JDub 911

Okay so my 84 3.2 trans rebuild is nearly complete, so I should have the car on the road next week. Since I had the trans pulled out I also found my annoying oil leak. Gasket for the oil sender was rock hard. So I have a question for midwest area air cooled folks. Every drop of oil is out of the car (replaced most of the gaskets and seals on the engine). So in Chicago area what weight is recommended for a daily driver? I have been reading the posts for the last few weeks and I see some passion about this topic. I am not chemist, but I have always used Mobil 1 in my 944 turbo. So I was thinking of the same in the 911. But should I go 0-40 or 15-50? And I will post pics of the latest edition to the garage soon thanks everyone.

84_Carrera

Not in Chicago, but we get hot & cold here.

I run 20-50 Brad Penn in my '84 911 during the summer months, and had previously been running 10-40 non-synthetic other brand during the winter months before. I posted up an oil weight scan from the '84 owners manual before... let me try to find it.

Edit:
http://www.sinclairmfg.com/fred/pors..._oil_grade.pdf

I may go with a 15-40 this coming winter, but I want to find a non-M1 oil to do so. I have my own history & issues with M1.

DRACO A5OG

+1 on Dino Oil ( BP )

old man neri

It is important to know if you are planning on running the same oil in the winter, are you?

Oshin11

People give the impression that BP is dino oil...this really misled me the first time I bought it. BP is not dino, its semi synthetic and made my 911 leak for the first time ever. Not awful leaks but a little leak.

Mike Murphy

If you plan to drive your car in freezing temps, then I would consider trying to go a lower than 20w. I would say that a good 5w50 would be best for Chicago year-round weather, but that is hard to find. The 0w-40 would also work, but be careful which oil you choose. There are specific oil types for these air-cooled engines that are not the same for the newer liquid-cooled models.

dshepp806

I experienced the VERY same thing, after using Mobile One 15W50 for a while, then changing to BP. As stated many times by many: can't blame the oil (????). The leaks are nice and GREEN!!!

Seems as though the temps are a slight bit higher with BP than M1.

Best,

Brads911sc

I run Kendal GT1. Good Dino. 20w50 in summer should be fine.

Antony.

Wal mart has the new formulation silver cap Mobil1 15W-50 for $22.48/5 qts. I'm sure they had the 0-40 as well but I didn't research the chemistry for that formulation.

Hooverwi

+1 on the Brad Penn - I'm in Wisconsin and it's all I'll run in spring/summer/fall - my car doesn't see snow. It's been thorughly researched and determined to be good for our older engines - right additives, ZDDP, and detergent levels. There's a lot more to oils then just their weights it appears.

ajmarton

One mechanic recently told me to use BP 20w-50 (here in Los Angeles) for my 89 911 and 81 928. He thought the detergent would help the 928 which tends to sit more and has noisy lifters when I first start her up cold. No noise if she is used on a regular basis. Peter Z. has suggested Kendall GT1 in the past for the 928 so I have both products right now and will try the BP in the 911 and Kendall in the 928. It is my understanding that BP owns Kendall now - is that correct?

84_Carrera

Not so much. Kendall GT1 is what I was coming from. The OLD Kendall GT1, which used to be made from the stocks that Brad Penn is NOW made from, was what their rep was created from. Once Kendall was bought out, the formulas changed & it became just another oil, at least as I understand the history.

IIRC Kendall is now owned by Conoco?

Brads911sc

Kendall is now owned by Conoco.

Pete has studied the new Kendal GT1 and found that it had ALL the correct ingredients for our air cooled engine. Probably the only modern DINO oil you can get where that is the case... He only studied 20w50 if i recall.

ajmarton

I am wondering if I should use BP in my 67 Dino Spyder 2L (aluminium block). It burns a lot of oil but compression is fine and I want to hold off on an engine rebuild as it is not in the budget right now. I just wish it didn't smoke like a Hibachi - although its really fun to smoke out the car behind me when they tail gate. :-)

veloce10

I live up in the northwest and would like to know what weight of oil people are using. My car is an '87 3.2 and I have some Swepco 15w40 but will try to get some 20w50 if the consensus is that this is too light. The car has less than 70k miles on it.
TIA
Patrick