Basically what started me on this is yesterday a guy posted on FB that he was switching from Castrol 20w50 to Rotella 15w40 in his turbo Honda to try it out. I made a crack about everyone using Rotella like it was the shyte
Annd of course a half-dozen people jumped in saying how they had used it in theirs and it worked great, diesel oils are the best for performance and turbos, yada yada.
Now, I have always used shelf conventional oil myself in all my turbo Chrysler 2.2/2.5's and in my LA engines, both name brand and store brand, without any catastrophic failures. And I do beat on my turbo cars every day pretty much. However, on my slider cam engines (OHC cam with non-roller followers), I did notice some wear on the cam over 20k miles or so. So I looked for ZDP oils to run. I started with 20w50 VR1, but for whatever reason my 2.2 would eat it, half a quart a week. Switched to Kendall GT-1, and it went back to normal oil consumption (these engines have issues with it, due to the PCV system and my double stock boost pressure :lol: ) Seemed to work well. On my roller cam engine (OHC with roller followers), No noticeable wear with store brand 10w30.
However all those are old tech engines, with the 2.2/2.5 engines being designed in the early 80's. Not particularly tight tolerances or high cyl head temps. I am sure that even those could benefit from a better synthetic oil though also, particularly the turbo engines as they have turbo housing heat to deal with.
My question though is really this: What the best off-the-shelf oil for a late-model, roller cam (either OHV or OHC) high-performance engine that has tight tolerances and high cyl head temps, that is street driven regularly? I know some friends with modified LSx engines that run Rotella T in them because they've been told it's the best because of the zinc or ZDP content or because diesel oils must be tougher. Same for a lot of people around with modified Hondas (turbo and NA) and other hopped up 80-90's 4-cyls. The Hondas I think may have slider cams but most of the rest (Ford mod motors, LSx's, Hemi's etc) have rollers wherever possible. I do know that I have never seen any professional engine builder or racer recommend running a diesel oil. And I do know that most 2000-newer engines come with synthetic stock, and seem gunk up if conventional is used.
I personally own a '01 Durango with the 4.7, which I love. I have been using O'reilly house brand full synthetic in it but have been thinking lately of switching to a better oil. I see that SRT is using Pennzoil Platinum in the new SRT's, so I was thinking of going to that. Either that or Mobil 1 synthetic. Truck has 127k on it and runs well, and I would like to keep it that way.
I work at O'reillys, and I have to answer questions like this all the time, so I would like to be able to give a more informed answer than just hearsay from the street :?
And I guess my secondary question is, is it worth switching to synthetic in an older engine, like my '87 318 Diplomat (factory roller cam), 5.2 Magnum, and 2.2/2.5's with roller followers?
I kinda copied and pasted this from another forum I posted this on, so let me know if any clarification is needed.
Now, I have always used shelf conventional oil myself in all my turbo Chrysler 2.2/2.5's and in my LA engines, both name brand and store brand, without any catastrophic failures. And I do beat on my turbo cars every day pretty much. However, on my slider cam engines (OHC cam with non-roller followers), I did notice some wear on the cam over 20k miles or so. So I looked for ZDP oils to run. I started with 20w50 VR1, but for whatever reason my 2.2 would eat it, half a quart a week. Switched to Kendall GT-1, and it went back to normal oil consumption (these engines have issues with it, due to the PCV system and my double stock boost pressure :lol: ) Seemed to work well. On my roller cam engine (OHC with roller followers), No noticeable wear with store brand 10w30.
However all those are old tech engines, with the 2.2/2.5 engines being designed in the early 80's. Not particularly tight tolerances or high cyl head temps. I am sure that even those could benefit from a better synthetic oil though also, particularly the turbo engines as they have turbo housing heat to deal with.
My question though is really this: What the best off-the-shelf oil for a late-model, roller cam (either OHV or OHC) high-performance engine that has tight tolerances and high cyl head temps, that is street driven regularly? I know some friends with modified LSx engines that run Rotella T in them because they've been told it's the best because of the zinc or ZDP content or because diesel oils must be tougher. Same for a lot of people around with modified Hondas (turbo and NA) and other hopped up 80-90's 4-cyls. The Hondas I think may have slider cams but most of the rest (Ford mod motors, LSx's, Hemi's etc) have rollers wherever possible. I do know that I have never seen any professional engine builder or racer recommend running a diesel oil. And I do know that most 2000-newer engines come with synthetic stock, and seem gunk up if conventional is used.
I personally own a '01 Durango with the 4.7, which I love. I have been using O'reilly house brand full synthetic in it but have been thinking lately of switching to a better oil. I see that SRT is using Pennzoil Platinum in the new SRT's, so I was thinking of going to that. Either that or Mobil 1 synthetic. Truck has 127k on it and runs well, and I would like to keep it that way.
I work at O'reillys, and I have to answer questions like this all the time, so I would like to be able to give a more informed answer than just hearsay from the street :?
And I guess my secondary question is, is it worth switching to synthetic in an older engine, like my '87 318 Diplomat (factory roller cam), 5.2 Magnum, and 2.2/2.5's with roller followers?
I kinda copied and pasted this from another forum I posted this on, so let me know if any clarification is needed.
