Changing Oil Brand and Swapping "Old" Low Mileage Oil

michaelm101 · michaelm101's Garage

1) Any specific strategy (additives, etc) for removing/flushing 6-year old oil that has less than 100 miles?

2) Will be switching to BP or possibly Valvoline VR-1 (due to availability). Any opinions?

Thank you for your help!

JJ 911SC · JJ 911SC's Garage

Brand Penn Oil for your 79 SC

DanielDudley · 05-18-2010, 11:04 AM

Get it hot and change it. Run the new oil for a tankful or two and change it again.

RWebb · RWebb's Garage

why not just leave the minor amount that won't drain there and add new??

is it contaminated somehow?

GaryR · GaryR's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanielDudley

Get it hot and change it. Run the new oil for a tankful or two and change it again.

I would do that also, using a low cost high detergent oil for the "flushing", then put in Mobil 1 V-Twin..

Flieger · Flieger's Garage

Then you will need to flush the cheap detergent oil so that it does not contaminate the VR-1... endless loop logic.

If you are going to do the second change, it has to be VR-1, too by the reasoning.

michaelm101 · michaelm101's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flieger

Then you will need to flush the cheap detergent oil so that it does not contaminate the VR-1... endless loop logic.

If you are going to do the second change, it has to be VR-1, too by the reasoning.

Understood. I just bought 3 cases of the VR1 at 1/2 price @ 3 Autozones (all within 5mi radius)!!! Thank you forum members for the alert!

Flieger · Flieger's Garage

I think it would be fine to change it just once, for the record.

The old oil probably has more Zinc and Phosphorous in it than SN oils.

jurhip · 05-18-2010, 02:44 PM

I agree with RWebb.

I do not recommend getting the engine hot prior to the first change. If you must, I would change the oil, run, then change again. Getting the oil hot to perform the first drain exposes your engine to the contaminants that you are afraid of. To save money, you can add a normal, but still high quality oil for the initial "flush" - like Castrol GTX or similar.

If you haven't run this thing in a long time, you can try a truncated version of the run-in procedure to ensure you have good oil film at your bearings. Wayne outlines this in his rebuilding book. You can omit the 2,000 rpm "break-in" as your engine is not new.