Recommended Oil

[Doug]

I recently purchased a 1975 27 Catalina with the Atomic 4. What oil should I use? I have read from 30 to using a motorcross oil? No idea how many hours are on it, runs well after putting on a new carb and fuel pump. Sounds sweet!

[Don Moyer]

Doug,

We continue to recommend (as did Universal throughout most of the 1970s)
that any good quality 30 weight detergent oil be used in the Atomic 4. In
their later years Universal also included multi-viscosity oils as a
recommendation in their owner's manuals, so you could consider 10-30
multi-viscosity oil, especially if you're operating throughout the winter
months.

We don't have any experience with the newer low friction oils (and
additives) but it has been reported to us that most of these products state
on their containers that they are not recommended in cases where an engine
has an integrated clutch mechanism built into it. The concern here is that
the improved coefficient of friction in these oils can make adjusting of the
forward clutch mechanism a bit more problematic than usual.

Don