Technical Something interesting I was reading on engine oil.

Truck,
There is some really good reading there,,,a whole lot of it.
It finally list the oil brand names towards the bottom.
A lot of good brand names were near the bottom.
But,,,then he did the same test on some brands with a certain additive,,,and the numbers jumped way up.
Hmmmmm.

Tommy

 

You are only lowering your octane (cetane?) level slightly. Unless you are mixing a large quantity it is probably negligible. Top oil only really helps if you use it on a regular basis.

If I was running no lead in a car that I knew had soft seats I may try to run a fuel additive that would cushion my vales. But that would really only work on the intake side unless I was running extremely fat.

 

I've never had a cam wipe out using break in oil and after breakin oil that came from a manufacturer with ZDDP and Phosphorous as part of the addittive package. Still don't get the way some folks just dump in ZDDP's after an oil change with no consideration of how the possibly of the added ZZDP interacts with the manufacturers initial additive package. Engine oil manufacturers have staffs of engineers and scientists that determine the exact amount of ZDDP and Phosphorous they add to their products.
Don't know about Y'all but I've got too much money invested in my engines to play back yard chemist and mess up the amounts of the additive package already predetermined by a large oil company.
Remember too much ZDDP can be worse then not enough as its has highly corrosive properties. More is not always best.

 

The guy is pretty full of himself, based on the twenty minutes I spent reading his blog. Looks like he has some sort of self invented modification to the standard four ball VKA, Bocle, or the Brugger test rigs that he uses to get his results.

The part where he looses credibility is when he summarily dismisses all of the other industry standard test procedures and defines oil quality and desirability only on a simplified bench rig wear test result. If only real world life was so simplistic.

 

^^^^ Yep!

 

=============.

540 Rat kind of got run out of town over on Speed-talk.com a few years back for that and similar posting.

I wonder what he is doing these days.

He seemingly invested a bunch of time and money in his testing.

 

I just heard a rumor from an auto shop this week his parts guy said they were removing anything with zinc from the sales floor by the end of the month and was going to be illegal in CA , any truth to this?

 

I've been using #70 on that list, QS 20w-50 and 15w-40 Rotella, which ever I can get on sale. I have the engine apart now after 5 years of beating on it the cam and lifters look like new. Funny the Quaker state has only 610 ppm of zinc in it. My valve spring pressures are 130 seat and 370 open SFT cam.

 

I ran Joe Gibbs oil in my race car for a season and saw no difference in performance. Under their direction which all they wanted to know was the clearances in the engine so I would get the correct grade. I went back to Mobil 1 and have continued to use it.
I do use their manual transmission and rear end oil which did make a difference.
We use Delo 15-40 in our 1/2 mile 422” all iron circle track flat tappet engine; changing twice a season. We have never had an oil related failure.
Thanks Blues, you are much more knowledgeable on oil than I will ever be.

 

Not that I've heard of. So they're removing all engine oils too? No, I think somebody is mistaken.

 

really dumb question after reading this thread . but ,I usually use wally world type oil thinking they don't refine oil and get it from a national ref. qs penz valva….. etc. am I as wrong as im thinking . so cut to the chase . which is best ?? many years ago I tore mtrs apart and seen stp settled in the bottom of pan and only ever used it in place of rod/ main bearings when I had to . till the end !!

 

As several here know I work on 6 and 7 figure cars for a living. I also realize and am very sensitive to how the question/topic of engine oils reveals fierce loyalties and rivalries that shadow the glory days of the musclecar in their zeal. That said I've been happy to read multiple times the info shared here by our brother 'Blues' and saved the sites he posted a few years ago on the topic, and I refer to them when labels and brands change on the shelf. What have I learned? To buick bill above, yes, Wally World oil is just fine. The best? No, but for the price in a high mileage car it's hard to beat.

On the diesel oil gig, yes, all of it has changed as referenced and confirmed on this topic. I was using Castrol or Rotella in the high-zoot classic engines based on the content and referenced on the engine oil sites spoken of above and which was on sale at the time of need. Yes, Rotella dropped a significant amount and also seems to have raised their price considerably. Looking for a solution I checked the SuperTech Wally World brand and also Traveller brand as sold in Tractor Supply. Both have the older formulations and ratings (CJ) and Traveller has a higher concetration of zinc/phos. As an added bonus it's about 2/3 the price of Rotella and comes in bigger containers, welcomed when a Packard takes 8 qts+the filter, no? He's also right about the shameless marketing the oil industry does. Perhaps the only thing worse is FRAM filter marketing, especially when you cut one of em open vs a WIX for the same or less $$. Do your own research. 'Blues' gave us the info and the data sites to back it up. We don't need any more than that, but in all fairness the old school brand rivalry is certainly fun. I can't afford that when I have to dump a large amount of dinosaur sauce in quater million dollar car. I'd rather have the tech behind my decision, and frankly in my flathead's pan too when she finally hits the road. I don't have time for anything less. Great topic...

 

Now, that's funny, I don't care who you are ! LOL.

 

I know this is sacrilege, but I'd heard of old farmers changing nasty oil in their farm trucks and running diesel fuel in them until warm, the draining that and putting in regular oil. I did this on a 455 olds that had a cracked head and dumped a lot of coolant in the oil. After replacing the head, ran diesel fuel for a few minutes, then refilled it with good oil. Didn't seem to hurt it, and it's still running to this day.

 

I've done the diesel rinse many a time over the years, in any car that had particularly filthy oil.
The first time I did it, in a 1964 Cadillac, I was quite young, didn't know too much so drove it a couple miles at 60.
It didn't seem to do it any harm. It was already an oil burner and when I finally did re-ring it I found the bearings to still be excellent.