Hello all. I was over my parents today having a look at my fathers 1979 Corvette, 350 4 speed. My father no longer drives it, has Parkinson's and I'd like to help them out by changing out the coolant and doing an oil change. What I'd like is to get some information or a, "How to" on draining and filling the coolant. Recommended type of coolant for the 1979 350ci? I might as well change the oil and filter as well. I was over on the other forum trying to find out about a recommended oil but it's just a big huge argument LOL. Seems 10W30 is favoured, one with high ZDDP levels? Any recommendations from the C3 gang would be great. Oil filter #? Any help greatly appreciated.:coolgleam:
Help please, coolant flush/fill and oil change 1979
- Thread starter jabroni
- Start date
Bob Is The Oil Guy
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If you can't get your questions answered here, then there are no answers.
Bob Is The Oil Guy | The Internet's Number One Motor Oil Site
none of the modern engine oils have enough zddp to lube a flat tappet cam shaft. what i do is pre-mix a 16 oz bottle of delco engine oil supplement to 5 lt of oil. gm dealers have this. i use the long oil filter and pre-fill it, napa, cdn tire, whatever. do the coolant like you would any other car. :seeya:
If you can find Valvoline VR-1 10w30 that will work well in that L48/L82. Make sure you get the dino oil, you don't need the added expense/drama of synthetic. It's just a Chevy, so Canadian Tire will have your oil filter and antifreeze.
The radiator drain plug is on the passenger side of the rad. The petcock is very close to the cross member so expect some splashing into the container. Once the rad is drained, you may want to flush the system if you have any scale build up. 50/50 antifreeze mix or just buy the premixed when you get the oil filter.
http://www.valvoline.com/products/consumer-products/motor-oil/racing-motor-oil/6/
The radiator drain plug is on the passenger side of the rad. The petcock is very close to the cross member so expect some splashing into the container. Once the rad is drained, you may want to flush the system if you have any scale build up. 50/50 antifreeze mix or just buy the premixed when you get the oil filter.
http://www.valvoline.com/products/consumer-products/motor-oil/racing-motor-oil/6/
Doug (Buckhorn) is pretty much on . See no big arguments here 
Most importantly are you going to take your dad for a ride ? I wish him the best .
Most importantly are you going to take your dad for a ride ? I wish him the best .
It's nice that you still have your Dad.....kudos for stepping up for him....let us know how he likes the ride once the car is ready to go.
Wish him well please.
Colin
I just started putting EOS (Engine Old Something) in my Chevelle: The GM part number should be 88862586. This will protect the lifters from grinding flat.
Like Doug, I too used GM's EOS (Engine Oil Supplement) with each oil change on our L78 Chevelle. I always use GM oil filters as well. A few years ago, a guy on one of the sites. Bought a whole bunch of oil filters. He cut each apart and measured the amount of filtration material and checked closely the quality of the cannister itself and how it was made. His conclusion was that the factory filters were the best by a good margin. I understand that Wix makes an excellent filter too. There is some real junk out there. A few years ago, I bought a filter and the threads were so bad that I couldn't screw the filter on it was so tight. I was afraid of the threads picking up on each other and wrecking the threads of the filter and the adapter.
Thanks for all your help guys, I appreciate it. I will take him for a ride in it when the fluids get changed. I'm also planning to take him for a ride in my C7 when I finally get it.
I did some looking around and see that Mobil 1 10W30 High Mileage has a decent level of zinc and phosphorous.
http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Files/Mobil_1_Product_Guide.pdf
Will the parts guys know what oil filter I need when I request for a 1979 vette LOL?
Cheers.
I did some looking around and see that Mobil 1 10W30 High Mileage has a decent level of zinc and phosphorous.
http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Files/Mobil_1_Product_Guide.pdf
Will the parts guys know what oil filter I need when I request for a 1979 vette LOL?
Cheers.
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Our GM parts guys just goes back and pick the filter off the shelf when I tell him what I want it for. Les and Ross have been at it at Lindsay Buick-GMC for a long time and they ARE the best.
Our GM parts guys just goes back and pick the filter off the shelf when I tell him what I want it for. Les and Ross have been at it at Lindsay Buick-GMC for a long time and they ARE the best.
Hi J...
Everyone seems to have chimed in here. I'm certain you will be OK.
I use GM filter #PF35C. This is the 'long' filter Doug referred to. I also agree with Keith about factory filters.
I did the filter cut-open thing when I was a lad.. Proved to me that factory was better than most.
One thought... Be careful with the radiator drain plug...Those can sometimes break! I take an easier route.. I get a piece of 3/8"-1/2" clear tubing and syphon out the rad fluid into a bucket. The tubing has to be able to reach the bottom of the rad(thru the cap-hole) and hang down to the bottom of a suitable large bucket. No messing with pet-cocks and things or spilling anti-freeze. This works better when the car is up on ramps as you can get the bucket lower than the bottom of the rad.
Fill the tubing first with water, plug one end with your thumb and drop the other end down into the rad. The thumb end then goes into the bucket.
If I don't have a flush kit handy then I just fill the rad with water again and fire the car up. Bring it to operating temp and then drain it all again. Refill with a 50/50 mix of anti-freeze and water.
graham
Everyone seems to have chimed in here. I'm certain you will be OK.
I use GM filter #PF35C. This is the 'long' filter Doug referred to. I also agree with Keith about factory filters.
I did the filter cut-open thing when I was a lad.. Proved to me that factory was better than most.
One thought... Be careful with the radiator drain plug...Those can sometimes break! I take an easier route.. I get a piece of 3/8"-1/2" clear tubing and syphon out the rad fluid into a bucket. The tubing has to be able to reach the bottom of the rad(thru the cap-hole) and hang down to the bottom of a suitable large bucket. No messing with pet-cocks and things or spilling anti-freeze. This works better when the car is up on ramps as you can get the bucket lower than the bottom of the rad.
Fill the tubing first with water, plug one end with your thumb and drop the other end down into the rad. The thumb end then goes into the bucket.
If I don't have a flush kit handy then I just fill the rad with water again and fire the car up. Bring it to operating temp and then drain it all again. Refill with a 50/50 mix of anti-freeze and water.
graham
way way way back in the day before we knew any better. environment - wise, i used to pop off all the hoses and let the garden hose run. :nono: