what oil HURT your engine?....the real question!

What oil do you use in hyd pumps now?


All the oil/fluid I use in hydraulic applications is from the manufacturer.

The hydraulic pumps I speak of I use hydro fluid that the manufacturer of the equipment has made for them. I believe it is Brad Penn or Schaeffer. I asked the manufacturer, and it is wrote in a note somewhere in a service book in my chicken scratch.
Pretty much they went back to the old Mobil 1 recipe. Synthetic, then added all the missing additives back in (i.e. zinc, etc...).


So far it has been great. One of my units has 2800+ hours on the original pumps, and it did not get filter/fluid changed at proper intervals. It was used when I acquired it. The operator of that unit was not great with maintenance.
 
Ivegot the new Joe Gibbs hot rod oil which is 15w 50, and its been really good so far with one change on it after a semi new build. In our race cars we always used Kendall racing oil for all of our historic racing applications, and I don't think we ever saw a failure. Of course that was 10 years ago and longer, its all dead dinosaurs anyways.
 
The real question:
Who has direct evidence any given oil hurt their engine?


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Not engine related but interesting . . .
Years ago I was at the Mobil plant for business. This is where 100% of all the oil and grease is made and bottled.

The lab quality manager told me that a test on synthetic tansmission oil indicated 30% reduction in oil life after 80k miles.

High mileage Mobil 1 oil just has additional % of key friction modifiers and there shouldn't be any ill effects using that.

Aviation oil is the same formulation as what what is sold on the stores with the exception of testing before and at the end of the bottling process.
 
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Oil that's too thick can be just as damaging as oil that's too thin...and perhaps even moreso. See what happens with overly thick oil in cold weather...then you might be saying, "Thick oil SUX!" ;)
 
Oil that's too thick can be just as damaging as oil that's too thin...and perhaps even moreso. See what happens with overly thick oil in cold weather...then you might be saying, "Thick oil SUX!" ;)


Sorry I cant say I drive my turbo buicks in -20 below .. as I doubt many on here do .. and obviously I am referring to spring summer fall as that is the typical car season.

Turbo Buicks + newer thin oil don't mix .. but to each their own.
 
Ivan,

please categorize oil into thick and thin categories . when i think of thin I think 5/20. average 10/30 and thick as 20/50
 
I would say, do a little research and you will find more and more oil suppliers are removing the additives that keep our engines safe. I hate I can't help much outside of that. I have been successful keeping an oil additive in mine.
 
Heck, I have been using Walmart Super-Tech dino and synthetic oil in many of my vehicles for years and never had a problem. In the case of my 86 T Type and in the FL weather I use 5W40 dino. If they had Super-Tech in 0W20 I would use that in my Toyotas as well!
 
Just got my Gr. Nat. 3,8 Turbo. Oil now 10-30 Trop Artic. What ever it HAD looled like mud.
Used that oil for 40+ yrs. Now synthetic of coarse

Will change it again next spring. Keeping an eye on the dip stick at this time.
 
Many years ago on my 1st GN I switched to Mobil 1 and almost immediately wiped a camshaft. While it could've been coincidental, after a new cam and lifters I started using ZDDP with my oils. No issues.
 
Many years ago on my 1st GN I switched to Mobil 1 and almost immediately wiped a camshaft. While it could've been coincidental, after a new cam and lifters I started using ZDDP with my oils. No issues.

I have heard of this happening many times.
 
What ever it HAD looked like mud.
Because it had been contaminated by antifreeze, from the leaky head gaskets?
Had been run way past it's useful life?
Had additives such as "motor honey", STP, etc, to make the oil pressure look good, to a prospective buyer?
The rings are shot, and the blowby is putting "nasties" in the crankcase?
The PCV doesn't work?

Regardless of the oil, something put it in the condition you found it in.......And, it could well not been the oil brand, or the viscosity.

Oil sampling is your friend.

Just sayin':smuggrin:
 
Mobil 1 0W-20 in my Blazer and my Grand National. and my BBC jetboat I run one step thicker in my riding mover.


Even in GA 0 is too think when cold, and 20 is plenty thick enough to maintain plenty of oil pressure at temp.


As far as brands go, I can't image ti's possible to have a bad oil these days. The best oil available in '87 is probably not as good as the 'worst' oil today. I don't account for the lack of zinc since modern oils aren't designed to be ran with flat tappets.
 
The three worst oils that have killed many engines in no particular order, are.
  1. Contaminated
  2. Low
  3. Old
I run 0w-40 M-1, I like the cold flow, and the thickness at temp. But that's just my opinion.
Keep your oil fresh, clean, and full of whatever brand/type floats your boat and Your chances of having and an oil related failure will be really slim.
 
Oil didn't kill my motor, it was detonation from a worn out alky pump (my fault for not doing the proper maintenance on it), and I was only running 18# boost. Keep an eye on the maintenance of your alky systems guys
 
The real question:
Who has direct evidence any given oil hurt their engine?


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Me. I made the mistake of using some 0-20 oil in my turbo Buick and it was so thin that the engine wasn't able to build any oil pressure and by the time I realized what was happening, it was too late and it was already knocking. :mad: I had to pull the engine out and get it repaired. Now I'm using only Shell Rotella T Heavy Duty 15W-40 and never had a problem since.

Claude.
 
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