Bought my '67 coupe from a guy. I was talking to him yesterday and he was asking what type of oil I use. Being in So Cal I told him I am a typical 20-50 weight Castrol type guy. He was shocked to find out that I was not using an additive with zinc phosphate in my oil to "protect the cam". He said that the oil comp has changed and I should be running the additive as well.

Does any have the skinny on oil types and what is best to run in the coupe to protect the engine the best. It just has a mild cam in it.

Thanks in advance.

 

Use the search feature on this forum and google. There are a ton of threads on this and a bunch of websites that explain it in great detail. Basically, many of the oils today do not have adequate levels of zinc dialkyldithiophosphates (ZDDP) to lubricate flat tappet cams. The result is the lifters and cam lobes are worn out prematurely and sometimes at alarming rates. The higher levels of ZDDP in the modern oil is not needed in roller lifter push rod or OHC motors as there is not near as much wear due to the roller. If you need the ZDDP, there is additive you can use or certain types of oils such as Valvoline VR1 that still have it in there at the necessary levels to lubricate the valve train correctly.

 

So where would I be able to purchase this so called oil additive. My parts supply in town doesn't know anything about it!

 

napa sells the vr1 racing oil...not sure about getting additives

-Gun

 

As i said above, search google. Jegs, Summit, Eastwood online carry different brands. Here locally, Autozone, Napa, Advanced, Pep Boys...they all carry ZDDP oil additive. ZDDP Plus is the one I see most often but Comp Cams makes some too.

Here is an article discussing the issue from Mustang Monthly.
http://www.mustangmonthly.com/techar...oil/index.html

Here are some links or you can search google for "buy ZDDP".
http://www.zddplus.com/distributors.htm
http://www.zddppluscentral.com/
http://www.eastwood.com/underhood-en...-additive.html

 

Yea, it's shocking how many classic car guys don't know about this.
Parts guys, I'm not supprised, mostly they're young and this only affects mid-1980s and older cars.
Most don't even know what a carb looks like.

Many parts supplys will have Valvoline VR1 (at least in 20w-50) which has the ZDDP without needing additive. Mobil1 (but ONLY 15W-50) is good too. Almost all the other common oils are no good, including Castrol.

Most racing oils have ZDDP but most don't have enough detergents (except Valvoline VR1).
Some diesel oils have it but also have too much detergent, which counteracts the ZDDP.

Cam-shield.com sells the additive and has a good write-up on the problem.

 

Yes, the oil companies saved a little money by leaving out this additive. They started doing this at the point where most all cars have roller cam followers. That would have been fine had they told someone.

I used to take care of this by using one of the diesel oils which are very high quality with not only the zinc additive but also additional detergents. I still do that in my flat tappet engines, but I now add about a half of a container of Comp Cams break in lube. The reason that I started doing that is that they started taking some of the zinc out of these oils for emissions reasons.

My favorite of these oils is Chevron Delo which is readily available, but Mobil Delvac and Shell Rotella T are the same type oil.

Actually once the cam and lifters are thoroughly broken in, the Chevron Delo alone will suffice. It's during the break in period that a larger amount of this additive is most necessary.

 

Comp Cams now has a break-in oil (not just the additive) in what appears to be quart bottles, and there's a Brad Penn high performance oil that also includes ZDDP ( www.bradpennracing.com ).

Source - Circle track magazine, May 2010.


Norm

 

Glad this came up. I was told localy that I only needed it for the break period. This post may have saved a few engines. Including mine.

 

I did alot of research and read that they reduced the ZDDP because it was bad for the catalitic converters. They changed to the new GF-4 standard about 7 or 8 years ago.
Diesel cars are getting cat converters now too so that's why they're taking ZDDP out of diesel oil too. The cam-shield.com website said that diesel oil also has too much detergent additives which counteract the ZDDP, so you may be getting less protection than you think. Adding ZDDP to regular oil sounds like a better solution.

You can get too much ZDDP too. It will pit some engine surfaces and cause early wear also.
So using straight break-in oil is probably not a good idea.
Also some racing oils have very little detergents so your engine may gunk up.
Race cars get fresh oil often, maybe every race, so it's not an issue.
I like Valvoline VR1, it has the detergents and enough ZDDP without adding
anything. My (occasional driver) likes 10W-30 but you can also get any other weight thru Napa.