I have used Valvoline conventional in my 56 for quite a while. Went to Advance auto. today to get the oil today for oil change and couldn't find conventional. All they had was high milage. synthetic blend., so the question is can i use it instead of the conventional  Carl

From what I understand, high mileage oils have rubber conditioners that will cause rubber to swell.  That can be good for an old engine that might leak a little in hard to service areas, but not something you want to use on a new engine (and not something you want to use arbitrarily on an engine that is not leaking - if it has high mileage, but no leaks, don't use it).

You may have to order the oil.  I noticed a similar lack of conventional oil recently, myself.



Lawrenceville, GA

Check ebay and Amazon.  That's where I by mine (Valvoline).  Prices are usually good and some have no shipping cost besides.  I get the big bottles, use a quart bottle to measure


54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

I was cruising the net tonight an ran across this post, its time for me to change oil in the fairlane and i was running the high milage oil and when I read about the swelling it caused I decided not to run it and started looking for conventional valvoline then I ran across Valvoline vr1 racing 10 w 30 oil it has a high zinc content and says its for classice cars this is what I am switching to.

Just curious, but why would causing rubber gaskets in a high-millage motor to swell, thus creat a problem?  If rubber hardens & shrinks with age (?), wouldn’t encouraging them to swell actually prevent leaks?



6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

If you use it in an engine that is not leaking, high mileage or not, the rubber components will wear as usual but in that swollen state.  This can do a couple things.  One is that the rubber components may wear faster due to increased pressure against the sealing surfaces and that may make it such that the engine requires a high mileage oil because switching back may now cause it to leak.  If you use high mileage oil and it does start to leak, you have no recourse and the problem now must be fixed whereas, if you wait until the engine starts to leak on a "standard" motor oil, using the high mileage oil may seal it up again and buy some more time before major work needs to be done.



Lawrenceville, GA

Thanks for the info on the Valvoline vr1 oil, that is what i am going to switch to  Carl

Can’t go wrong with VR1.  

I am using Valvoline conventional 10-40 in both of my Yblocks per Ted;s recommendation.


54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

Carl's point is he cant find it.. I've had the same issue here in western Canada.. 10-40 conventional is not readily available even in large auto related stores..  I guess the reason is obvious, no modern cars use 10-40 . So?? 

Paul