thecatmac

Guy at Murrays told me I shoud use oil with ZDDP in it, that it's been taken out of most oils this year. He told me I should try Valvoline VR1.
http://www.valvoline.com/pages/produ...asp?product=50
Is there something I should know about here?

thecatmac

I did some digging and found the following info:

The main use of ZDDP is in anti-wear additives to lubricants (eg. greases, motor oils). It is the dominant anti-wear agent, present in most machine and motor oils in amount of about 1%. However for motor oil applications the amount of ZDDP has to be minimized, as the zinc and phosphorus emissions damage catalytic converters.

The EPA has recently forced the removal of the zinc additive ZDDP from automobile oils. In older, high mileage, engines that use oil, the ZDDP additive can cause the catalytic converters to stop working. ZDDP is an anti-scuffing agent and is good for flat tappet engines. In roller tappet engines, it's not so important. Diesel and motorcycle oil still contain ZDDP, so you can still get oil with ZDDP or you can add GM's EOS (engine oil supplement) which is primarily ZDDP. Delvac 1 is a diesel synthetic oil similar to Mobil 1 and Rotella is a conventional diesel oil. Both should have ZDDP.
The Valvoline oil in the prevous post also has ZDDP.

Perfusion

ZDDP

Not familiar with it....

thecatmac

An 85 would be a flat tappet engine, right?

Matt383

From one of the hot rod forums I hang in....

"conventional engine oils contained about 1.0 % ZDDP (zinc
dialkyldithiophosphate) that prevents damage in metal to metal contact. It
seems that ZDDP is very bad for catalytic converters, so the lastest oils,
rated SM only have 0.11% ZDDP. Not surprisingly, there is a recent increase
in camshaft failures in older engines. This makes it more important to run
oils in older (non-Cat) engines that have the higher zinc formulas, like
Delo,Rotell, Spectro,Motorhead,etc or even stoop to using some of the zinc
bearing snake oils."

FWIW..STP Oil treatment has ZDDP, not that I recomend it.



Matt383

Slalom4me

Oil and Flat-Tappet Lifter/Cam Lobe Failures

.

thecatmac

The guy at Murrays said he read an article, alot of flat tappet engines have been torn down and a considerable amount of wear has damaged these engines due to the newer oil not having low amounts of ZDDP in it. He also recommended Shell Rotella T oil.

CentralCoaster

Someone posted an oil chart awhile back and Castrol GTX was one conventional oil with a higher zinc content. Not sure how old that list is though.


I guess we're being phased out.

CentralCoaster

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/e...ech/index.html

CentralCoaster

Here is the chart, scroll to the bottom.

http://www.micapeak.com/info/oiled.html

I assume any that don't have it listed have a low zinc/zddp content. But this data is 15 years old. I'll email him see if he has updated info.

CentralCoaster

They don't seem to publish this info anymore, here's my quick search:


Zinc, wt. %
.084% Valvoline (all)

not published:
Castrol
Mobil
Pennzoil
Quaker State
Shell

BADDUCK

I use Rotella T in my motorcycle with a wet clutch. It is a damn good oil used a lot in diesel engines. It is availible in synthetic and dino. It has a high zinc content but no "friction modifiers" like Moly. It is not an "energy conserving" oil.

CentralCoaster

Zinc_dialkyldithiophosphate

CentralCoaster

http://www.clubcobra.com/t68621.html

JLeatherman

I run regular 10w-30 and a bottle of STP at every oil change for my flat-tappet, high-lift cam. That's what the builder told me to do.

thecatmac

I e-mailed Valvoline.................
Hi, Got an 85 corvette. Should I be useing Valvolines VR1 20W-50 Motor oil
for the ZDDP issues? If not, what should I use in this stock engine?
Thanks, Tim


Response..............

Yes, keep using VR1 20W50 to get extra wear protection.

CentralCoaster

50 weight?

I'll give the STP additive a shot.

jakers

50 Weight? Why the push up from 5W/30? I am about to change my oil for the first time in a new engine.

Wayne Evans is the guy who built my engine. Wayne worked for a several NASCAR team and is currently a tech inspector for a truck series of some type. He has built more race engines than I could ever count. Wayne and I discussed 15W/50 and 5W/30... He first spec'd the 15W/50 Mobil Oil as this is what GM performance engines are spec'd. I mentioned that the LT1 motor was spec'd at 5W/30. He said that would be OK but to go synthetic... BTW, the break in oil Wayne suggested was Rotella!

He did recommend the STP additive. according to Wayne, the STP is good stuff. Once upon a time it (aka Late 1960's), STP, shared the same additives as off the shelf oils and that caused some to call it snake oil, you know selling me something I don't need. Times change, now that the additives have been taken out of the oil to comply with EPA etc... adding the good stuff back to you engine is helpful.... Unless it causes your catalytic converters to fail....??? Someone took my cats off before I bought the car and therfore I am not too concerned about them failing!

draakarmaul

Ive always run Rotella in my air cooled VW's, due to the higher zinc content. The thinking is as these engines run a little warmer than most the zinc helps with wear.... truth or BS? couldnt tell ya, but it gives me piece of mind.......

thecatmac

GOOD READ HERE!



Rotella is good but they really like the racing oils....because they have a full load of antiwear additives.