Just bought a buick running 20W-50?

[short_dustin]

I just got another '87 t-type and the previous owner had the car for 15 years and says he's always run 20W-50 NON synthetic in the car. Should I continue? The last 3 of these I've had I always ran Mobil 1 10W-30. Doesn't make any difference to me as long as it's not going to affect performance or anything.

Thanks,

 

[turbo nasty]

Dont waste your money on Syn. And if the oil psi is fine with 20w50 then rock on. I have ran 20w50 dino in mine since the summer of 88 and never had any issues ...204k miles

Really topic thats been beaten to death do a search

 

[short_dustin]

Thanks for the reply, the more turbo buick owners I talk to the more I find that think synthetic is a waste of money. Yeah the car has 80psi oil pressure at WOT so I think I'm good. Thanks!

 

[toomanymodz]

80psi? Wow, too much. I would run a thinner oil. I run 10w40.

 

[short_dustin]

Too much? What should I be looking for? I've never even had an oil pressure gauge in one of these cars so I've never really thought about what oil pressure would be ideal.

 

[WIKEDV6]

I always ran non synthetic 20/50 in my car, you will find out that our Buicks are not Potty trained so if you run the much slicker Synthetic, it will find its way out to the floor much quicker . The only thing I do with regular oil is; I change it more often. Running a lot of boost and Alky, chances are you may get some of the gas and alky in oil. So I just dump them every 1,000 miles or so. it's just cheap insurance. You can do that without hurting your valet. Every time I drive my car I beat the snot out of it and she is still running strong with the motor that came in the car when I bought it back in 1988.


HTH
Prasad

 

[turbo nasty]

Fully heat soaked....in gear idling form 15 ish to 25 ish is good not uncommon to see a little lower. From that about 10 psi rise per 1k rpm

 

[GNONYX]

I also used 20/50 in my 87' GN with no issue. When I start the engine my gauge reads around 65#, then it tappers down to around 25# when the engine is at normal temperature. You claimed 80# at WOT, is that with a cold engine or when engine is at warm temperature?

 

[Mr.Spool]

mobil1 15-50 full syn,not a single drop out of the rpe motor,pump gas alky required much less changing over conventional.

 

[RIFF RAFF]

BRAD PENN 10W30 RACING OIL .. NO NEED TO ADD ZINC ..

 

[Steve]

This topic has been covered alot. Nick Micale has built dozens of the these engines over the years and is well respected and I have seen him post in a few of these oil threads that his experience has been that the thicker the oil the better the engine internals looks after its been ran. I have always ran 15-40 or 20-50 in all of the my turbo Buicks from stockers to low 10's and never had any problems and never wiped a cam lobe in 22 years and 10+ turbo Buicks. I did see a recent thread on cam lobe wiping and I believe Nick posted that out of all of the engines he has built with flat tappet cams he only had 3 wipe a lobe and all three were using Mobil 1!