<VV> oil

[Bryan Blackwell]

Hi Ray,

FWIW I did a fair amount of looking around a couple years ago for off the shelf oil I could get at Wally World and such places that had enough ZDDP in it.  The only thing I could find that for sure met the spec was Mobil 1 15W-50, which is heavy for winter use but I really don't drive the Corvairs in winter (I know you do).  If you want to use something lighter, then my best suggestions is an oil like Amsoil or Brad-Penn.  I believe Valvoline has an oil specifically for flat tappet engines in their racing series, but I don't recall what the weights are.

As for pricing on those oils, I know you can order Amsoil line, and they have dealer accounts you can get.  Not sure about Brad-Penn.

One other note on synthetics.  This was quite some time ago now, but switching to synth got me about a 10 degree drop in oil temps.  For me, a combination of that and longer drain intervals (I was changing the regular oil every 3K miles, now I just follow the book) made synthetics worth the added cost.

--Bryan

On Feb 23, 2011, at 11:51 AM, Ray Rodriguez III wrote:

> Also these synthetics are not cheap stuff....  can anyone tell me what the 
> CHEAPEST oil is (specific oil by part number preferred) that will provide 
> good service in my Corvairs without any additives (no adding ZDDP)?  Does 
> the long life of the Synthetic come close to balancing the cost... I mean 
> how long do we "really" want to leave it in the car before draining it?