Which oil after repairs/rebuild

[53' Stude]

So question for you engine builders, rebuilders and guys that do head gasket repairs or work. What oil do you guys after repairing the engine that has say a blown head gasket? Reason I ask is I see some oils use sodium; and correct me if I am wrong but can't sodium show a "false positive" in oil analysis after this kind of work. Thanks for any insight and answers in advance

 

[Nick1994]

A new head gasket is far from an engine rebuild. I'd just use "oil"

 

[hpb]

What Nick said.

 

[53' Stude]

Thanks nick and hpb

 

[deven]

Yup it's only a head gasket. Just use the normal oil you were using.

 

[53' Stude]

Guys, I was asking if you fixed a car that had a cooling system repair which oil would u put in it. My co worker does cooling system work and uses PYB as his oil

 

[53' Stude]

Thanks Deven

 

[hpb]

Again, just whatever oil the vehicle normally uses is fine.

 

[53' Stude]

Thanks HPB

 

[spasm3]

When i have pulled a head. I assume that the oil will get some degree of coolant contamination. So the next oil change should be really short. I'd use the cheapest sn oil say supertech. I run it a few miles and dump it, then your oil of choice.

 

[bullwinkle]

Originally Posted By: car51
So question for you engine builders, rebuilders and guys that do head gasket repairs or work. What oil do you guys after repairing the engine that has say a blown head gasket? Reason I ask is I see some oils use sodium; and correct me if I am wrong but can't sodium show a "false positive" in oil analysis after this kind of work. Thanks for any insight and answers in advance
The sodium isn't necessarily a warning flag, but the potassium is one, along with the coolant test they perform. Like they said above, change it soon after.

 

[53' Stude]

Thanks spasm3 and bullwinkle for the info

 

[donnyj08]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
When i have pulled a head. I assume that the oil will get some degree of coolant contamination. So the next oil change should be really short. I'd use the cheapest sn oil say supertech. I run it a few miles and dump it, then your oil of choice.


^ this. After a head gasket replacement the oil should be changed before the car is even started again for the first time. I generally run them about 1k miles on some house brand oil and filter and then i change it again using whatever i would normally use. After that you're golden to run your normal OCI's IMO.

 

[crazyoildude]

We use the latest sn Gf-5 in most of the engines we rebuild (whatever the engine calls for is what we use in the latest version. Some call for other oils

 

[53' Stude]

Thanks crazyoildude and donnyj08

 

[artificialist]

I just used whatever oil was in the repair shop bulk tank. It never gave me a problem.

 

[53' Stude]

Thanks guys and talked to a guy that does cylinder head and cooling work and he says all he uses is Maxlife in 5w20, 30 and 10w30 for everything he does.

 

[Red91]

We use whatever we have on the shelf. Same thing for running a rebuilt engine. If it's an older engine with a flat tappet camshaft, we may add a break-in additive. For instance, we just R&R'd a 360 big block in a '74 Ford F-100. The customer had it built at a local machine shop, and we ran AcDelco 10W-30 with a bottle of Lucas break-in additive.

Now, personally, if I were to break in my own engine, I'd use something like Defy or Rotella, Delo, Delvac, etc.

 

[53' Stude]

Thanks for that info Red91

 

[SnowDrifter]

IMO I'd run a cheap oil for a few miles then change it to whatever you've always used. Idea being to get any bits of seal and antifreeze out of the sump