What oils did you use for carbeurated vehicles

53' Stude

53' Stude

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Hello again. For you folks that drove carbeurated vehicles back in the day; what grade of motor oils did you folks use and what was your OCI length? Dad and I talked and he used Kendall 10w30 conventional back in the day with AC DELCO filters for 3k max
 
I still drive carbureted vehicles, hopefully always will. Today, I use whatever synthetic is on sale (prices are so close now I don't bother with conventionals), generally PUP or M1 in 5w30 or preferably 10w30 (getting hard to find). "Back in the day" I used conventional 99% of the time in 10w30, I definitely remember buying Castrol GTX for many years it was the cheapest, Pennzoil with "Z7" (whatever that was LOL), Shell and Texaco all in 10w30 as well. I owned one vehicle with extra loose bearing clearance (.001") from the factory and that engine called for 10w40 (or SAE30) in the FSM, in that case I used whatever was the lowest price 10w40 that was API approved but I honestly can't recall a specific favorite brand for that car... but probably was Pennzoil or Shell. I did buy a case of Valvoline VR1 SAE30 for that car though once (on sale of course) whenever that oil became available, was it late 90's early 00's? It was too hard to find generally and still is where I live.

I went by the FSM for OCI always but mileage only, which was 6000 miles / 3000 miles severe service. The time interval I never obeyed it under normal circumstances was a crazy 60 days (30 days severe duty!). 6000 miles worked out to about once per year when I daily drove those cars, so basically every Fall I would change. I started out at 16 years old believing the Fram poster ads about leaving a quart of dirty oil so I did the filter every change. Then I backed off as I got older to every second change (FSM interval). If I was going on a big road trip to California or Texas or Florida I typically changed before the trip and then when I got home. If I ever encountered something unusual like a severe dust storm or an engine overheat I always panicked and changed the oil as soon as I could.
 
Well not back in the day cause I’m a young buck but I’ve got two cars with carburetors. In my truck the 1989 Mazda B2200 I typically use 10W-40 however April 2022 I started using 20W-50 High Zinc Racing Oil in it and it appears to do well. Has no more lifter tick when it’s cold either. Before that it had a service history of strictly Valvoline 10W-30 because the original owner only used Valvoline. I’ve used Quaker State, Valvoline and a ton of Castrol in it. It’s currently got the Castrol formula in it however will he putting Valvoline back in it because that’s what I have. In my Beetle I also use the High Zinc Valvoline 20W-50 Racing Oil.

3,000 mile intervals for the truck but generally once a year as I don’t drive it 3,000 miles a year. And I’m probably going to do about 1,500 or less for the Beetle strictly because they leak oil and it has no filter so I think the interval would be best.
 
Mobil Super, Shell Fire & Ice, QS, Exxon, Havoline, Valvoline, Sears Spectrum & Western Auto private brand. All 10W40. Basically whatever I could find on sale at a good price. OCI was about 3K.
 
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We used anything we could get ours hands on, back in my dad's new car dealership employment days he used a lot of leftover Kendall super D 3 from the dealership (I say this because we kept those vehicles until a few years ago) since oil and coolant was a part of employee benefits. Growing up it was a lot of Supertech and Chevron supreme with supertech filters, then gravitated to 15w40 for the V8 cars in the later years. Been starting to use Mobil 1 euro 0w40 in my truck and like it, will likely just use that in everything eventually.
 
I only briefly owned a carbureted vehicle (my 1974 Olds Cutlass Supreme) and I used Canadian Tire Motomaster Synthetic 5W-30 in it at the time, which was made by Imperial Oil.

In the boats, I ran whatever my grandfather had available (with the exception of the hotrod 312, which I ran Mobil 1 5W-30 in) which was typically Valvoline white bottle or Castrol GTX in 10W-30 or 10W-40 unless it called for a straight-weight like SAE30 or SAE40.
 
AutoMechanic said:
Well not back in the day cause I’m a young buck but I’ve got two cars with carburetors. In my truck the 1989 Mazda B2200 I typically use 10W-40 however April 2022 I started using 20W-50 High Zinc Racing Oil in it and it appears to do well. Has no more lifter tick when it’s cold either. Before that it had a service history of strictly Valvoline 10W-30 because the original owner only used Valvoline. I’ve used Quaker State, Valvoline and a ton of Castrol in it. It’s currently got the Castrol formula in it however will he putting Valvoline back in it because that’s what I have. In my Beetle I also use the High Zinc Valvoline 20W-50 Racing Oil.

3,000 mile intervals for the truck but generally once a year as I don’t drive it 3,000 miles a year. And I’m probably going to do about 1,500 or less for the Beetle strictly because they leak oil and it has no filter so I think the interval would be best.
Click to expand...

My first vehicle was a 1991 B2200, I loved that truck. Put almost 300K KM's on it before the rust caught up to me...

I used 10w30 Castrol in mine and in the summer I mixed in a quart of 20w50 to slow the oil burn. I did 5,000 KM OCI's, so roughly 3K miles.

Just my $0.02
 
5w30 in the winter, 10w30 in the summer in the cars, 10w40 in the SBC. All got 3K changes.

Kendall, Gulf and Valvoline oil along with AC Delo, Motorcraft and Napa Gold filters.
 
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