Hot Rod Engines and Damage Caused By Modern Motor Oil

I ran across an article in Street Rodder magazine (March 08) about the ill effects that the current popular motor oils have on older engines, especially engines with flat tappets, high lift cams and etc. The article states that since about 2005, the zinc and phosophorus additives that bond to and protects surfaces where there is high friction have been reduced to insufficient levels for older engines. This is worth reading.

Every now and then, Street Rodder has a decent tech article and this particular one is well done.

 

This has been covered repeatedly. Do a search for zinc or zddp.

 

What he said....,.

 

Where's that dead horse? I want to beat it.....

 

Got an Alliance Vendor here with the solution www.zddplus.com

 

I received my first order of 6 bottles today. My son's wife's 119,000 mile nissan pickup wiped the cam with modern oils. He's gona build the original engine and it's gonna have ZDDP PLus in it from now on. The new 331 chevy in my 40 chevy coupe hasn't been fired since I built it and it won't get fired until I add a bottle of this stuff first....
Just sayin...

 

Rocky speaks.......I listen.

BTW Rock, call me on the 1/4 panel deal.........

 

I heard that runnin' Rotella works??

 

We use penzoil racing. It has very high zinc. Delo 400 does as well.
Steve

 

Rotella has been reformulated and no longer has enough ZDDP, you might be able to find the old formula at farm stores but around here even those have restocked with the new stuff. Regular (non-synthetic) Valvoline Racing Oil still has plenty of ZDDP, most places only list 20W-50 but you can get it in 10W-30 and IIRC straight 30. Just bought some to do the break in on the kids 318, the bottles are marked "Not legal for street use". Castrol is supposedly coming out with the old formula for "classic" cars.

 

I'm still getting used to the HAMB thing (still fairly new / haven't posted much). With the wealth of info here, I should've figured the topic had been covered.

Thanks for input, though. I will say this; there are a lot of people who own older cars (antique, classic, muscle & etc.) who are not the least bit aware of this situation. It bothers me that there'll be many a good engine spoiled by running the current brands of motor oil. There should be some kind of warning lable on motor oil bottles or sumthin'. Oh well ... thanks for allowing me to indulge myself.

 

Welcome to the board.

If you are concerned, you can still buy high ZDDP oil, but it is branded as "for off road use only" and it is racing oil. Several companies offer it. Someday that will go away too. Just another option.