73-74 Torino's Havoline 30wt

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My father co-owned biz when I was a teenager where they bought 6 4 door grand torino's with 351 2bl
and 3 74 torino 2 door 351 2bl as company cars along with a dozen econoline vans and few f-100 trucks.
at 45k to 50k miles 3 torino's blew the engines...my father was good friends the the owner of the Ford dealer who had to replace them and after the they swap-out motor's they told my father only use Havoline 30wt oil in the cars. So my father went on the Havoline 30wt kick and put it all the the company cars and vans etc...changed every 3k miles
My brother worked for Halliburton in 75 and was told the exact same thing in his 74 torino my Halliburton only use 30 wt Havoline.
My friend in Mustang club bought a 73 2 door Torino 351 4bl that he is rebuilding and told him the story from 40 years ago. Has anybody else ever heard of this?
Oh it was a 351 Widsor's that blew not Cleveland
 
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Havoline has always been a good oil.
Back in the day, multi-viscosity oils weren't the best, so yeah, in a warm climate a straight grade would probably hold up better to hard use.
 
Before i switched to using synthetics (which was due to havoline becoming scarce) all i used was that oil and i mainly had Fe and 90°V ford engines. I used 10w30 however and never had a problem, oh yeah lol, with fram filters also. Still use fram but havent not so much the havoline.
 
I had a '73 Gran Torino Squire Wagon with a 351 Cleveland/ C4. My then 2yr old would say "make it go Dad" and I'd stomp it into passing gear. My favorite V8 even with just a 2150 carb.
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Havoline 30wt is still a good choice for those cars. 30wt is my go to grade. If you have a fresh or radically cam'd engine, it wouldn't hurt to add a zinc additive.
 
I've heard talk of a bad batch of VII in 10w-40's back in the day, that killed a lot of engines. Or maybe your Dad just got a bad batch of Ford engines.

Also Ford 351 Windsors back then would die after one overheat because of the nylon/steel composite timing gear. I know, happened to mine. I replaced the timing gear with an all-steel one and drove another 100K. Other than that they were good, but unremarkable engines, hobbled as all Fords were back then by tiny exhaust ports in the heads.
 
Nowadays probably the best readily available oil for any kind of old flat tappet engine is a 10W-30 or 15W-40 HDEO, some engines have racked up huge mileages on cheap mix fleet HDEOs.
 
Originally Posted By: HangFire
I've heard talk of a bad batch of VII in 10w-40's back in the day, that killed a lot of engines. Or maybe your Dad just got a bad batch of Ford engines.

Also Ford 351 Windsors back then would die after one overheat because of the nylon/steel composite timing gear. I know, happened to mine. I replaced the timing gear with an all-steel one and drove another 100K. Other than that they were good, but unremarkable engines, hobbled as all Fords were back then by tiny exhaust ports in the heads.

My Capri's British Essex V6 also has a nylon toothed timing gear, but these engines don't have a timing chain, there is a small gear on the crank and a really big oe on the cam, i plan on putting a steel one in at some point, mine never overheats and hasn't in many years, and at 100k+ miles it runs good.
 
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