Hi, I have an '86 turbo buick with about 70k miles on it. The OEM recommended oil for warm climate (I'm in Florida) is 10w30. I understand that the newer oils out today do not have the wear protection necessary for an older pushrod engine, much less a turbo'd one. I just got the car, and have been putting the DELO 15w40 diesel oil in it due to the higher zinc content. I noticed they just changed the oil formula for diesel oils, so now I'm back to square one. I guess I'm looking for guidance on whether I should be concerned about the lack of zinc, and if I should be, what oils / additives should I be using in this car and my other older pushrod engines?
Oil recommendations for Buick Grand National
- Thread starter Robk46
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Oils are backwards compatiable. OHC engines may benefit from different AW additives as opposed to a push rod engine but no damage will be done using any SL/SM oil in either. If that was my car, I'd run down to Autozone and buy a case of GC and run it year-round.
There are plenty of turbocharged cars on the market today and still quite a few pushrod operated ones like the Chrysler Hemi and GM LSx's so I'm sure there are plenty of oils that will pass muster. FWIW, Mobil 1 5w30 is the only oil certified to pass Honda's HT06 requirement in its new turbocharged RDX.
I'll second the GC!
John.
John.
THATS not what the manufacturers of flat tappet cams are saying.
Quote:
Oils are backwards compatiable. OHC engines may benefit from different AW additives as opposed to a push rod engine but no damage will be done using any SL/SM oil in either. If that was my car, I'd run down to Autozone and buy a case of GC and run it year-round.
If you are concerned, you could try adding VSOT or SX up from Specialty Formulations.
or SLOB it.
+1 for SX up from Specialty Formulations.
One needs to be careful when making such assumptions. The key difference is not that some engines have pushrods, it's that they have flat tappets and pushrods.
If this engine has flat tappets and a turbocharger, I'd consider something like Rotella T-Synthetic 5w40, or, as they become available, low SAPS synthetic HDEOs. This will likely be less costly then buying PCMO synthetic and boosting the zinc with additives yielding unknown performance.
Says who?
They're reducing the levels to meet a 0.12% max phosphorus limit which is roughly the low end of what you'd find in a typical API CI-4+. That's 50% more than the GF-4 limit and almost double what you'd typically find in them.
specialty formulations is no more!!
42, thanks for that bit of info on diesel oils..i was wanting to know.
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