Motor Oil for Dino

Watch that Geezer thing, pal.

According to my mechanic, it was petroleum distillate. You know, dinosaurs died, million years later we got oil, stuff.

He said it is approx 20w oil. I have a chart down at work that lists old and new, but can't find this particular grade on it.

Any other geezer wanna take a shot at this?

 

I dont know about others.... but oil technology has come a LONG ways in the past 35 - 40 years. I run Mobile 1 synthetic 20w50 in my Daytona. Thats what has been run in it starting right after the break-in period when the engine was rebuilt some years back.

A good synthetic oil will simply adhere to the internal metal parts better and longer. For a car that may see several weeks between drives, I feel this is pretty important.

I am sure there are plenty of highly technical articles out there saying why dino oil is better... and an equal number of equally technical articles on why this or that synthetic is better. Mechanics with decades of experience whom I trust say synthetic.

Running a certain ancient tech oil because the owners manual from way back says too strikes me as a tad excessive. Early 1950s Jaguars ran castor bean oil. Would you put that crap into your engine today?


Terry

 

So my 1974 dino 246 what oil is everyone running, I just figure as its an older car and is not getting thrashed id like the older style oil, Not synthetic

 

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It's a mineral oil, 20W50. Regards, Alvaro

 

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^ what differentiates it?

 

Wow hopping into a thread 17 YEARS since the last post! This has to be a new F-Chat record. Now back to your regularly scheduled dead horse beating

 

Well, unless you’re regularly driving it as intended (= high speed long distance touring), you can use almost any readily available single or multi weight oil, synthetic or non in a brand of your choice, even if it’s house brand of local supermarket. Change it once a year, even if you don’t drive hardly at all and all will be fine.

OTOH, if you plan to drive it “as intended” and year around, some variables, like altitudes, climate, seasons, engine condition, etc may warrant more careful considerations.
For example, I use and have been for past 35+ year, here in SoCal and in all vintage cars, clients and those of my own, conventional 20W-50 and at times buy the brand that happens to be on sale.
And few hundred thousand miles with dozens of vintage cars later, I haven’t found a reason to deviate.

 

Running full synthetic high quality oil in my old Dino with no negative issues and excessive leaks. Why not?

Best, Peter

 

Yeah, that's one of the funniest "myths" out there.

 

From an (automotive) engineering perspective, there is no significant impact of synthetic oil on leakage.

For good reasons, Ferrari filled Shell Super 100 into the Dino engine - one of the first full synths, btw with 10W50 viscosity range.

Lancia used Agip Sint full synth 10W50 for the Stratos.

Volkswagen 0W20 with reduced HTHS
is the worst case for a Dino engine, followed by Fiat‘s single grade 40 mineral oil and a mineral 20W50 „classic“ oil.

 

I’ve been using this for years in the old cars.

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one problem w using racing oil is that it doesnt have detergent.

 

D‘accord

And the „20“ cold viscosity is a big disadvantage in comparison with the old „10“ - poor lubrication @ engine cold start

 

That can actually be a good thing (i.e not a problem), but obviously dependent on other variables.

 

^ please explain

 

Research...

... or perhaps over dinner you'll buy me next month.

 

Ed: I am sorry, but your statement about modern "racing" oils not having detergent is just bogus. I am not aware of ANY modern commonly available engine oil that is NOT a detergent oil (you can still buy non-detergent oil from specialty companies). As for Valvoline , the company specifically recommends it for street cars, including older high performance vehicles (check their website). As to the conventional versus synthetic arguments, there are valid positions favoring each oil for older Ferraris.

 

dyke, thank you for the clarification. you earned a dinner
for more clarification, why is it called “racing” oil?

 

from valvoline.com
research done. youre all on your own for dinner
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notice the “not intended for passenger cars”.

 

Well, if you consider that ^^ conclusive research to question you proposed to me, I guess I have nothing else to add.

 

^ “nothing else to add”
what actually did you add?