Which oil is best for a 390?
 

I am going to change the oil on my 74 highboy this weekend. I have only had it for about a month, so this is the first time. Would synthetic oil be the way to go, or would conventional oil be the ticket?

i would run a 15w40 or 10w30 diesel rated oil like rotella or delo along with mystik. all good oils, for the filter i use champion, motorcraft or wix but never fram.

You don't like the Fram filter? Just curius why.

do a search for fram filters on here or on the web. it is one of the most poorly made filters out there and they charge a premium price for something worth no more than 1.75.

Gotcha, and thanks for that info gashog.

here try this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...e/FramPH8A.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ertechST8A.jpg

the fram is almost 6.00 the supertech is only 2.07 . the cheaper one has synthetic media and is built better. for more go to the oil and lube forum at look at big o dave's thread of oil filter photos.

also the adbv in the fram tend to never work which allows all the oil to return to the pan so each time you start you have a dry start and a few seconds of the engine running with no oil which will cause damage.

I second that! Now that "Fall" is in the air, I would suggest going with the 10w30 diesel oil...and save the 15w40 for the warmer months.


biz
:-X22

Unless someone can present scientific evidence, there is no "best" of anything. It is all opinion. FWIW, I use 10w-30 Castrol GTX year round in the reman 390 in my 64 Galaxie.

filter
 

I use a Fram HP-1 Racing filter for years with no problems ever. HP-1 is extra heavy duty. PH-8 is junk.

I also use Castrol 10-30 in all my motors, ranging from 302's to 429's. My dad uses Rotella though, but until its rebuild time I dont think we will see any difference in the running.

HP-1 is extra heavy duty. PH-8 is junk.


wow your kidding i hope. the racing filters are only for race use the race filters only filter down to 40 microns or so that is why it is for race use only it is bare minimum filtration. the supertech and wix for under 3.00 filter down to 19 microns.

48 F-2, If engine is original and/or rebuilt with cork gaskets suggest staying away from synthetic oils. If you don't have leaks now you may have more than you care to deal with after using synthetic.
Whatever you do, don't ever put any Slick-50 or Teflon type additives in it either.

That's an excellent engine you've got there and it was designed to use dino juice for lubrication.

don't ever put any Slick-50 or Teflon type additives

i'll second that statement .

just to say, I had a conversation with a wix representative a few weeks back and he said that almost all the filters you see are made by wix. Including Motorcraft and Supertech.