Way back when, I ran Havoline 10W40 in my '79 Ford. Had about 120K on it, never used enough oil between changes to notice on the stick.
There was an oil change place between the house and the farm that was a Havoline dealer. One day I was running a little behind on the change and had to do some hard pulling at the farm.
So, I pulled into that place and told them to change it. There were bottles and bottles of my brand sitting around on shelves, but when they started to put in the new oil, they pulled a hose down from the ceiling with a dispenser nozzle on it.
It had the right label, and the set the knob to the right amount. But, I asked why they were not using it out of a bottle.
They said that they bought it in bulk and could give me a better price.
This was a big outfit either owned or licensed to Texaco, so I figured it would be OK.
I paid them off and headed to the farm.
About 30 miles.
As I was sitting at my power gate waiting for it to open, I suddenly saw lots of oil smoke blowing past the truck.
Checked, and I was burning oil. No leaks, it was coming out the tailpipe.
I figured that even though I expected better than 120K, it was a pretty good run considering the abuse it had suffered, so I started thinking about a rebuild.
By the end of the weekend, I was almost a quart down, so I poured in some of my stock.
The smoke seemed to get better after a while.
Few days later, I started wondering. Slid under, drained out the oil, put on a new filter and some Havoline out of bottles.
Within 5 minutes it had quit burning oil, and I put over 150K more on it with no oil issues.
Never went back there, of course. I still sometimes use those type places, but I bring my own oil and filter.
And watch it put in.
There was an oil change place between the house and the farm that was a Havoline dealer. One day I was running a little behind on the change and had to do some hard pulling at the farm.
So, I pulled into that place and told them to change it. There were bottles and bottles of my brand sitting around on shelves, but when they started to put in the new oil, they pulled a hose down from the ceiling with a dispenser nozzle on it.
It had the right label, and the set the knob to the right amount. But, I asked why they were not using it out of a bottle.
They said that they bought it in bulk and could give me a better price.
This was a big outfit either owned or licensed to Texaco, so I figured it would be OK.
I paid them off and headed to the farm.
About 30 miles.
As I was sitting at my power gate waiting for it to open, I suddenly saw lots of oil smoke blowing past the truck.
Checked, and I was burning oil. No leaks, it was coming out the tailpipe.
I figured that even though I expected better than 120K, it was a pretty good run considering the abuse it had suffered, so I started thinking about a rebuild.
By the end of the weekend, I was almost a quart down, so I poured in some of my stock.
The smoke seemed to get better after a while.
Few days later, I started wondering. Slid under, drained out the oil, put on a new filter and some Havoline out of bottles.
Within 5 minutes it had quit burning oil, and I put over 150K more on it with no oil issues.
Never went back there, of course. I still sometimes use those type places, but I bring my own oil and filter.
And watch it put in.
