Re: Recommended oil for a 352 (56 Super)

Posted by JWL On 2022/9/23 11:02:18

Some years ago I was selling my 1939 Cadillac 60 Special. These cars had the 346 cu. in. L-head V-8s. The car burned a lot of oil. To mitigate this high use I used a 20W-50 engine oil. One of the potential buyers had a Cadillac expert come and inspect the car for him. He lived out of the area. The inspector was an engine engineer for Caterpillar. He said using the heavy weight oil was a bad idea. He said the engine was not designed for such heavy viscosity oil. The problem was the effort the oil pump needed to circulate the oil. It put too much strain on components. Also, he said it would not cure the oil burning problem. This was due to worn rings. He also said it would not cure low oil pressure. Although, there was no problem with this. He was right. Reading Tim Cole's comments brought it all back. You can't fix problems without parts.