Pardon if this is in the wrong forum, mods feel free to move if so.
I helped a buddy pick up a high-mileage but original 4.1 4-barrel Buick V6 out of a rear-ended 82 Riviera for his same-year Olds Tornado project he's working on. It'd sat for 5 years but with some starting fluid and jumper cables it fired up and idled just fine, no gallop or anything. The son of the original owner was parting out the car and was very adamant that his father used full synthetic engine oil since new, said his dad knew Buick engines and that they had oiling issues back in the day, so he always used the 'slipperest' oil he could (seller's words).
I'm known as the car/oil guy amongst my friends and I'm aware Mobil 1 brought out their first synthetic (5w-20 I think?) in the mid 70's but 82' is way before my time, I honestly have no idea and google hasn't been much help. I'm always looking to learn and my buddy's curious as well, he'd been planning on running a conventional or blend 5w-30 but isn't sure now with the reveal of the synthetic use since new. I figure quite a few of the minds around BITOG have been around longer than I have and would probably have an idea of what grade and brand of synthetic oils this engine might've used early on. All I know is that it originally called for 10w-30 with 5w-30 being suitable for cold temps, which is what I'm assuming was used (seller wasn't sure) though in 82' everyone and their grandma seemed to use 10w-40 but I don't know if that was available in synthetic at that point yet. There was an old empty jug of Pennzoil Platinum 5w-40 euro in the passenger footwell and I'm assuming that's what was in the sump when it was parked.
I helped a buddy pick up a high-mileage but original 4.1 4-barrel Buick V6 out of a rear-ended 82 Riviera for his same-year Olds Tornado project he's working on. It'd sat for 5 years but with some starting fluid and jumper cables it fired up and idled just fine, no gallop or anything. The son of the original owner was parting out the car and was very adamant that his father used full synthetic engine oil since new, said his dad knew Buick engines and that they had oiling issues back in the day, so he always used the 'slipperest' oil he could (seller's words).
I'm known as the car/oil guy amongst my friends and I'm aware Mobil 1 brought out their first synthetic (5w-20 I think?) in the mid 70's but 82' is way before my time, I honestly have no idea and google hasn't been much help. I'm always looking to learn and my buddy's curious as well, he'd been planning on running a conventional or blend 5w-30 but isn't sure now with the reveal of the synthetic use since new. I figure quite a few of the minds around BITOG have been around longer than I have and would probably have an idea of what grade and brand of synthetic oils this engine might've used early on. All I know is that it originally called for 10w-30 with 5w-30 being suitable for cold temps, which is what I'm assuming was used (seller wasn't sure) though in 82' everyone and their grandma seemed to use 10w-40 but I don't know if that was available in synthetic at that point yet. There was an old empty jug of Pennzoil Platinum 5w-40 euro in the passenger footwell and I'm assuming that's what was in the sump when it was parked.
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