Synthetic Oil

[USAFRichards]

I will be getting my first SVO tomorrow! 2A 85.5. I know I need to change the oil. Problem is, I don’t know what is in it. I know it had Mobil 1 in it at some point but I don’t know how consistently. Do I go Mobil 1, try a high mileage synthetic or mineral? Or something else?Thanks!

[svono50]

You know you are opening up a can or worms with this question, right??

I am sure you will get as many answers as owners on here, but I will toss out my experience and preference for at least one data point. From what I have heard, owners who have tried synthetics have had issues with oil leaks...in some cases...very important point, as some owners run it religiously w/o issues. Myself, I have had good success with running good, old-fashioned dino oil over the past 27 years/63K miles in my own SVO. Since ~75K miles, I have switched to the 'high-mileage' type of dino oil, but still nothing fancy. My brand of preference for the past ~20 years has been Castrol 10W-30. I change my oil/filter every spring when I take it out of hibernation and generally change it 1x between an HPDE event and my road trip down to the yearly Reunion. As long as you run the proper weight oil, I doubt you will have any issues, as the oils today are many miles ahead of what was offered back in the mid-80's.

If you don't care about the 'small-ish' FL-300, locate one of the Merkur oil filter 90 deg adapters, which will allow you to run a 'full-size' FL-1A.

[GAboySVO]

I use Mobil 1 10w-30.

[USAFRichards]

Thanks for the replies! Yeah, I know there are a lot of opinions and experience out there. I thought I would take the temperature of the situation and see what I come up with.

[JTurbo]

I use conventional oil, but I also have a roller cam....

[jimtash9]

Rotella 5W-40. The Motorcraft synthetic diesel oil has 1000ppm of ZDDP in it.

[86SVOwner]

Bought it new and used Mobile 1 until about 20,000 miles. Switched to Amsoil 0w30 and have had no issues. Still in my garage with 81,000 miles. Amsoil in the trans and rear end.

[USAFRichards]

I ended up going with Mobil 1 High Mileage 10W-30. I wanted to go synthetic but wasn’t sure how the seals would be since it has had less than 10k driven since 1997 so I thought high mileage may help with the additives. We shall see! Thanks for the replies!