i know this has been asked dozens of times but i did a search and i cant find the answer im looking for. i have a 383 with about 5k miles on it. the guy who built my engine told me to use valvoline 30w for the break in and to keep on using it because its better for the engine. ive been using it ever since i got the motor running.

should i switch to a different type of oil like synthentic or a different weight or brand? or should i just stick to valvoline 30w?

 

He just said 30W? That's kind of strange. I would use something with multiple viscosities, although if he recommends something that heavy you might want to use 20W-50 or something. And synthetic is always better when you've invested heavily into an engine. If you operate your car at cold and hot temperatures, a multi viscosity oil is definitely a good idea. Unless your builder did something very strange with your engine, I don't see why you shouldn't be using 5W-30 or 10W-30.

 

Go synthetic... Use a 5w-30 or 10w-30.....

 

If he set bearing clearances to what they were stock which it sounds like he did, the best oil weight you can use is a 40weight or a heavy 30 weight. With that, Mobil1 0W40 or Castrol German Syntec 0W30 are the best out there that are readily available and for less than $5 a quart.

Jason

 

I just started using the German Castrol 0w30 the other day. I'd recommend it.

 

I am not positive on this type of information, but I recently bought an 02 SS from Texas Speed and Performance with heads/cam and some other mods. He recommended I run a 15w50 or 10w30.

He also recommended one of the following oils:
1. Red Line (best, most expensive-I got mine shipped for $48 to my house for 6 quarts)
2. Royal purple (good, and a little cheaper then Red Line)
3. Mobil 1 (not as good as the ones listed above but cheaper and probably the easiest to get)

If you go to www.redlineoil.com they have a listing of their oil and give a description of what the oil is best used for (type of engine)

 

i bought my car with 95000 miles. Used mobil non synthetic 10w30 in summer months, and 5w30 when its colder out. Got about 135000 miles and stuff running perfect.

 

www.bobistheoilguy.com

Do a search on there for Patman. He recommends German Castrol most of the time for f-bodies.

Doing some reading on that site will help you out.

 

If your builder told you to use straight 30wt. then it is time for him to do some more learning, modern multi weights are very good and would have protected the engine better during the many startups it has seen already. As others have touched on recommending a weight is not really right one companies 5w-30 might be a good choice while anothers 0-w40 is a better choice than their 5w-30.
My top picks would probably be in this order
GC 0w-30
M1 0w-40
M1 5w-40 truck and SUV
Redline 5w-30
Right now I am trying Rotella T synthetic 5w-40 have not gotten around to sending a sample out for analysis yet(when post office is open I am at work lots of OT), easy to find and relatively cheap people think I am nuts though since it is marketted for diesels but read the bottle is is gas rated too.