Oil Recommendation

[bratkozo914]

Hi guys,

 

1st oil change since my owner ship.

 

What kind of oil would you recommend? 

 

I live in Northern California and I have 1986 Brat. 

 

Also, what brand is the best for an oil filter???

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Bratkozo

 

 

[winmag4582001]

Oil, hiking boots and best 4x4.... Really no wrong answers, just 1000 opinions.

 

I use Wix or Napa Gold filters. Good media and higher bypass rating(filters more oil).

 

1984 GL: Oil, I've decided to use 3qts of a 10w-30 with 1 1/2qts of Rotella 15w-40 added in. HD oil has more additives that help with wear and keep things clean. Kinda like "high mileage" regular oil, just more of that stuff is already in HD oil, zinc and detergents.

 

2010 E350 van: 5qts 5w-20 + 1qt 15w-40

 

2017 Legacy: 5qts 0w-20

 

1982 BMW: 4 1/2qts 20w-50 Valvoline race

Edited November 27, 2017 by winmag4582001

[GeneralDisorder]

EA81's have flat tappet cams. 

 

After you pull the lifters and have them reground from the cupping that's resulted from crap emissions oil....

 

Amsoil premium protection high zinc 10w40. 

 

Wix filter. 

 

GD

Edited November 27, 2017 by GeneralDisorder

[Sapper 157]

10W-40 Royal Purple

Fram ultra synthetic filter

 

10w 40 is a good all around weight for the EA81. Just don’t use 5w30.

[NV Zeno]

​I used 10w30 and 10w40 in my '83.  Genuine Subaru filter.  Changed every 5000 miles.  Was still running perfectly when I traded it with about 350,000 on it.  AFAIK it is still on the road today (thanks to GD), with probably 400,000 on it by now.

 

​Just my 2 bucks

[gjewers]

CASTROL 20/50.  FRAM FILTERS.

[idosubaru]

Run a quality recommended synthetic and Wix or OEM filters.

 

There’s not much reason not to, but reality looks more like this:

 

If you change it frequently, it doesn’t matter.

 

Use synthetic if towing, or racing, or will be running it low on oil, or will run it overheating, or want extended change intervals, or will exceed change intervals for other reasons. Oil loss and overheating are significant possibilities on older vehicles.

 

That captures why some run 300k with whatever cheap oil is on sale and others have failures with synthetic. quarter million mile reliaibiiity is heavily weighted towards checking oil level, frequency, and application.

 

average daily driver EAs were not blowing up left and right in the 80s and 90s when the majority of people never knew the difference. Most old gen subarus on the road were probably run for decades in the 80s and 90s on conventional oil and random aftermarket filters. The differences now will come down to which ones had oil leaks, overheating, hard use, etc.