Poll: What viscosity of oil do you use in your early 911?

[72targa]

Do you use what was recommended 30+ years ago, or something more advanced?

[72targa]

I'm surprised. Hardly any Mobil 1 users so far.

[sweetE]

The 15W50 I checked was Mobil 1

[pwd72s]

Ditto here...Mobil 1 15-50. Prior to that, mostly Valvoline straight 30 weight, then Valvoline 20-50.

[72targa]

Alright...who's using single grade? I hope you're in a very warm place!

[GreenT]

Um, that would be me.

I live in the bay area too and as you know, the weather here is great. We don't boil and we don't freeze. Maybe 20 degrees difference between day and night and winter and summer. So I just don't see the need for a multi-viscosity oil. They were developed for people living in places like Minnesota who didn't want to have to go out and change the oil in the family station wagon between summer and winter.

Chevron headquarters are here in San Ramon and I learned a little from a petroleum engineer about how they make the multi-viscosity oils work. It's just a regular single grade oil to which they add chemical extenders and
stablizers and such to make it have a range of viscosities. They aren't lubricants. Throw in detergents, anti-foam ingredients and additives, and 15-20 percent of your can of oil isn't oil. So I figure if you if don't need it, use the stuff that's got more real oil in it. Synthetics are miles ahead of organic oils, and in a new car, no question. But in any old car I've had, even one made new again, there are just too many leaks. And I can't bring myself to leave it in for anything like 15,000 miles to get my money's worth out of it. It gets as dirty as normal oil and even though I know its still perfectly fine for thousands of miles more, I can't bear seeing it on the dipstick. Not on a motor I worked that hard on.

As long as I'm tossing on oil let me throw this out, because I find people are pretty opinionated on their brand of oil. Years ago I went to Jerry Woods engine building school to learn the best combination of parts and mods
when I was ready to rebuild my 2.2. One day during a break someone asked him what kind of oil he liked. He said he'd always liked Kendall himself. Then he said "But we can always tell when we get an engine in for a rebuild
that's been run on Castrol the minute we open it up. There's always brown goo all over the insides of the cases. Yah, It used to be good oil in the old days but now they put all their money into marketing." Mouths dropped all over the room because a majority of the people there never ran anything BUT Castrol. I was running Valvoline at the time because the previous owner had been, but decided since it and Castrol were both made by Ashland Oil,
the biggest difference in them was probably the label.

So I did some research and found an independent petroleum institute test that was run with every major brand of motor oil. Measured each in all sorts of categories like sulphur and ash content, film shear etc. and ranked them
from top to bottom. What I found was, most of the heavily marketed popular brands like Pennzoil, Castrol, etc. were in the bottom third of the rankings, and some near the very bottom. Jerry was right, Kendall was among
the higher rated of the 'name brand' oils. And TV commercials aren't cheap so maybe he's right too about where they are putting their money. When you think about it, what the heck could they actually do to make an oil
"specially developed for your 4x4". A new label and a new commercial, methinks.

The thing that really surprised me was that some of the best ranked oils were the regular gas station oils. Chevron and Texaco Havoline were two of the best as I recall. Probably shouldn't have been that surprised I guess - they are in the OIL business after all, and they certainly have the resources and labs to make a quality product. Plus it's cheaper to buy since they aren't spending tons of money buying TV and magazine ads for it, and it's easy to find when you're on the road and need a quart.

The reality is that any modern oil of any normal viscosity is going to be more than fine in these cars, and it's just not that big a deal. It's just that old 911's are so much fun to nit over, may as well nit on this part of them too. Owner's manual is simple though - SAE 30 above 32 degrees, SAE 20 below 32 degrees.

So that's why I run straight Chevron 30 weight, and if I ever need 20 weight, I'm moving..............

[LeafGreen]

I may as well put my two cents in. Based on a conversation I had about motor oil with the guy who used to run Chevron's oil R&D lab in Richmond, John is right on the money. This lab, which I understand is long gone, was set up with many stationary engines (Ford 200 CU IN six cyl.) to test just about every brand of oil out there. To essentially repeat what John had written, this is the information I got from the retired Chevron employee:

Chevron Delo tested the best (or should I say it was formulated to be the best). Other major oil company oils such as Shell, Texaco, etc...also tested very well.

Castrol, Valvoline, Pennzoil, Quakerstate, etc...are considered marketing oils and don't come close.

Synthetic oils will out perform the organics because of superior cold flow properties and higher temperature capability, but hard to justify in the Bay Area climate.

In a nutshell: Stick with a good quality organic oil from a major oil company. And yes, I do like the straight 30 or 40 grade.

[ckissick]

I'm surprised to see 30 people using 15-50 or 20-50, because I know that most people who post here live in the LA area. That wide range just isn't necessary there, or here in the Bay Area, as we just read. Of course, they could be going up to Mt. Baldy on Saturday, followed by a run over to Palm Springs on Sunday.

[69911T]

My .0001 as well.

Used to run Mobil One 15-50. Thunderhill and Fernley get pleanty darn hot...like track temps. of 140+c and air temps 100+c. Early on, my old sound but tired 2.0 would see 250c and sometimes a little more. So I put an oil cooler in the front fender and got down to 240+-c. But I still thought that was too hot so I put Elephant finned cooling lines on and that was good for to roughly 220c.

Well, when I got my new 2.7RS motor I broke it in for 700 miles with 30wt Chevron and then changed to Redline 20-50. This engine now runs feeway speeds around Chico and Sacramento at no more than 180 and I have only observed track temps above and not far above 230 once!!!

So, for my money, never a drop of oil on the engine after a full day at the track (thanks Tom Woodford, satisfed customer and RGruppe friend) peace of mind and hey, if you are going to drive these pigs the way Ferry intended oil is the cheapest protection you can by.

BTW. My next oil system mod. will be installing a late model oil tank to get a few more quarts of the primary coolant in the jewel case.

One more Redline storey. Last year I bought a 3 liter Subaru Outback sedan.

I broke it in for 1,000 miles with 30w Chevron per factory suggestions. I changed engine, trasmission and differantials to Redline at the 1k mark (also K&N filters). I didn't tell my then girl friend (it was her daily driver) of my maintainence plans before or after I returned the car to her. She came home Monday evening, after the Sunday up-dates and remarked that "the car felt smoother". I rest my case.

[Zeke]

I use Kendall. It even feels different on your fingers.