Doing an oil change here next week and been researching oils. I had been using joe gibbs 10w30 for the zinc. Its expensive and i have to buy it online. I see castrol syntec 5w50 is formulated for classic cars and I can buy it locally. Any issue with putting this in my 53 flathead? And im not trying to start an oil/detergent/synthetic/zddp war!

 

A very recent thread on the subject for your reading pleasure.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...selection.html

 

Thank you sir. I missed that thread and it was very informative.

 

I too use the Joe Gibbs HR4. And yes it's expensive. I buy it from a local machine shop for about $9.50 a quart. They swear by it. But they have never steered me wrong! I have a recently rebuilt 302 with about 8K miles on it. Between the Joe Gibbs Break In oil and the HR4, it has never had any other type of oil in it. The engine seems to like it, has no oil use issues, and runs like a charm. So I am planning on sticking with it. There is another oil you can look into. It's made by Brad Penn. I have never used it, but other folks claim it's a good oil.

Welcome!

 

I guess I'd swear by something that made me the kind of money $9.50 a quart brings in too!

 

the zinc in a flatmotor is not that big of a deal because the spring pressures are are not near what they are in an ohv engine. Hope that helps.