Suggestions on Oil

[Orange Terror]

Yeah, and yes factory gauges. We had checked it before with a mechanical gauge and it was about 20 psi at a stop.

20 PSI at a stop while at idle is more than enough. I would put a good mechanical or electrical aftermarket gauge on it and leave it on as factory gauges can be inaccurate. That way you know for sure. I would also guess running that weight oil and only getting 20 psi that its got a fair amount of miles on it, if that's the case you could also put a new oil pump on it.

[ITSSLOW]

Anything but Pennzoil

Pennzoil was and still is a nasty oil.
I'm not sure about the Pennzoil platinum, but most likely it's just a marketing gimmick.

I've taken apart a few SBC engines that seized up or had a knock to them after finding out that they ran Pennzoil or Quaker State. What caused the problem? The wax additive would get hot in the lifter valleys and solidify and clog the oil returns once the clumps got big and vibrated loose.

Sorry Tom, but you couldn't get me to run Pissoil if you bought it and paid me to. Its just my opinion, take it or leave it.

I could really give two shits because this is a part time job while in school but when was this? PZ completely redesigned their oil about 10-11 months ago. This test was don't in March. It says right on the bottles "Completely redesigned oil"

My dad/mom run nothing but Pennzoil in their cars for the last 20-25 years and have had zero problems.

Like I said, I'm not backing the company up because I work there. All I care about is a paycheck.

[Orange Terror]

I could really give two shits because this is a part time job while in school but when was this? PZ completely redesigned their oil about 10-11 months ago. This test was don't in March. It says right on the bottles "Completely redesigned oil"

My dad/mom run nothing but Pennzoil in their cars for the last 20-25 years and have had zero problems.

Like I said, I'm not backing the company up because I work there. All I care about is a paycheck.

I'm not taking a shot at you or your job or trying to insult you, I'm just telling you that I don't care for it and refuse to run it based on my experience and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

So if you guys are happy with it, great, goodluck.

[b.lee]

"Completely redesigned oil" = Another marketing gimmick

[HIMIPoncho]

Thanks for the input guys!

You guys bad mouthing Pennzoil, are you puffing the green stuff? I put 459k on my 305. 456-457k of that was with Pennzoil conventional. That's with Pennzoil gear lube and trans fluid. I'd like to see you get 1/2 that mileage with your LS1 or SBC! I was just asking because I was wondering if there is some maricle oil out there. By the looks of it, I'll be sticking with Pennzoil Platinum or maybe Valvoline VR-1.

I'm not trying to rile you guys up either. Just pointing out that I've been running Pennzoil for that long with no problems. I'd probably stick with Platinum over VR-1 for the fact I've had such good luck with the Brand all these years. Part of it may be all the guys working at the Quick lube. Kim, the owner, expects a lot from his employees. When I had my heads rebuild at 1xxk, they looked like they had 1/4 miles they did.

[WMCCjames]

Part of it may be all the guys working at the Quick lube. Kim, the owner, expects a lot from his employees.

Apparently not all of them by the sounds of it, one of them is just there for the paycheck.

[cobalt camaro]

i've heard the same thing about pennzoil from other people, but my uncle does alot of viscosity testing and oil testing and said the reason for the wax build up on most cars is running the oil for 4-5,000 miles instead of 3,000 like you are supposed to. I don't know why, i run mobil 1 alot now i used to run penzoil and I switched, just do to some viscosity versus heat testing i did. If you really want to get down to the nitty gritty find someone with a brookfield viscometer and see how viscosity decreases with higher temp and that will tell you your true winner.

[Blue_Thunder]

You don't need to change synthetic oil every 3000 miles. Synthetic can go 6000-8000 miles before needed to be changed. I have changed oil on cars at my shop with synthetic oil and most of the time the oil still looks almost new at 3000 miles.
Waste of money imo to change synthetic every 3000 miles

[cobalt camaro]

sorry my bad i was talking about the conventional oil, that is the one that i heard waxed up the valvetrain. But again i never had any problems running pennzoil. We should ask that lady with the million mile camaro what oil she ran.

[mcg355]

I know I'm really getting ahead of myself but I'm trying to plan this project down to turning the key for the first time. I have a built 383 and built T-5 ready to go into my 1987 Firebird. The car was broken in on the dyno, then made some runs, and put down 483hp and 453tq.

The engine is a full roller, one peice rear main, high volume oil pump, engine. I'm not sure if any of that matters but I'll throw it out there. It hits peak TQ at 4100rpm and peak HP at 4700rpm. It was broken in with conventional Valvoline but I don't plan on sticking with it. I've ALWAYS ran Pennzoil in my car but with this high performance engine I'll upgrade. I was thinking Pennzoil Platnium (synthetic).

Any input?

I have seen some really nasty results from cars using Penzoil and Quaker State. I have never used either of the synthetics from Penzoil or Quaker State. I have a motor similar to yours and I use 20-50 Castrol Fully Synthetic in it and that stuff works great for me. I have used Valvoline's synthetic in my last motor and it's pretty good too.

[HIMIPoncho]

I have seen some really nasty results from cars using Penzoil and Quaker State. I have never used either of the synthetics from Penzoil or Quaker State. I have a motor similar to yours and I use 20-50 Castrol Fully Synthetic in it and that stuff works great for me. I have used Valvoline's synthetic in my last motor and it's pretty good too.

20w-50?!?!? Holy shit! How crappy are your tolerances? Did a 4 year old build your engine?

[ITSSLOW]

You don't need to change synthetic oil every 3000 miles. Synthetic can go 6000-8000 miles before needed to be changed. I have changed oil on cars at my shop with synthetic oil and most of the time the oil still looks almost new at 3000 miles.
Waste of money imo to change synthetic every 3000 miles

Actually, a synthetic engine oil can go between 10-15k before it breaks down, but the filter comes to the end of it's life span around 6k. That's why a lot of Amsoil guys run the oil for like 15-20k and change the filter around 5k and just top it off.