Post what you used in your first car.

[heypete]

Whatever bulk oil the local, independent Volvo repair shop had (I think it was Pennzoil).

Whatever it was, it didn't hurt the 1982 Volvo 240DL any. Was still running strong at 240,000 miles when I "sold" it to a friend in exchange for his knowledge and labor when it came to fixing a fence in the yard. He later sold it for a Honda Accord, but it was still running fine when he sold it.

I miss that car sometimes...

 

[XS650]

A 1949 Ford in 1961. Started with a lightly modified flathead V8 then swapped the engine to a lightly modified 1957 312 Y-Block. Both engines got straight 30 wt from Sears. The filter was some Oldsmobile full flow cartridge type that I modified into a remote mount. Bought the filter elements from Sears too.

 

[ProfPS]

Believed thicker was better & 10W-30 was too thin, and Fram filters were the best, "Pay me now or pay me later" marketing -
1st: 1973 Dodge Charger, 318 cu.in. engine, Castrol 10W-40, then Mobil 1 15W-50 (upstate NY college winters)
2nd: 1979 Ford Mustang, 2.8 V6, Mobil 1 15W-50, Valvoline Racing 20W-50

New cars and followed owner’s manuals for warranty-
3rd: 1988 Chevrolet Cavalier Z24, 2.8 V6, Mobil 1 5W-30
4th: 1992 Honda Civic Si, 1.8L, Mobil 1 5W-30

 

[BovineScapegoat]

1985 Dodge Charger. I worked at a lube shop and used QS 10W30. Burned oil like crazy. Sometimes I used another car's clean looking used oil. And always a motomaster (Fram orange can) filter

 

[SaturnIonVue]

My first car was a 1964 VW Beetle bought new. It had a very hard life and died very young. It usually got Quaker State or whatever brand a local gas station sold...when it did get an OC. No oil filters, since VW only had a filter screen in the sump.

Back then, toward the mid to late 60's, the stores only sold Quaker State, and later Pennzoil since the oil cartel did not distribute branded oil other than through gas stations at a much higher price. It was not unusual to spend $1.50 to $2.00 a quart for a branded motor oil at a gas station. Since the minimum wage was in the range of $0.85 to $1.00 an hour at the time, that was pretty expensive oil by comparison to today!

 

[lexus114]

1975 Ford Granada (bought used in 1980) Quaker state Sterling with K-Mart,or Quaker state oil filter.(some times a Motor craft filter

 

[Bamaro]

My 70 Camaro got 10W30 QS Super Blend. It now gets 5W30 Valvoline MaxLife

 

[mrsilv04]

Towards the end (there was a oil burning/oil leaking problem), I know that I was using Western Auto 40HD.

I was buying it by the case at 69 cents a quart. I was going through 3 quarts of it a week, so the case never 'unloaded' from the trunk.

Every other day, I'd dump a quart in and go. At that point, there was no reason to 'change the oil'.... just to change the filter every so often.

 

[Benzadmiral]

My 1975 Ford Maverick at first got Quaker State, though I'm not sure of the weight -- 10W-30 or -40, probably -- and either Fram or Purolator filters. At one point I tried STP's then-new oil, which was marketed as being good for 15K miles, though I still changed it at 3-4K. Toward the end of my time with that car, I was using Castrol GTX, again either 10W-30 or -40.

At various times I added Marvel Mystery Oil and Bardahl Top End Oil to the crankcase. Nothing terrible ever happened, except that my wallet was a little flatter.

 

[ronrackley]

Castrol straight 30 weight that had the slight greenish tint - and was all I ever knew anyone to use in VW air cooled engines back then - in my 1962 Karmann Ghia.

 

[Jason8691]

I had a 77 Chevy Monza, that poor car got whatever I found laying around to put in it. That might be why the engine blew.....

 

[Touring5]

1967 Impala w/396.

First few changes were with Sears Spectrum 10w30, as that is what my dad always used. Eventually switched over to Kendall. Always used a Fram cartridge oil filter.

 

[calvinnnnnnnnn]

88 civic i saw stickers indicating use of 5w-30, 10w-30 and 10w-40

oil was changed all its life at a center that used pennzoil. opened up the valve cover and the internals were bronzed up. since that day, i never used dino pennzoil ever again. those engines were known to run over 200k but ours lasted only 140k. not a fan of pennzoil.

 

[lexus114]

Originally Posted By: Jason8691
I had a 77 Chevy Monza, that poor car got whatever I found laying around to put in it. That might be why the engine blew.....


If it had the odd fire Buick 231 V-6,thats why it blew. They were weak motors.

 

[lexus114]

Originally Posted By: calvinnnnnnnnn
88 civic i saw stickers indicating use of 5w-30, 10w-30 and 10w-40

oil was changed all its life at a center that used pennzoil. opened up the valve cover and the internals were bronzed up. since that day, i never used dino pennzoil ever again. those engines were known to run over 200k but ours lasted only 140k. not a fan of pennzoil.


You should express your anger to the people responsible for the maintenance,not the oil.

 

[02zx9r]

1992 Nissan Hardbody pickup-Castrol SAE 30 and fram oil filters.

 

[daves87rs]

My first Cavalier (an 87) ran QS 5w30 until it was gone....


Funny that my Cobalt ran QS until I got it, ran M1 5w30 for a OC, and now runs on whatever SOPUS synthetic product is on rebate...

 

[Nyquist]

I had a 1991 Oldsmobile 88 Royale with the 3.8L. It got Shell Rotella-T 10w30 and an ACDelco filter every time. We sold it with 175,000 miles on the original engine and transmission. I saw it a few months ago with my Dad who commented that they had just serviced it. It had over 250,000 miles on the engine and transmission at that time.

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
First car was a 1985 Buick Skyhawk I bought used in 1994.

I took my car to a 'Mr. Lube' oil change facility every 3k on the nose. I think Mr. Lube has had Castrol GTX as it's 'house oil' for a while; so I'm pretty sure the car was getting GTX 5W-30.


I should add to this that when I first started driving, and actually many years after that, I was a BIG believer in oil additives.

For my Buick, the one I thought was 'the best' was Wynn's Friction Proofing. This car had a lot of that added to it's oil.

 

[Fbear]

My dad gave me a case of what must have been 20 year old oil called OILZUM 10W40 with some Fram filters and I ran that in my 1980's something Ford Escort. It must have worked ok the car had 150K when I got it and I think I put some 70K on it when I sold it.