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View Full Version : Anyone from the 70's to 80's era of street machines. Also Valvoline XLD oil question.



Francis knight0
01-01-2012, 09:24 PM
Hi guy's

I'm after anyone that was around the street machine era during the late 60's to the mid 80's.

Long story made short, I'm trying to find out some more info about Valvoline XLD.

I know that to most the general consensus of Valvoline is that it's just a run of the mill joe average product. Not to be compered to the likes of Penrite or Nulon.

There has been a few events or comments I have come across that have just kept me interested in the product.

I'm yet to find out more on this, a very well regarded No BS style engine builder I know told me that for many years during the 70's era Valvoline XLD was the top choice for tuff street engines. GTHO, XU1, ect. He even told me that it was used in a supercharged speed boat motor that ran on methanol. It was often the speed shop oil. He mentioned that only once oils like Corse Plus and Penrite HPR came out and where directly marketed toward the performance street / race seen that XLD took a back seat and just became a standard type oil. The latter popularity of synthetic's pushed the perception of XLD further down, but he still had no issues using it in tuff V8 engines driven hard. This to me in the current day seems odd as the oil is now a entry level range product and most of Valvoline products would not seem a match for Castrol Edge, Penrite or Nulon.

I'm keen to hear more from anyone that was around that 60's to 80's street machine era that could tell me more about how XLD was used.

I'm also keen to hear if anyone has any recent stories of uses with XLD and it's latter developed oils like Engine Armour. I'm just trying to see past the marking (or lack of it) and perhaps there oils are a under rated gem?

ls1 VN
03-01-2012, 03:28 PM
In NZ we didn't really have the same concerns back then in the Hot Rod/Street Machine 60/80s era. As long as the oil & filter was changed regularly & it wasn't deemed to be a rubbish oil it was ok.
Castrol GTX, Valvoline,Shell, BP, Duckhams, ELF etc were a few common brands I remember using.

Top race car guys might have used whatever sponsors supplied them with.

ti0350
03-01-2012, 08:25 PM
My mate use to own a very tuff 351 XE many years ago and he used XLD in that never had an issue as far as i can remember but that was a long time ago, I use to use Castrol GTX in my old VH and VC..