454 question: Should I be worried about the reliability of my motor?

[61Chevy454]

It came in my truck. Had the tranny rebuilt so I'm not worried about that.

When warmed up and idling, it has about 38 lbs of oil pressure with Shell Rotella 15W-40 oil. The second I give it any gas, oil pressure goes up to 40.

No weird noises, no valve noise, no knocking, nothin.

Does my motor sound like it will last a long time with regular maintenance?

[66 C10 383]

I think normal operating temp idle pressure is like 20 psi or so depending on bearing clearances and such. They say 10 psi pressure for every 1000 rpm is normal.

Why are you running Rotella 15-40 oil anyway, for the added zinc maybe. I've heard even Rotella has taken the zinc out of their oils. I'd switch to something like a 10-30 and see what your pressure is at.

[Alex V.]

Ehmmm... short answer, yes. That's good oil pressure and if the engine gives no other signs of wear then it could go another 300,000 miles. There ain't a thing wrong with the Chevy 454. The one in my '85 has 126K on it and runs as well as when I got it 10 years and 50,000 miles ago. 15w40 is as thick as I'd want to go in a non-race application, and if you have a stock, calm cam a quality syn blend 10w30 without other additives should protect the engine far past the lifespan of the truck it sits in. I'm using Schaeffer's 7000 10w30 with the big filter (Wix 51794, Napa 1794) and I'm extremely pleased with that combination.

[61Chevy454]

Originally Posted by Alex V.

Ehmmm... short answer, yes. That's good oil pressure and if the engine gives no other signs of wear then it could go another 300,000 miles. There ain't a thing wrong with the Chevy 454. The one in my '85 has 126K on it and runs as well as when I got it 10 years and 50,000 miles ago. 15w40 is as thick as I'd want to go in a non-race application, and if you have a stock, calm cam a quality syn blend 10w30 without other additives should protect the engine far past the lifespan of the truck it sits in. I'm using Schaeffer's 7000 10w30 with the big filter (Wix 51794, Napa 1794) and I'm extremely pleased with that combination.

Might be dumb, but in every older motor I don't know the history of, I always run 15W-40 because I just don't know the history.

[GASoline71]

LOL... 15w40 isn't gonna be a bandaid for bad oil clearances, if there were any. 10w30 is more than adequate. I think you're all worried about nothing.

Gary

[cadillac_al]

A lot of truck fleets run 15w40 in everything. It's truck oil. Every trucking company I have ever been around always ran 15w40. I wouldn't worry about it. When people try to run 15w40 in modern engines they could run into problems because the engine was not designed for heavy oil; like Caddy Northstars.

[Alex V.]

Originally Posted by 61Chevy454

Might be dumb, but in every older motor I don't know the history of, I always run 15W-40 because I just don't know the history.

It's not so thick it's going to hurt any older Chevy powerplant and isn't a bad starting point, but after you get a feel for the engine and have determined it doesn't make any noises or give other feedback that indicates excessive wear stepping down to 10w30 isn't a bad thing, either. If oil pressure stays good and no noises start up, it'll only help it - thinner oil gets around the engine quicker, reduces drag, and carries heat away from parts better. Our trucks' owners manuals all say 10w30 can be used year-round, and while oil quality has improved substantially in the last 30-40 years, the viscosity scale hasn't changed.

15w40 is a truck oil - a diesel truck oil. Our trucks can survive on anything from 5w30 to 20w50 or even straight 30, but all the pre-LS Chevy V8's I've owned or been around for many miles show no complaint with 10/30's and 10/40's.

[Tom]

15-40 isn't going to hurt anything, but running it just for the sake of running it doesn't make any sence. Regardless of what history you know, if it calls for 10-30 you run that until something shows you that you need to change the weight. Fixing low oil pressure with higher weight oil doesn't fix anything, it just keeps it going down the road with worn out parts for the time being, and won't last forever.

And just for giggles, when I was 16 and bought my 78 I knew nothing about vehicles. Higher weight means more protection right?!?!?!? So I filled that sucker up with strait 60w VR racing oil, cause it says racing on it and I wanna go fast. Really suprised I didn't blow the plastic oil pressure tubing out, cause it pegged the meter at 100psi. Truck kept on runnin.