Which Grease Gun and Grease?

[Swamper]

Bearclaw, I have done some research to be sure of what I going to say. All of the synthetic motor oils I have checked, Valvoline, Mobile 1, Royal Purple and Amsoil all meet or exceed the current and past API ratings. I use Amsoil in my old Harley and found it to work very well. Also Amsoil was the only one that I could find that had an oil for our small air and water cooled engines plus marine use. Most of the makers of synthetic oil also have a high pressure gear lube for the transmissions in our AATV's. One precaution though, if you are going to use synthetic engine oil in an older engine that hasn't seen very much maintenance and will have varnish and sludge build up, the synthetic oil will clean this up and if the seals are questionable, when all the grundge is cleaned off, they may leak. This leaking will depend only on how good the seals are. If the seals are in good shape, they shouldn't leak. This is what I have found on my engines, rear ends, motorcycles and some of my customers vehicles. As for the grease for the bearings, when you choose a time to tear down the wheel bearings to check for wear or replace a grease seal, that is when I would do all of the bearings and then start using the synthetic grease. I know it is quite a bit of work, but if you want the full benifits of using synthetic, then it is best to clean out all the old grease. As for the question on how long to break in you engine, I would follow the manufacture's recommendations for this. I have and will continue to use syntheic oils because I have seen the benefits of them over the past 20 plus years. Hope this clears a few things up for you. Sorry for the length of this one guys. Cheers.

[bearclaw46]

Swamper

This would explain the gaskets that leaked on my cousins Mustang when he switched to synthetic oil back then. It was back in the early or mid-80's. I'll never forget, he said he had to replace almost all of his engine gaskets after he switched to synthetic.

bearclaw46

[GREASEMONKEY]

Gaskets for automotive purposes have made great improvments since then, as well as the synthetic oil's.

[bearclaw46]

Thanks guys

I know synthetics are good oils and there has been vast improvements, esp since the 80's. I guess old habits die slowly tho. I've been a Pennzoil (sometimes Valvoline) guy since my younger days changing oil in my Dad's driveway in my old 65 Impala 327CID Chevy. I sure miss that car. It had a Carter WCFB small 4 bbl carb, had a single pipe on it when I bought it and once I had dual mufflers installed, I improved the horsepower from 245 to around 25-40 hp more (somewhere around 300 horse) and it ran WAY better and faster. It had a 3 on the tree shift and was pretty darn fast for what it was. I've always changed my oil loyally every 2,000 to 3,000 miles. I remember tearing my old 327 engine down for a rebuild in my 65 Chevy in 1973when it had around 95,000 miles on it and there was hardly any wear in the engine at all. I street raced that thing and drove it rough at times. I was sort of pissed I spent all that $$ on a rebuild when I didn't even need it. I'm still kind of leary since that Mustang incident with my cuz. I guess I'll stick with the old petroleum based lubes. If you keep it maintained as I do, my Argo should be fine. I'm just leary about mixing the lubes I guess and know my Pennzoil works fine just like it did in the 60's and 70's.

Dennis