SAE 30 W

[Retired Wrencher 5,658]

Man it is not easy getting this oil any more. Am I getting that old.  Only a hand full of places carry it. I also looking thru my tons of paper work. You are supposed to used a detergent based oil. It has been a while for me. The only place I found that carries it on a regular basis is Nappa. I like Castrol because of all up to date standards they have. Where do you by your 30 W oil?

[WVHillbilly520H 10,376]

Advance Auto, AutoZone, O Riley's, TSC,  WalMart and Fedarated Auto Parts or Fishers, all carry Castrol HD 30, around here but the price varies as much as $3/qt...but I run 10w30 engine and trans so it doesn't confused me when I grab a bottle to top off either.

Edited April 29, 2019 by WVHillbilly520H

[WHNJ701 4,165]

every small engine I own gets penzoil 10-30

[The Tuul Crib 7,338]

35 minutes ago, WVHillbilly520H said:

Advance Auto, AutoZone, O Riley's, TSC,  WalMart and Fedarated Auto Parts or Fishers, all carry Castrol HD 30, around here but the price varies as much as $3/qt...but I run 10w30 engine and trans so it doesn't confused me when I grab a bottle to top off either.

me too!!

[squonk 42,810]

All oils on the shelf have standards up to date. I run Shell Rotella 30W from TSC

[Herder 2,354]

41 minutes ago, jabelman said:

every small engine I own gets penzoil 10-30

Penzoil and be mindful they are one of the few how still have a zinc formula.  Zinc is no longer in 95% of motor oils do to pollution regulations and it's harmful to catalytic converters.  Zinc is used as a hardening agent and is essential to the cam and lifters in you small engines.  Penzoil calls it Off Road/ High Zinc it's what motor oil used to be.  That's all I use.       

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,360]

14 minutes ago, squonk said:

All oils on the shelf have standards up to date. I run Shell Rotella 30W from TSC

Same here

[wallfish 17,587]

 

[WVHillbilly520H 10,376]

39 minutes ago, Herder said:

Penzoil and be mindful they are one of the few how still have a zinc formula.  Zinc is no longer in 95% of motor oils do to pollution regulations and it's harmful to catalytic converters.  Zinc is used as a hardening agent and is essential to the cam and lifters in you small engines.  Penzoil calls it Off Road/ High Zinc it's what motor oil used to be.  That's all I use.       

You could always add this...https://rislone.com/product/3x-concentrated-engine-oil-supplement-with-zinc-treatment-4405/...I actually use this in my '79 C30 454 and '78 406SBC just as a precaution.

[Tractor boy 239]

I get straight 30 (briggs and scrap brand) from work by the case. This is also what we use on everything that takes straight 30 at work. 

[ZXT 2,401]

Every convenience store around here has 30W oil. I prefer Castrol or Valvoline, but for a lawn tractor I'll run anything but Pennzoil. The stuff might be OK these days, but I've seen the insides of too many engines that have run Pennzoil to ever consider using it.

[Retired Wrencher 5,658]

I guess it varies where you live. I will look at TSC around here and see what they have.  Thanks for the info SQUONK.

[ri702bill 9,067]

I agree with WVHillbilly - the content of ZDDP in modern oil ranges from 0% to no more than 5% of what it was years ago. I use the NAPA detergent straight 30 weight with a splash of the ZDDP additive.

Bill

 

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,153]

14 hours ago, WVHillbilly520H said:

Advance Auto, AutoZone, O Riley's, TSC,  WalMart and Fedarated Auto Parts or Fishers, all carry Castrol HD 30, around here but the price varies as much as $3/qt...but I run 10w30 engine and trans so it doesn't confused me when I grab a bottle to top off either.

 

Funny story about that......i buy SAE 30 and oil for my vehicles in 5qt jugs. I went to change oil in my car and dumped the jug SAE 30 in my car. I put the cap back on the empty bottle and then read the front of the bottle........I may have called myself a few choice words.....then drained all that oil back out of my car and put the pennzoil 10-30 in. I was pretty impressed with myself that afternoon.

 

That being said, I get my SAE 30 at walmart or tractor supply. Both places have 5qt containers or single quarts if that is the way you want to go. 

[bds1984 1,470]

All this arousal over zinc levels is just silly.  Many act like it is the end of the world because an oil formula changed over time because a newer and better alternative is now in use (molybdenum, boron, titanium).  There is NO Wheel Horse engine ever made where zinc should be thought of as a mission critical oil additive in the here in now.  If I were running a 60s-80s Detroit V8 that is built to the extreme, with insane valve spring pressure on a flat lifter cam set-up, I would probably look for a zinc rich motor oil, but I'm not and so are many others. 

Too much zinc is corrosive and if one were to actually get an oil analysis, used or new, they'd find zinc levels are much higher than they previously thought AND higher than what it was years ago in a variety of motor oils.  If you want a good read, http://www.pqiamerica.com/index.html or www.bobistheoilguy.com are two excellent resources for all things lubricants.  Oils evolve and change, thoughts should, too.  

[clueless 3,127]

Rotella 40w, I put that s**t on everything. I mean in everything I have with a small air cooled engine. The only thing down here I have to start below 40 degrees is a fire .

 

[stevasaurus 23,107]

SAE 30 is getting harder to find around me, but I think my Farm & Fleet will carry it forever.  I've been using Pennzoil and with 4 horses...I buy it by the case.

[Retired Wrencher 5,658]

4 hours ago, stevasaurus said:

SAE 30 is getting harder to find around me, but I think my Farm & Fleet will carry it forever.  I've been using Pennzoil and with 4 horses...I buy it by the case.

That seems to be the case Steve some areas have it some do not. I will check out Napa tomorrow.

[TDF5G 2,072]

I went on the hunt for SAE 30 this past winter.  I used to buy it all the time at the local Dollar General but they stopped carrying it a few years ago.

 

Walmart has the lowest price.  But it's not stocked with the automotive oils.  I found it in the auto dept. but with the lawn mower parts, spark plugs, fuel filters etc.  They only have a few qts at a time.  $2.78 per qt. in my area. 

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by TDF5G

[adsm08 2,771]

On 4/29/2019 at 10:17 PM, ZXT said:

Every convenience store around here has 30W oil. I prefer Castrol or Valvoline, but for a lawn tractor I'll run anything but Pennzoil. The stuff might be OK these days, but I've seen the insides of too many engines that have run Pennzoil to ever consider using it.

 

They don't put the paraffin wax in their oil anymore.

 

I still won't use anything from them but their full synthetic.

[ZXT 2,401]

3 hours ago, adsm08 said:

 

They don't put the paraffin wax in their oil anymore.

 

I still won't use anything from them but their full synthetic.

 

Good to know! 

 

I've never seen a reason to run synthetic in anything thus far though.

[adsm08 2,771]

1 hour ago, ZXT said:

 

Good to know! 

 

I've never seen a reason to run synthetic in anything thus far though.

 

I run Mobil 1 Extended Performance full synthetic in my Expedition. They say it's good for 15K miles, with I don't believe, but the Expedition only goes about 7500 a year, so I throw that stuff in and just change it once a year before whatever our biggest family trip will be.

 

I am pondering switching my Ranger over to it so I can run 5W-40. The reason being that the oil pressure is great until it warms up, and then at idle it starts dwelling right at the bottom of the acceptable range, but I'm not in a position to go rebuilding that engine right now, so I'm hoping some oil that is thicker at temp will bump those numbers a bit, and of course you can only get 5W-40 in a FS. My B2 gets Castrol High Mileage, and the Mustang gets whatever 5W or 10W 30 I can find on clearance because it needs a valve cover gasket, but I don't have the time to mess with it right now and the 2.3 will keep going as long as there is slippery stuff in the crank case.

Edited May 4, 2019 by adsm08

[ZXT 2,401]

12 minutes ago, adsm08 said:

 

I run Mobil 1 Extended Performance full synthetic in my Expedition. They say it's good for 15K miles, with I don't believe, but the Expedition only goes about 7500 a year, so I throw that stuff in and just change it once a year before whatever our biggest family trip will be.

 

I am pondering switching my Ranger over to it so I can run 5W-40. The reason being that the oil pressure is great until it warms up, and then at idle it starts dwelling right at the bottom of the acceptable range, but I'm not in a position to go rebuilding that engine right now, so I'm hoping some oil that is thicker at temp will bump those numbers a bit, and of course you can only get 5W-40 in a FS. My B2 gets Castrol High Mileage, and the Mustang gets whatever 5W or 10W 30 I can find on clearance because it needs a valve cover gasket, but I don't have the time to mess with it right now and the 2.3 will keep going as long as there is slippery stuff in the crank case.

On something that was having oil pressure issues  like your Ranger, I'd probably run 10w-40 or 20w-50. 

 

How many miles does that Ranger have on it? I've never had any luck with Fords so I'm curious.

[rjg854 11,943]

My 94 Ford Ranger had 235,000 when I sold it, I had it for 16 years.  The only thing I changed on that engine was the starter a couple of times and the oil. 

[adsm08 2,771]

37 minutes ago, ZXT said:

On something that was having oil pressure issues  like your Ranger, I'd probably run 10w-40 or 20w-50. 

 

How many miles does that Ranger have on it? I've never had any luck with Fords so I'm curious.

 

Why would I run something that is thicker at freezing temps when my pressure issues don't start until the oil temp is over 100F? In the temp range where I have a problem 5W-40 and 10W-40 are the same thing, but 10 is thicker than speced for my engine cold.

 

The engine only has about 15K on it since I rebuilt it, but the crank was kind of borderline on it's specs. If I put standard sized bearings in the oil clearances would have been just in spec. If I'd gone with the smallest under size bearing it would have been a hair too tight. I decided to err on the side of keeping it loose, not realizing that you can get away with putting one bearing of each size in each journal to make a middle of the road kind of deal, until after it was already together and in the truck.

 

It will get me through for another two years, when I will probably pull the body back off the frame and take it to the Rod shop around the corner for a good pro paint job, and I'll yank the engine and rebuild it for boost then, and do a more complete job at that time.

 

Most of the truck has unknown miles because I have been slowly building it over the last 10 years, and it now has pieces all over from at least nine different trucks, including pieces of the body and frame. The steering wheel and cluster, which are about the only parts I am sure are still original have about 225K miles.

 

Trans is due for a rebuild, #2 syncro is shot, #1 and 3 are getting bad too. I have a 2.3 trans I am going to rob gears from when I do that because I want the lower 1st 2nd and 3rd.

Edited May 4, 2019 by adsm08