Want to see what oils looked like in the 1970's...

[addyguy]

If you go to 'Google Books', you can search full-copy issues of magazines like Popular Science, and Popular Mechanics.

In the August 1977 Issue of Popular Science, on page 82, there is an article on oil analysis. As examples, it shows 4 oil analyses from PS staff cars.

You can see just how weak 1970's oil were, and why cars from then had sludge isssues:

http://books.google.com/books?id=KQEAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58&dq=%22synthetic+oil%22&as_pt=MAGAZINES#v=onepage&q=%22synthetic%20oil%22&f=false

Enjoy!

 

[Herz]

wow, great find!

 

[Burt]

I enjoyed reading many of the pages. It shows how far we have come and also how little we used to drive, relatively speaking. It explains my father's attitude why oil needs to be changed every 3,000 miles and you must trade a car by 80,000 miles because you have used up most of the car's life. I certainly have noticed that every car I have bought since the 1980's (and I only buy a car every 12 years or so) lasts considerably longer than the one before it.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Excellent find.

It's not just motor oils that have come a long way: "I have a 1975 Honda Civic with a two-speed automatic transmission..."

 

[Captain_Klink]

my mechanic told me he used to swap a engine once a month. Now it's only about twice a year. He says because engines now all last 300,000k (180,000+ miles). We here all think that's because we're expert at maintaining our vehicles, and while that may be true, just regular normal maintenance with bulk oil seems to do the job.

 

[Max_Wander]

Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Excellent find.

It's not just motor oils that have come a long way: "I have a 1975 Honda Civic with a two-speed automatic transmission..."

We had one of those 81 model back in the days! Mom would just leave it in 2 and drive all day like that... it wasnt even automatic shifting, just clutchless


Nice find btw, the Windsor Whiskey ad's got me cryin over here, look at that jacket!

 

[Papa Bear]

Pg 118. Commodore PET with audio cassette storage.

Run your Vista on that puppy

 

[1 SX]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Pg 118. Commodore PET with audio cassette storage.

Run your Vista on that puppy


Maybe the Start button or clock...

Oh, and 4K of RAM....

Oh, and only worth 1600$ in todays money,

$1,776.13 using the Consumer Price Index
$1,436.82 using the GDP deflator
$1,967.59 using the value of consumer bundle
$1,661.12 using the unskilled wage
$2,572.91 using the nominal GDP per capita
$3,556.82 using the relative share of GDP

I forgot to say, also, Good read.

 

[raffy]

Ha ha! Boy does that bring back memories. When I started working in the late '80's I would read Pop Sci and I especially enjoyed Smokey Yunick's automotive column which I see was around in the 70's. I laughed at the Honda Civic with the 2-speed automatic! I had a '78 Honda Civic with the 5-speed manual and, yes, manual choke. It made it over 100,000 miles on the original engine and then it burned a valve and started having carburetor issues. The carb was the worst thing about that CVCC engine; it was complicated and difficult to clean and fix once it started having issues. Nonetheless, it was a good car for the time and a worthy successor to the VW Bug. The engine made a whopping 60 hp and it would get 40 mpg on the highway (of course, those were the days of the 55 mph speed limit). It's really amazing how much cars have improved over the last 30 years. Nowadays a Civic can run well over 200K miles if taken care of.

Thanks for the link and the memories (which computers of that time didn't have much of)!

 

[Samilcar]

The average FE number in the "five typical cars" examined was 227ppm. A range of 150-200ppm is given as normal for a 5000 mile oil run. Can you imagine the panic attack a BITOGer would have today if they got back iron numbers like this?

 

[novadude]

Of course the oils were not as good then, but I also suspect carburetors and poor fuel control in the dark days of emissions equipment had a big impact on oil life.

EFI does a lot to prevent fuel-related oil issues, IMO.

 

[novadude]

Here's another interesting thing: Look an the Zn and P levels in the 1970s oils. Cam companies are quick to blame Zn and P levels for cam failure, and claim you need 1300-1400 ppm+ for flat tappets. I sure don't see that in this report on 1970s oils, and these oils were made in the era when nearly EVERY engine was flat tappet.

 

[Samilcar]

All of the tested cars had 2-3% fuel contamination, so I suspect you're right.

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: novadude
Here's another interesting thing: Look an the Zn and P levels in the 1970s oils. Cam companies are quick to blame Zn and P levels for cam failure, and claim you need 1300-1400 ppm+ for flat tappets. I sure don't see that in this report on 1970s oils, and these oils were made in the era when nearly EVERY engine was flat tappet.


2 thoughts:

1. 'Most' of the oil listed have Zn/P amounts that are above 1100, so they are 'pretty close' to what is 'needed'.

2. Many engines in the 1960's/1970's DID suffer camshaft problems/failures. Cam replacements weren't uncommon back then......

 

[benjamming]

This is used oil so a lot of additive depletion. I didn't see a VOA there, that would've been interesting. Of course, it follows that they didn't do one since they didn't mention that different oil would have different add packs. I wonder what oil(s) were in use in each of those reports?
Wow, lots of solids!
They actually reported the pH.
What ASTM method did they use for TBN?

 

[Benzadmiral]

I'm flicking through the ads: one for a W116 Mercedes 280SE, and one from Consumer Reports including my own first car, the '75 Ford Maverick, as one of the most reliable used car buys of 1977.

 

[addyguy]

I love looking at all the old car adds in these mags, too - adds touting the quality of cars that haven't even been around for 20+ years...it's great!

 

[btanchors]

What a great find! In fact, it was that very same article that I read back when that issue came out that pushed me into UOAs. I started out using Analysts, Inc. which I got from that article. These days I use either Blackstone or Analysts.

 

[crinkles]

i see popular mechanics mag is still just an ad-rag after all these years...

 

[Doug Hillary]

Hi,
novadude - IIRC JASO was the first Auto Industry Body to include very specific Tests for valve train wear in their portfolio. This commenced after the Japanese introduced "advanced" OHC engines and faced excessive valve train component wear

The excessive valve wear in some of these engines needed a "quick fix" and increased "ZDDP" levels were a result. Like any quick fix it takes time and money to come up with viable alternatives - which we now have in many modern lubricants

Mass market EFI commenced late 1960s which reduced lead in lubricant levels and excessive fuel dilution in those engines. Lead of course can have an AW result too

At that time rapid additive depletion was rectified by very short OCIs of around 1000-3000 miles

Euro engine Manufacturers (notably MB) already had Approved Lubricant Lists and their testing covered their own special requirements - not those of the Japanese. That is why MB and Porsche specified HD lubricants in their petrol engines.
This also applied to diesel engines but HDEOs were already more robust!

The Volvo Heavy Diesel engine lubricant specifications commenced during this period too IIRC - as they pushed out OCIs

The API's SD spec was the first to address this issue IIRC