Re: Synthetic oil?

Posted by su8overdrive On 2013/9/13 17:22:02

No. The trace less frictional loss from using a low viscosity synthetic in place of a low viscosity conventional oil of the same weight will NOT result in an additional "15 hp" in your side-valve Packard or any other automobile engine.

I use Kendall GT1 10W/30, which is a semi-synthetic, in my '47 Super's 356.

Beware of substituting ad copy, hearsay and Internet bluster for vetted info, SAE results.

OD, post #3 above, sums it well. I might add only that
time in service might be lengthened providing your collector
car engine is never started unless you drive it 18-20 miles
over the open road to prevent the formation of acid, sludge,
carbonic acid.

An old mechanic's test was to place your hand on the bottom,of your sump. If too hot to touch longer'n a second or so, you got your oil hot enough to prevent the preceding.

It mystifies us that so many hobbyists start their engines to show them off, then shut them off after a few minutes and let them sit for weeks. Or think blocking the throttle open for 15-20 minutes in the garage, or driving "a few miles" now and then is good for the engine. No, no, no.

If you're concerned about dry starts, and you should be,
since they account for 80-90% of engine wear, according to McDonnell-Douglas, Continental, and the SAE, install a pre-lube device like that from www.masterlube.net

No additive nor anything in a can or bottle will help.

And you do NOT need ZDDP additive, which only settles on
the bottom of your oilpan. The Kendall oil i use, and this
is true of most other premium motor oils, has the SAME level
of zinc as motor oil in the 1970s, when we never heard all
this zinc scare malarkey.

Zinc levels were raised slightly since then, only to
interfere with catalytic convertor efficiency, and so reduced to their '70s levels.

A couple of vociferous codgers in the CCCA whined about
the rapid wear of the chintzy bronze timing gears in their
1940s Cadillac 346 L-head V-8s, both coincidentally just
being rebuilt, and so of course blamed the motor oil. The
350 Chevy V-8 JimBob hot rod contingent continued
yelling fire in a crowded Internet theater and there you
have it.

A degreed Kendall Oil tech himself owning a high-performance flat cam engine told me he knows the
fellow who produced the "Classic Car Motor Oil" purveyed
by the Indiana region of the 1941 Cadillac Club of America (formerly the CCCA). He dismissed that and his own and other major oil companies offering motor oil with increased zinc:

"If you want to stay in business, you
offer people what they want, or think they need."