Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

I tried a search first but no luck.

Getting ready to change the oil in my '64 with 230 i6. It gets down to freezing in winter, and up to 90 degrees in summer. I really only drive it on nice days 60-90 degrees.

Quaker State Defy 10-40? 5-30 with a zinc additive?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

I run 15w-40 diesel oil (Shell Rotella or Delo 400) in all my trucks right now. Supposed to be very good stuff, and it doesn't cost an obscene amount of money.

Realistically though, with the super mild cam profile and valve spring pressures of a stock 230, you could probably run just about anything in there; I wouldn't worry too much.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Thanks 66Sub, I'm a self proclaimed newb to all of this. And reading about the zinc additives had me kind of worried. I'll look into those that you mentioned.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

I run Delo 400 15w40 and a half bottle of GM E.O.S. ( engine oil supplement ) it's basicly assembly oil and full of zinc. 20k on the Burb last year and no issues.

The engine was broke in with Joe Gibbs break in oil and the first 2 changes with Joe Gibbs synthetic. I kept having what I thought was white coolant smoke and after finially giving up and adding coolant tabs, it was still smoking :( I changed out the synthetic to dinosaur oil and whalla! no smoking....rings must have seated?

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

I run 10w-30 valvoline in my 292. It's a good base oil plus doesn't have a whole lot of paraffin in it like Pennsylvania crude based oils do.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

great oil's!!! I run the Rotella T 10W30 in my turbocharged inline 250 and my SBC. It has great add packs. If you really want geek out with your oil choice, go over to ( bob is the oil guy ) website. google it.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Yeah, I personally think the ZDDP thing is somewhat overblown (stuff like this usually is). Most guys having problems seem to be those running aggressive hot-rod/racing cams that already wanted to go flat to begin with; when they removed some of the ZDDP it makes sense that stuff that already had a reputation for problems would get worse to some degree.

Also, most flat tappet cam problems occur at the initial break-in period in the first few minutes of running.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Yeah, I saw a giant multi-page thread on that website come up during a google search. It was about oil for a Honda pushmower... :lol:

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Thank you all for the suggestions. I think I have enough info to go off of. I swear, if I didn't have this forum to read/ask, who knows what'd happen.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Thanks for asking. I'm getting my truck rebuild back soon, and am following the oil suggestions.:chevy:

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Straight 30 or 40 is fine. :chevy:

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

I was thinking about using AMSOIL Z-ROD Synthetic Motor Oil, said it has a blend of rust and corrosion inhibitors for added protection during long-term storage.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

I use Rotella T5 15W40 with 1/4 bottle of Lucas engine break in ZDDP additive in all my flat tappet cam classics.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

I use rotella 15w40 in my little 250 and all my other trucks...good stuff

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

... I'll stir the pot a little.

http://540ratblog.wordpress.com/2013...-test-ranking/

But I have been adding archoil additive to my vehicles and have been having great results. I found out about it on youtube from jay lenos garage. My 57 Cad. loves it and it ran better until I pulled it for a rebuild. My S-10 smoothed out a bit and doesn't run as loud. I'm with some others here.. I think zinc is a tad bit overrated. People are using high zinc oil and still wiping cams with correct assembly. Check out the above blog. i don't know if that guy has all the answers or even some.. but it may show a different side of the oil debate.

Alex

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Zinc is important at break in. The jury is still out on any effect after that. Synthetics won't allow rings to seat during break-in so break-in oils with zinc are a must have. The 5w oils are too light for these trucks, I'd stay with a good 15w40.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

multi viscosity oils are good when you are running into temp variances but running at 60-90F you wont have to worry about it. a 30 wt detergent type oil will be fine a 10/30 wt is also fine.
it is like the discussion comes up in what to put in a steering box oil or grease. grease would be fine if you drove in the vicinity of the equator as the temp would keep it soft and usable, but still doesn't flow into bushings or bearings well. what though if you live where it gets to 10,20 or 30f below 0; what is that grease going to do now. it will be harder than a dried out turd and will just make it harder to steer
ron

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Multi-viscosity oils are very misunderstood. No magic, they just retains their viscosity better than straight weights. If you like 40 weight, 15w40 will perform exactly like it at operating temp, but will behave like 15 weight when cold. I don't see a down side to oil that's easy to pump at start-up.

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

i don't know if the formula for eos has changed or not but back in the day there was a warning on the can that said something like frequent use could cause bearing damage

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

I went through this a number of months ago as I was trying to find a replacement oil for what I had been using but is no longer on the market. The testing in this article is some of the best info I have seen. That said, I started looking at price/value ratio and settled on this oil,

10W30 Quaker State Defy, API SL semi-synthetic = 90,226 psi
zinc = 1221 ppm
phos = 955 ppm
moly = 99 ppm

This was rated over the 90,000 psi rating (which was my lowest limit I wanted), still had a good number for zinc levels and is priced well (6 pack on Amazon is $28.74 = 4.79 per quart). Currently running this in my 250ci I6 in my wagon. Will run this in my older V8 vehicles when the time comes for the next oil change.

YMMV :ito:

Re: Which oil are you running in your I6's?
 

Royal Purple break in oil on the new engines, then Royal Purple 10-40 the rest of the time