I have seen two guys above say that Rotella has cut back zinc in their oil. Maybe they have, but I called the company lab. The guy said as long as there are diesel powered trucks on the road, Rotella will never go below 1000 PPM zinc. Funny thing is, thats the magic number for older gas engines with a hot aftermarket cam and flat tappet lifters. Brad Penn sure sounds like a good deal, but try to find a quart of it at a truck stop along I 80 in the middle of Wyoming! Rotella is available at every Wal Mart and every truck stop in the US and Australia. And when you use it, you dont need expensive additives. Keep it Simple Stupid. KISS!
15-40 is good but be careful not to run high detergent oil in an old engine. especially one that hasn't been pulled and rebuilt .could cause excessive leakage and engine burnout
I was going to add, that with the huge world wide intrest in old cars, you would think the oil companies, or aftermarket would cater to this. As to the search function, its always worked fine for me.
How do you know 1000 ppm zinc enough for a hot flat tappet cam? Zinc gets used up between oil changes? I have been told/seen in print by the experts, 1800,1400,1200, ZDDP is old school,new synthetics have better additives,and all sorts of stuff.
i run valvoline 20 50 racing oil and half a bottle of comp cams break in additive,,,,454 chevy runns high tens over 300 runs no oil related problems,,,although i change the oil and cut the filter every 30 runs,,,costly but effective
For the once a year I change my oil in my SBC powered hot rod I decided to use Joe Gibbs hot Rod oil. That way I don't have to worry, for an extra 20-25 bucks a year. Ralph
I too run Rotella T 10w30 in my both my SBC's and my turbocharged inline 250. I buy it by the gallon at O'Reillys for around $17. Good stuff
I know it's hard to believe for all the people who hang around here. But I think deep down we realize that the "old car hobby" accounts for probably less than 1% of all motor oil sales. It's no wonder that most of the major refiners don't bother to cater to us. Fortunately there seems to be some specialty oil and additive suppliers that find us worth their time and effort.
Oh, I usually get lots of hits ok...just that they usually dont have much of anything to do with what I searched for...
We have beat this topic to death...many times. Here is my take on oil.. If delo , rotela , or any other brand of diesel spec oil is good enough to protect a 24 to 1 compression engine hauling 80k lbs down the highway at 70 mph for 1/2 a million miles ...... then it is more than good enough for what I ( we ) do with our engines.. First choice..delo 400 le. I really prefer valvoline 15/40 all fleet. ..but its not as readily available as the delo.. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
From what Ive read the Diesel oils are also starting to lesson or eliminate their zddp. I use Brad Penn oil which has some of the highest zddp ratings. You can get it in any viscosity you want. It costs about $6 a qt though.
I only use sperm whale oil in my engine now. I go hunting with the Eskimos every spring and slaughter a couple of oil changes.
Its not the oil companies that dictate what goes into their oil, its government regulations. There have been agencies here in the US that have wanted to get rid of all the "junk" old cars off the roads for over 30 years now. And they have finally figured out how to target certain products to basically kill them off by attrition. And before long, it will kinda' be like Mad Max, where we'll be scrounging thru warehouses trying to find the last remaining drops of the gas and oil that these old iron powered vehicle can use. Thats what the whole "Cash for Clunkers" program was about some years ago, to get rid of as large a segment of older cars as possible. No telling how many millions of cars were taken out by that program.
Funny thing, back in the 70's I worked as a Parts manager for a Dodge dealer and Mopar had an oil additive that was made from whale oil around '77-'78 it was pulled off the shelves I guess to keep a certain group happy The stuff actually reduced friction to the point that when added to the oil RPM's would increase by 200-300 within 5 minutes run time at idle.
Ran across this as it may be of interest:http://www.carcraft.com/howto/ccrp_0702_break_in_new_cam/viewall.html Also about Rotella there are different types to add to the confusion:http://www.correctcraftfan.com/foru...698&PN=2&title=oil-threads-here-are-confusing
I generally pick a Rotella with an "S" rating (spark ignition engines). Some only carry "C" ratings (compression ignition / Diesel) engines
I wonder if Brad Penn oil is mostly found back east? I've never seen it here in WA state. I have gone to using Valvoline "Racing" oil. Apparently it's not street legal but I've not been busted yet
This is what I run because it works in my diesel truck and my flat tappet gas engines. I buy it in the 2 gallon case with free shipping on Amazon. 5W40 MOBIL 1 TURBO DIESEL TRUCK synthetic, API CJ-4, CI-4 Plus, CI-4, CH-4 and ACEA E7 = 74,312 psi zinc = 1211 ppm phos = 1168 ppm moly = 2 ppm
4qts. Rotella, 1qt. Lucas H-D oil stabilizer is the cocktail of choice for the 429 Caccy motor in my 37 Caddy,D
Run "off road" racing oil. Valvoline makes some. It has the ZDDP like the stuff of old. http://www.valvoline.com/products/consumer-products/motor-oil/racing-motor-oil/6
Isn't Brad Penn pretty notorious for a lot of parafin buildup in engine passages over time? Seems like I have seen various people here write about that. ...also that thing about the Dodge whale oil additive was interesting.
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