posted By: ben_321
what grade of oil would work best? im thinking of using GTX 20w-50 to try for more oil presure and less burn? make sense?


My old F-150 was leaking more than it was actually burning, and had serious fuel dilution issues. My solution was 15w-40 in the summer and MaxLife 5w-30 in the winter.

Using normal PCMO 5w-30, the oil pressure would be low enough when hot to set off the warning light. That never occurred once when using MaxLife 5w-30 (or the 15w-40, of course).
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
I'd definatly stay with a higher ZDDP oil. I've seen 318 and 360's lose cam lobes.

I'd try a 15w40 before going with a 20w50.

Are you relying on the stock oil pressure guage or light? If so those are not very accurate.


Good advice. You don't want to loose power due to excessive cam lobe wear.

Originally Posted By: freezing1
It would run extremely hot in the summer as I remember.



Is this what happened when you were working your truck? You're probably looking for a special oil for severe service, and extra anti-wear additives.

In this area Valvoline 20w-50 Racing Oil was very popular with race car engine builders until the speedway closed. Run Valvoline Racing oil if it's available. Comes in a few different grades.
 
I would just use a HM 10W-40 if there was some leaking and the extra additives should be beneficial. If the regular 10W-30 is working for you I do not see where there could be any problems using it, I just would not recommend a extended OCI due to this being carb'd engine.
 
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