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What's the general opinion about using Rotella motor oil in a 1937 Packard. I was told it would be about the best oil for antique cars. Would like to have feedback from Packard owners.

A guide that I found on line shows their current 15W-40 to have strong ZPPD content & wear protection. It has a good rating.

Rotella T SAE15-40 is very widely used in the hobby. I believe the current grade is CJ-4.

I started using it on the recommendation of a friend some years ago and am running it in everything, right down to the 1954 Gravely tractor and including all the Packards and Studies. Some of these cars I have had for very many years and know their sounds and performance better than the back of my hand. They are all running great, using less oil, and I have had to slow the idle speed on each one of them after they have gotten run in with the Rotella.

An odd but also telling note: The Gravely was notorious in our family for sticking valves since before I was born. This is now a non-issue and the machine almost always starts with one pull of the strap.

Please avoid concocting mixtures for either the fuel or the oil. These have side effects which seem to dissolve seals and diaphragms. (I have observed this with my customers and even more so on this forum.) My 51 200 has not had its carb or fuel pump touched in at least 15 years.

Thank you to all that have responded here. I am running it in a car that is driven occasionally and would have a slight lifter noise at start-up and after using Rotella it dissipated. An in depth oil study that I read placed it at the top of motor oils. I just wanted opinions from Packard owners.....only the best for my 37.

At a recent old car club function , one fellow claimed that Shell had dropped ZDDP from it's Rotella T oils two years ago. I just got off the phone from a Shell technical rep who advised that while the straight grade oils no longer have zinc, the multigrades do , at 1200 parts per million, the same formula since 2006.

As long as the motor is not being run in very cold winter nothing bad will happen.

But on the 11th and later Senior Packards running heavy oil in winter can punch a hole in the oil regulator gallery if the car is revved excessive when cold. Also, the oil pump gears and timing chain are stressed and upper cylinder lubrication is restricted. I've also seen the main oil feed line crack and blow off on 10th and earlier cars due to excessive pressure.

That nothwithstanding I wouldn't worry about 15W-40 above 10F.

Years ago I had a 1976 914 Porsche. It was an oil burner, and to lessen the consumption I ran 20W-50 Castrol. I had no garage in those days so the cars sat outside. One very cold winter morning I went out and started the car and went back inside for a couple of minutes. As I was backing out of the driveway I noticed a huge puddle of oil. I quickly pulled the car back in and shut it off. What a mess the oil made. Later I found that a pressed in oil gallery plug had been blown out. I replaced it and others with pipe thread plugs. So, heavy oil is hard on an engine, especially in cold temps.

(o[]o)