oils for a classic engine (zinc )

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high zinc level oils for a classic car?
can a 10w40 motorcycle oil be used in a classic car engine?
how about a diesel 15w40 engine oil?
marine engine oils?......lots of old hyd flat tappet i/o boat engines out there?
 
Some of the racing oils, Valvoline comes to mind, contain higher levels of ZDDP. Or you can get Redline Break In Oil Additive and boost the levels of ZDDP with that. The search engine on this site isn't so good, but its been discussed recently.


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M1 15-50 Phos.= 1200 PPM, Zinc= 1300 PPM
M1 TDT 5-40 Phos= 1100 PPM, Zinc= 1200PPM.
Both good choices.
 
Originally Posted By: leonut
high zinc level oils for a classic car?
can a 10w40 motorcycle oil be used in a classic car engine?
how about a diesel 15w40 engine oil?
marine engine oils?......lots of old hyd flat tappet i/o boat engines out there?


Depends on the car and the oil. Above 1000 ppm is fine.
Yes if you need a 10W-40.
Yes. Even a CJ-4 will work.
Yes.
 
Any 15w40 HDEO would be an affordable choice and offer plenty of protection. When it comes to mineral oils, I generally prefer 15w40 over 10w40 because of the shear stability; although that seems to be less of an issue with todays oils.
 
Originally Posted By: rg200amp
Any of todays oils, in your engine's weight, will work great.


That is not true.
 
Originally Posted By: peterdes
Originally Posted By: rg200amp
Any of todays oils, in your engine's weight, will work great.


That is not true.


Can you cite some examples? I'm not trying to start anything, I'd just like to know because I have several classic engines and I run SM oil in a lot of them.

I guess I'm talking about several 40 year old engines that has long been broke in.
 
Most engines even today are flat tappet type.
Maybe not pushrods, but buckets or lifters against cams.
Having 'flat' tappets is not a deal killer.
If the old car's engine is broken in, I see no reason why modern oils in the correct viscosity should not serve well.

But that 15-40 diesel oil would be a good choice for a bunch of reasons.
 
Originally Posted By: mechtech2
Most engines even today are flat tappet type.
Maybe not pushrods, but buckets or lifters against cams.
Having 'flat' tappets is not a deal killer.
If the old car's engine is broken in, I see no reason why modern oils in the correct viscosity should not serve well.

But that 15-40 diesel oil would be a good choice for a bunch of reasons.


I agree with most of your statements (although I would prefer a 5w40 diesel oil like RTS), but I don't think that sliding cam-to-lifter or bucket contact exists in anywhere NEAR 1/10th of the engines being built today. Almost everything out there has roller cam followers now. Very few OHC engines still have "buckets" with shims following the cams, its all rockers or fingers with hydraulic lash adjusters and with roller followers on the cam side (and frequently roller tips on the valve side, too). American pushrod engines almost all went to roller lifters in the mid-1980s. The Jeep 4.0/2.5 was one of the very few exceptions. I'm most familiar with Chrysler engines, and the last sliding-contact cam engine they built (other than the aforementioned inherited Jeep engines) was probably the 2.2/2.5 SOHC 4-banger in the mid 90s. All the v8s and v6s went roller by circa 1985.



Woops, looks like the 2.2/2.5 went roller in 1988. So no slider cams at Chrysler any later than 1987. I'm pretty sure Ford and GM were about the same, if not sooner. I seem to remember that the Ford 302 (5.0) got rollers about a year before the Mopar 318, which would put it around 1984. Not sure about the smallblock Chevy.
 
Would the 5.7L TBI V8 in my dads 94 Chevy Silverado C1500 have roller lifters? I've been operating under the assumption that it has flat tappets, so if that isn't the case it will simplify things for me.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
M1 15-50 Phos.= 1200 PPM, Zinc= 1300 PPM
M1 TDT 5-40 Phos= 1100 PPM, Zinc= 1200PPM.
Both good choices.

10w30 or 40HM is loaded up too..
 
Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: peterdes
Originally Posted By: rg200amp
Any of todays oils, in your engine's weight, will work great.


That is not true.


Can you cite some examples? I'm not trying to start anything, I'd just like to know because I have several classic engines and I run SM oil in a lot of them.

I guess I'm talking about several 40 year old engines that has long been broke in.

I have been told by Royal Purple and have read that +1000 ppm of ZDDP is what you need to protect a True flat tappet engine.

However, most SM oils are around 700-900 ppm of ZDDP, there are still a few SM oils with sufficient amounts of ZDDP.

A very high percent of today's engines are of the Roller design and do not need high amounts of ZDDP. Most of today's oils are designed for the Roller, with the exception of diesels and HDEO's.

Why use an oil that was not intended for your application. Why risk it.
 
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Originally Posted By: mechtech2
Most engines even today are flat tappet type.
Maybe not pushrods, but buckets or lifters against cams.
Having 'flat' tappets is not a deal killer.
If the old car's engine is broken in, I see no reason why modern oils in the correct viscosity should not serve well.

But that 15-40 diesel oil would be a good choice for a bunch of reasons.


As far as I know the last two widely sold vehicles with Flat Tappet engines were the Jeep TJ and the 2004 land rover discovery. There may have been others. Also, there still may be some vehicles with flat tappets but I don't keep track.
 
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I have 3 vehicles with old engines, 2 of them have 440's and the other has a 360, I run Rotella 15w40 in all of them, i heard it has plenty of zinc, I have not had any problems in 6 years on my oldest 440 (in a 70 Coronet R/T that has never been broken into/touched)
 
I just found some 15-40 CI-4/SL XD3, not CJ-4/Sm, this stuff has 1500 ppm zinc,300 ppm phosphurous, TBN of 12.2, killer oil if you can find some. Look around a bit at Esso Bulk stations, farm implement shops etc. I got my CI-4/SL on annual farm bulk sales last month at Serv/Agro in Alberta, a buck saving per litre too.

Cyprs
 
Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
Would the 5.7L TBI V8 in my dads 94 Chevy Silverado C1500 have roller lifters? I've been operating under the assumption that it has flat tappets, so if that isn't the case it will simplify things for me.
I did an intake gasket on a late 90's truck with a 350 and it did not have rollers.
 
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