Highest ZDDP Conventional Oil for 2020
- Thread starter Nicasio
- Start date
Motorcycle oil has around 1400-1700ppm of zinc.
Walmart stocks Castrol GTX Classic 20W-50, with API SJ levels of ZDDP. It states NOT FOR USE WITH CATALYTIC CONVERTERS, but many cars that used API SJ oil had cats. 20W-50 is still a popular weight with the aircooled/wasserboxer VW, Mercedes and Porsche crowd, though an HDEO is my pick, less VII. Valvoline Premium Blue/Mobil Delvac 1300/Shell Rotella T4 all have Zn/P in the 1000s, enough to meet Ford’s PSD specs.
Else, Red Line has Zn/P levels in the mid/high 1000s.
Else, Red Line has Zn/P levels in the mid/high 1000s.
An important question to ask is how many miles between oil changes. Zinc gets used up with miles driven. A good High Mileage oil might be fine in a street-driven Flat Tappet engine for 1000 miles/1 year between oil changes. Drive more miles, though, and more Zinc may be required.
Perhaps a street driven race engine, not a run of the mill stocker.
This oil is a great choice! https://penngrade1.com/
sorry, should have been "rating".
i think everybody should stop chasing technology that is 80 years old and has successfully been replaced for at least 20 years.
we should not start looking for high levels of phosphorus, sulfur and zink because the editors of "hot rod magazine" found out zddp existed. we dont use oil based paint anymore or pour tetraethyllead in to the gastank.
another trap to fall into is to go for diesel oil. it has different zddp than used for gas engines (among other incompatibilities).
Yes ZDDP is old technology but it is still highly useful and also note it hasn't actually been replaced, for a reason. But I definitely agree that chasing one isolated element (decomposed from a compound in a $30 spectrographic analysis) isn't necessarily meaningful in light of the oil's overall performance. That's why approvals, specifications and licenses exist as they certify the formula's overall real-world performance.
The use if TEL isn't really comparable, there are other methods of increasing gasoline octane rating. But ZDDP is unique and as I mentioned it's still being used despite valid reasons not to do so. Engine design can mitigate the need a bit but ZDDP still soldiers on with a very important role.
Ive ran M1 0w40 in everything from a mild 383 to extreme blown hemis. Most roller but had a 700hp 440 on solid flat tappet and a few on hyd.
Cam break in is more important than about anything. After anything off the shelf will do fine with that valve spring.
I would run a euro oil and quit worrying. Check for fuel after a year and if its fine run it 2 and dump.
The solid 440 had a BIG cam, it trapped at around 8k rpms. I cant remember what springs it had but they were nasty.
Lost my old logins but OVERKILL prob remembers my oil question/car pics of a red roadrunner with a blown hemi back in 2012ish
Cam break in is more important than about anything. After anything off the shelf will do fine with that valve spring.
I would run a euro oil and quit worrying. Check for fuel after a year and if its fine run it 2 and dump.
The solid 440 had a BIG cam, it trapped at around 8k rpms. I cant remember what springs it had but they were nasty.
Lost my old logins but OVERKILL prob remembers my oil question/car pics of a red roadrunner with a blown hemi back in 2012ish
Last edited:
I change the oil once a year on three of my cars. ‘68 Skylark, ‘89 Mustang, and ‘04 BMW. I don’t think any of them see 1k miles in the year.
4WD
$50 site donor 2024
Decent price ? Or just get Amsoil Z Rod and leave it in the sump for a very long time …
What sae rated off the shelf oil for passenger car use has ever had too much ZDDP? But I will agree too much of any thing gets to the point of a diminishing return and can do the opposite of what is intended.
I was referring to the various ZDDP additives available. ZDDP is good, so dumping in more is better, right?
Similar threads
