NEW SLANT 6 OWNER NEED HELP

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rustydustyD4rt

rustydustyD4rt

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818 valley SoCal, CA
Hey y’all so I have this 75 dodge dart swinger slant 6
But I haven’t serviced it at all which is sort of stupid for me NOT to do.
But I don’t want to accidentally buy junk for it that I don’t need.
I’m in a need of what oil and oil filter I should buy for it. something recommended or preferably something I could get at a local auto parts store for dependability. Please let me know because I can’t keep the car running like this and especially ruining it instead of making it better
Miles should be around 91k last time I checked (sat for a while as part of deceased owner and was a WA state car so barely drove around)
 
go to any local parts store, ask at the counter and they should be able to direct you to what filters they have. pretty much anything is going to be fine for your application. wix, purolator, mahle or bosch are all fine.

as for oil, any type of decent conventional 10w-30 or 10w-40 should be more than sufficent.
 
I would go on Rock Auto and looked for the most bought filters for your car. If you buy at a local parts store know what you're wanting when you go in. Way too often the kid behind the counter is clueless. Once had an O'Reilly guy sell me on a "for sale" filter that ended up causing me to have more oil on the garage floor than left in the car. I currently run a Wix on my 63 Dart GT with a 225 slant six.
 
I use Lucas Hot rod and Classic 10-40 oil, and I also use Valvoline VR-1. Both are great, and have the added Zinc you car needs. Walmart is selling the VR1. at a good price now. Amazon too, and you can order the filter after tying in your make and model.
 
73Charger318 said:
I would go on Rock Auto and looked for the most bought filters for your car. If you buy at a local parts store know what you're wanting when you go in. Way too often the kid behind the counter is clueless. Once had an O'Reilly guy sell me on a "for sale" filter that ended up causing me to have more oil on the garage floor than left in the car. I currently run a Wix on my 63 Dart GT with a 225 slant six.
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Thanks I’ll head to the site there
 
rustydustyD4rt said:
Don’t know, it’s just something that I need to make it run a lot better basic servicing.
I mean I guess I could put anything as long as it could work or VR1 more suggested
Nothing really specific for CA cars rlly
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If Your car has/had a catalytic converter, Cali will require You have/keep it, & You will NOT want to use fancy hi-ZDDP crap/racing oils.....totally unnecessary......& will ruin the catalyst.
 
Heck here in Texas, first thing we do is cut out the cat and sell it!!!!! That way if you go into Houston, no one will try to steal it and maybe shoot you!!!!!
 
barbee6043 said:
Heck here in Texas, first thing we do is cut out the cat and sell it!!!!! That way if you go into Houston, no one will try to steal it and maybe shoot you!!!!!
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I deal with the same thing here in California and it’s worse here because we can’t even defend ourselves X_X
It’s a trench line over here !!
 
nutz said:
do you still emissions on a 75....air pump,cat egr,ect.
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model year 1975 cars are exempt from emissions in california.

i don't think anything came with cats until 77 or 78, but some of the other stuff would've been on there from the factory. this day in age though, if it's exempt then the stuff is already adios'd.
 
74 was the first year depending on engine size and weight class
 
I remember some v8 cars having cats in 74 ...
Thought they where cali cars
Could have been getting ready for 75
 
There were no catalytic converter-equipped '74-model cars outside of automaker R&D and test facilities. '75 was the first year production cars came with them—and not all Slant-6 cars came with catalysts until '79 or so.

Use a reputable brand of 10W-30 oil. Pennzoil, Quaker State, Castrol, Valvoline, Texaco/Havoline, Shell, Mobil, Union 76, Philips 66, Sinclair, Chevron,Petro-Canada, Sunoco, Conoco…one of those.

Contrary to religious myth, your car does not need special oil with special amounts of special zinc, and it does not need any other special additives. Higher numbers (like 20W50) are not better. Just put in five quarts of good quality 10W30 oil. More info here (follow the advice there about the oil pressure relief valve) and here and here.

A Wix 51515 is a good choice of oil filter.

Find tune-up parts and technique suggestions in this post. Carburetor operation and repair manuals and links to training movies and carb repair/modification threads are posted here for free download.
 
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For some reason I thought 74 vettes and camaros had cats .......but i guess I wrong
I know my 77 suburban didn't get cats till 78
And my 77 porsche doesn't have a car but has secondary air ...
 
nutz said:
For some reason I thought 74 vettes and camaros had cats .......but i guess I wrong
I know my 77 suburban didn't get cats till 78
And my 77 porsche doesn't have a car but has secondary air ...
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I've seen some GM products for Californai with smog equipment way earlier than I had expected. I can't swear on the cats though.
My 49 State straight six '74 Nova still had points distributor and no cats.
The one thing annoying emissions item I recall for sure on my '75 Valiant is the OSAC delay. Now that's worth bypassing just for the safety of actually having some throttle response. IIRC it had a cat too. But on the stock 6 I don't think it really hurt performance.
 
Mattax said:
I've seen some GM products for Californai with smog equipment way earlier than I had expected. I can't swear on the cats though.
My 49 State straight six '74 Nova still had points distributor and no cats.
The one thing annoying emissions item I recall for sure on my '75 Valiant is the OSAC delay. Now that's worth bypassing just for the safety of actually having some throttle response. IIRC it had a cat too. But on the stock 6 I don't think it really hurt performance.
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Lots of 69 high horse power big block powered Chevys had air pumps.
 
You’re in Cali, not far from me. Go find a NAPA they’re everywhere. Get a Napa gold filter (made by wix, one of the best) and get 6 quarts of Napa brand 10w40 (made by valvoline, one of the best). You can’t go wrong.
 
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