Interesting Warning in '77 Ford Truck Manual

[TallPaul]

From the owner's manual for 1977 Ford Truck, F-100 thru F350, and P-Series:

Quote:

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Use only those oils that meet Ford Specification …. Or API Classification SE or SE/CC.


NOTE—Oils of the above classifications which also meet API Classification CD are not recommended unless: the oil supplier indicates they contain a minimum of 0.10 weight percent phosphorus as zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (alkyl zinc) or a high quality fully formulated zinc dialkyldithiophosphate oil conditioner such as Ford Part Number D2AZ-19579-A is added at each oil change in a quantity sufficient to provide a minimum of 0.10 weight percent phosphorus as zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (16 ounces of conditioner to 5 quarts of oil.

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I wonder how much zddp was in the SE/CC oil. Wouldn't think the next step in oils (CD over CC) would have been presenting too low of a zddp issue. I thought we had just gotten to that point today with SM oil.

 

[veronicaFan]

Zinc ddp levels were probably dropped in 1970s oils, because they didn't want to poison the "new" catalytic converters. Same reason as now.

I can't wait for the new "clean" diesels to arrive.
I want my SULEV jetta (or beetle)!

 

[Pablo]

AFAIK there were no controls on P content back then. I think this is a warning for warning's (or the engine's) sake - IOW don't use lousy oil with low P levels....or the engine will be possibly damaged.

 

[gudmund]

THE MID 70'S were a bad time for oil and camshafts. There were alot of cams being eat'nt up and Detroit was blaming on oil and oil blaming it on Detriot. The claim was soft metal in the cams and oil not meeting Detroit oil spec's. This was also about the time (late seventy's) that they started to make the move away from 10-40's to 5/10-30's.

 

[ewetho]

Folk's had a 78 Fairmont that with those warnings at the time ment over the counter he could only use QuakerState. However that 2.3L 4 Cylinder it went 148K before the someone cracked it into a tree. We found out as while they knew we no longer owned it we we the last owners of any record so they asked us if we wanted it when they found it. Worked good.

 

[Curious Kid]

Boy, you sure won't find specifics like that in manuals these days. "Phosphorus as zinc dia-what?", owner scratching head, open manual in other hand.

I remember looking at the manual of my friends toyota matrix, almost cartoon like and full of icons...what "specific" info was given was in the back, but mostly it seemed to say, "see your Toyota dealer." I don't recall even seeing anything on engine power ratings.

Interesting find TallPaul.

 

[427Z06]

Just like today, you could find API SA oils on the shelves of some stores. With the scare of camshafts prematurely wearing out during this period of history, this was CYA move by Ford. Kinda' like aftermarket camshaft manufacturers/marketeers of current lore.

 

[chucky2]

Quote:

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I can't wait for the new "clean" diesels to arrive.

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Here's a VOA of a newly released CJ-4 HDEO:

Shell Rotella 10W-30 CJ-4 API SM VOA

Chuck