Thread: What oil should I use?

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I'm running a freshly rebuilt Gen1 350 sbc that has about 1200 miles since rebuilt and want to replace the oil but not sure what to use. It was bored .030 over, flat top pistons, mild Comp cam, Edelbrock intake with AVS-2 650 carb, headers, etc. Fairly mild motor, probable makes makes 280-300 hp. I'm in mild northern CA climate. Motor runs 185-205 temps and is not driven daily, maybe couple of short drives per month to car events or Sunday drives. Any recommendations for oil grade/weight?

I've always used Mobil 1 10/30 - recently switched to Royal Purple 10/30.. I prefer a full synthetic.

flat tappet i run rotella .

Here's a list of high zinc motor oils that Speedway Motors shares, first the ones they sell and then those not sold by Speedway. It's a pretty good list - https://www.speedwaymotors.com/the-t...reakdown/32479

Thanks for the advice. As I remember from the old days I used to run 10-30 in my sbc motors. With the flat tappet cam, I think 10-30 synthetic would be a good choice, maybe Mobil 1, Lucas or Rotella.

In the old days your 10W30 was loaded with ZDDP. You still need the high zinc (ZDDP) content for the high contact loading of the flat tappets on the cam face. Mobile 1 Racing Oil (Synthetic), Lucas SAE Racing Oil (Synthetic or Conventional), or Shell Rotella T Diesel Oil (Conventional) all have higher zinc in varying amounts, where the regular synthetics don't necessarily.