Oil in the 1980's

[FCD]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Yes, I had Eagle NCT's on it, and it had great roadholding. I could take Interstate cloverleafs that were marked at 25 MPH at 60 MPH. I never did take it on track, though. It didn't have big enough brakes for that.


Goodyear NCT ?

had them on my LJ Torana, and they were incredible, and lasted 4,000 miles.

So as an out of work Uni student I replaced them with Olympic Steelflex (the last syllable was a lie)...they went forever, and I felt like a drifting champion, 20+ years before drifting.


Yes, Goodyear Eagle NCT. A step above the Goodyear Eagle GT. My first experience with performance tires, and I was hooked.


My Capri also had Goodyear NCT's in the 80s, they were great great tyres

 

[CincyDavid]

I seem to recall buying Wolf's Head 20w50 for my 1970 MG Midget, of all things. My Saab 900s needed 20w50 in hot weather to have any oil pressure at all at hot idle.

There was some publicity in that era about avoiding 10w40 oils because the index modifiers that would allow such a wide viscosity spread caused some sort of issues, was it sludge or viscosity breakdown of some sort?

It still seems weird to me to twist the cap off a bottle of oil...I miss the metal thingie that pierced the top of the container.

 

[Exhaustgases]

Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
Motor oils range all the way up to 70 grade even today. All this talk that 20W-50 is heavy is a laugh to me. Nitro drag motors run 70 race oils to this day just to keep the bottom ends in them.

20W-50 is a bit on the thick'ish side for most motors after say 1989 or so. But before that you are looking at bigger tolerances in MFG and bigger clearances in general. Usually by only one or two thousandths, but it makes a difference.

And the VII's available back then were not what we have now. They'd shear down one grade as soon as you drove around the block

10W-30 and 10W-40 were so common they were everywhere, even the grocery store. everybody made them. Some were good, some were not ...

The smart boys building high HP street motors or marine engines for ski-boats would run straight SAE 30 and their engines would live a long time. The others were running 10W-XX and I was making a living fixing some of this stuff

If you beat on it hard enough and when it all shears down, you are left with 10 grade oil (the base stock) and a bunch of broken non-oil molecules ...





Finally someone that actually knows what he's talking about. Its like a breath of fresh air reading this post. I fully agree with you.

 

[Camprunner]

I recall our neibor ran Castrol GTX 20w50 in his 1987 Buick Grand National (GNX). Man I so wanted that car!

 

[Hullthumper]

Hmm, the eighties. 69 GMC 1/2 ton with an inline 6 250 CuIn, Valvoline 40. Plymouth Roadrunner with built 440, Valvoline 40. Pontiac Fiero with inline 4, Valvoline 30. Never was a multigrade person back then. Dad always said 10W30 until it's starts using oil then 10W40 and finally straight 40.

 

[artificialist]

It seems like Castrol GTX was popular with people who did their own oil changes, but I think most quick lubes and auto repair places used Quaker State or Pennzoil.

 

[crazyoildude]

in mid 1980 GM started pushing 5w30 and the saying then was use 5w30 or your engine will blow up...lol Sound familiar with the 5w20 of today.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Just posted this in another thread: My 1988 Mercury Tracer recommended 10W-40 year round but said 15W-40 or 20W-50 would be fine in hotter climates. Again, a completely different era...

Because it is from 1992 and a completely different era of oil formulation and engine design. Prior to that many manufacturers said that "5W-30 is not recommended for sustained, high speed driving"...

I used to have a Quaker State oil and lubricant recommendation guide that covered from 1987-1992 IIRC.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: circuitsmith
Originally Posted By: Trav
it makes you wonder who was paid off to kill these cars and by whom.


No conspiracy. It was simply arrogant, short-sighted management & stingy bean counters.

A few words from Smokey Yunick's autobiography:

"An example: a man without a driver’s license writes a book, Unsafe at Any Speed (a cross-threaded brain named Ralph Nader) about a GM Car named “Corvair.”Somebody told him what a dangerous s**t-box this car was, and factually he was correct. But. There was a German-made car called the Volkswagen, or lovingly called the “Beetle,” cause it did look like a Japanese beetle. This car was probably 25 percent more dangerous than the Corvair, and to this day, 40 years later, is still revered as great vehicle. In reality it was a dangerous, gutless, no handling, piece of s**t, but at a price many people could afford. It however had one very remarkable and important characteristic. It didn’t break. I believe there will be a few still running that are 100 years old someday."

"My last visit was to drive all ’87 new GM Models, and meet with all the GM brass, including Lloyd Ruess (then president of GM) on a Saturday morning, and describe my opinions on the various models. In a nutshell, I said, “All were still s**t-boxes.” Lloyd said, “What’s your proposed solution?” I said, “Stop production on all models Monday. Take a couple years off, and fix them.” You’re right, that meeting was over in five minutes. I’ve never been hired or talked to by GM since."


Yeah, LOL Trav, you're giving 60's GM execs way too much credit for being smart enough to be bought off for anything. I believe their attitude was that small cars are just [censored], cheap starter cars for young people and an entry to our Hindenburg sized led-sleds.....

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
...

I used to have a Quaker State oil and lubricant recommendation guide that covered from 1987-1992 IIRC.


1987-1995 actually...