Technical Oil for non-roller cam

What do you guys use for motor oil in your flat tappet engines? Ever since oils were reformulated and most of the zinc was removed for catalytic converters, cam manufacturers say to use a high zinc oil.

Thoughts?

 

Valvoline VR-1. And, I've heard diesel oils, like Rotella-T have zinc, but I can't confirm, as I use VR1.

 

Whatever oil you want and a bottle of old school STP oil additive

 

LOTS of conversations here on this subject, try a search. Personally I use Lucas Hot Rod & Classic oil with success. Many other choices and many other opinions.

 

Valvoline VR-1.

 

I use Lucas 10-30 Hot Rod; it’s formulated for flat tappet engines both solid and hydraulic lifters. I believe “stock” engines with 70-80# valve springs or lower could live with newer oils but I don’t take the chance either.
Valvoline VR-1 come highly recommended by many many guys here including many of my friends with old cars but it’s not recommended by Valvoline for street use because it’s meant to be changed often. Most do that with their older cars anyway. I believe there are other oil companies formulating “hot rod” oil also. Castro comes to mind.

 

Boy have you opened a can of worms!!! LoL

 

Up until last fall I used Quaker State 20w-50, Castrol 20w-50, Castrol 5w-50 syn tech, Shell Rotella 15w-40, Lucas 10w-30 Hot Rod oil all in the same engine. Bearings looked like new.

Going to more aggressive spring package so I'm going to use Valvoline 20w-50 VR-1 from now on.

 

Go to y-blocksforever.com, Technical Forum, "Oil." There are several posts/w links that should help you to decide.

 

That time already?

 

I've run Rotella T6 5-40 in all my engines, old and new. But it was reformulated 2 or 3 years ago and much of the zinc was removed as now even diesels have cats to worry about....

 

Mobil 1 in my later engine and Quaker State High Mileage 10W30 in my flatheads. The Quaker State High Mileage oil has zinc.

 

Lucas Hot Rod Oil.

 

No, please, stop. This is not true. We've covered this around here several times already. There is less zinc content in STP than in regular low zinc motor oil. If anything the STP will dilute the amount of zinc in your oil.

I can't speak for Rotella T-6 5W-40, but while diesel engines do now have oxidation catalysts and diesel particulate filters not all diesel engine oils have reduced zinc content, many still carry around 1200 ppm, which should be sufficient for most any street driven engine. And remember, it's not all about the quantity of the zinc, it's also about the quality of the zinc. Modern zinc compounds perform far better than previous versions. There's far more to the story than ppm alone.

 

I've mentioned this before, but there is also Castrol GTX Classic 20W-50, carries around 1400 ppm of zinc.

https://www.castrol.com/en_us/unite...oil-brands/castrol-gtx-brand/gtx-classic.html

 

Castrol GTX Classic has zinc. Walmart has it for under $5.00 a quart. I think it was $4.59 each.

 

Just turned 82,000 on my little 289 Ford in the Willys using Valvoline VR-1 every 3,000 miles. Wish they made it in a 10w-40 though.

 

Brad penn oil is excellent

 

Tractor supply has Rotella T1... Great High zinc alternative with low cost for those budget minded... Been running that in Flatheads for a while now with no issues. My 56 dodge gets VR1 10w30. I may be swapping it out to T3 Rotella maybe due to VR1 prices getting stupid here in store.

I had run regular valvoline in it, with a zinc additive and never had any issues with the cam etc. Granted this isnt a race engine with high spring pressures so I can probably get by with about any oil now with how much zinc I impregnated into the cam over the years. But Ill play it safe... Honestly been lookin at roller conversions anyways but I could buy alot of oil for the price of roller conversion.

The only thing I worry about is we can all see that zinc oil for flat tappets is getting harder to come by, and when on a road trip you may find vr1 20w50 or you may not.... If you leak or burn and road trip then you need to prepare with spare quart or 2...

 

I don’t have anything with lots of spring pressure but I just run plain old everyday engine oil, and no one can say I don’t drive my cars.

 

Just a related rambling here.......

In a flathead there is a lot less valvetrain weight and corresponding spring pressure to control it all, and no rocker arm multiplication factor, hence a lot less pressure at the lifter/cam interface. It's a lot less critical to use a high zinc oil in a flathead than in an OHV engine.

 

My Bad on STP, used it a few times, but honestly had not any lobe failures on just regular oil anyway. VR1 Valv would be first choice after hearing a few years go Rotella reduced its Zinc content, then again..

 

You may want to check out Rotella T-5 as it has the CK-4 designation.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/shell-rotella-t.1244290/

 

you trust quaker state? my fathers seen more than one jello sludge engine that had quaker in it.

 

In my flat tappet engines I use VR1 also. Amazon just had a big sale on 20w-50w VR1 for $20 a case of 6 qts. with free shipping! I ordered 3 cases, and got them a few days later. I probably should have ordered twice that much at the cheap price.

 

Don't the US oil manufacturers sell a special "Classic oil" formula with a high zinc content for flat tappet cams?
By this I mean an oil especially formulated for old cars and the classic car market.

 

See above , Lucas hot muscle car oil is one such oil .
Am I the only person who Does Not read through a thread to learn what has been asked and answered ?

 

DOH!

 

It all depends on what kind of spring package you run or want to run. If your in the 80-90 seat or 230-250 open pressure any quality shelf oil will be fine. Once you start getting into 130+ seat or 330+ open then use a dedicated high performance flat tappet oil.

 

I slowly converted over to Amsoil, beginning with my Dodge Cummins diesel. Now I use it in all that I that own including the small engines. In my hot rod pickup with a very mild 318 Dodge, I use Z-Rod 10w-30. All are performing well @ over 11 years since I first began using it.