Is today's oil killing our engines??

To late... it's gone out of it here...

My oil of choice is Lubrication Engineers
Paraffin based. Out of TX, a genuine US company.
Good stuff....

 

LE makes great oils... and you'll find that their paraffin base stocks come from Ergon in the PA, OH, WV area. Though their offices are in DFW, I'm pretty sure their blending and packaging plant is in Iowa or Kansas... somewhere out in the corn.

 

I found this quote interesting. A friend of mine has owned a large engine machine shop here in So Cal for well over 30 years. He does everything from Offshore boat motors to Ferrari's. he handled a huge recall issue for one of the Japanese O.E.M.s as well. In other words, he knows his stuff.
One day while I was in the shop he was looking at an motor that a customer had brought in. He asked th question of the customer if he used Pennzoil? The customer replied yeas, how did you know? He said you can tell by all the build up in the motor, only see it on motors that had used paraffin based oils. I later asked him about it. He said his experience was Paraffin based oils were great for race motors that get the oil changed a lot and torn down more often but were a problem for long term street cars as the build up caused blockages in oil returns, pushrods etc over high mileage.
His comments were based on doing an average of 2500 motors a year for 30+ years, plus head work, block machining etc. That's over 75,000 motors as a test base.
Just an additional thought .......

 

Interesting, for sure. How long ago was that? It is true that if you don't change your oil, it sure will plug things up. My thought is that I'd rather have wax than asphalt in there though. I'm sure we've all torn down an engine that was all coked up in the valley. Engines that didn't get run much, like grocery getters, were notorious for these problems. Usually the waxes melt about 120 degrees, tho. The great part about the paraffin is how it clings to the metal, aiding lubrication on startup.

Pennzoil has been in TX for about 10 years now, along with Quaker State. When Pennzoil came out with PureBase technology, they bailed out of PA... well, right after the explosion that killed a bunch of good guys.

 

what the tests don't tell you, is that sure it can p*** in a labratory,but the zinc phosphate is a sacrificial material,it sacrifices itself to protect the metal. there is enough additive to protect the engine with fresh oil,but by the time the next oil change is up, all the additives are used up. a way for the oil companies to get around the tests.

 

They must have got that information,to make sacrificial Zinc and built in oil failure from the guys at Roswell ..Right? probably the same 'people' who make the shrinking body solder that ruins paint jobs after 20 years. *******s! ,you cannot trust "them".

 

the zinc phosphate is used up when it coats the metal, with a normal level theres enough to protect your engine until the next oil change, but with the extremely low levels now, it's used up well before the oil is due to be changed. has nothing to do with roswell or aliens or elvis. it's basic science. it sacrificing itself is how it functions.

 

I'll make it easy, Bttt.

 

Just a note...Amsoil sells a High Zinc Content 10-W-40 motor oil blended for older engines. We sell it at the parts store I work at, and it says "High Zinc Content" right on the bottle. It retails for about eight bucks a quart, but it IS out there, and it is a viable option for our older engines!

(It's the only oil that goes in my 235!!!)

 

hi ho hi ho,it's off to the shops we go....Stop arguing about nothing and go buy stuff with this on the label,made right in the USA FFS.

 

Wanna take a WILD guess where this oil comes from?

BRADFORD PENNSYLVANIA!

 

Uhm, there is that quote knocking Pennzoil, talking about 2500 engines a year for 30+ years? I pulled out the old calculator and that means if he built engines without a vacation 5 days a week, he would be building 9.6 engines a day!!! I can't imagine single-handedly finishing the machine work on one in a single day.

Just saying...

I used Penn in the 80's and 90's and pulled apart a fair share of them. I used it cause it was cheap and I changed the oil religiously every 3k. Never saw sludge build up in my engines and I did plenty of cam swaps and intake changes. I did see a lot of it in friends engines when they didn't change their oil though.

 

Any motor produced before 1970 should be ran with a high zinc content oil or zinc additive.

 

I found this to be great oil and made in St. Louis

 

Don't know about Pennzoil, but the last new car my Dad bought was a '65 Galaxie. Used Quaker State in it exclusivly. Tore the 289 down @ 90+k miles. Lifter valley looked like it had been paved with asphalt.

 

Actaually any engine that doesn't have a roller cam in it.

 

I just got 5 qts. of Valvoline VR-1, 20/50 yesterday for my '56 Ford Y-block. I looked hard at that stuff at Tractor Supply though. If it's good enough for an old International tractor it's good enuf for me ..

 

vr1 is the same price as regular valvoline at autozone. i'm gonna switch to it.

 

When I built my engine for my 29 ( chevy 350 ) I used a post 86 engine because of the roller cam and the fact that they are not as prone to wear with the ****ty oil. I hope I did the right thing.

 

I couldn't find it at Wally World (although I think some Wally Worlds have it) or Advance Auto. NAPA had it here but I'm sure it was more expensive than AutoZone.

 

Any oil that has an SM rating has no ZDDP in it.

 

walmart doesn't carry it. looked but they don't have it.
it's only $3.89 a quart but that's here in kansas. don't know about anywhere else.

 

Not being one that enjoys change, I was in denial about this oil deal until a customer came in with a fresh Traco BBC with a dead Engle flat tappet.

Los Angeles to Wichita Falls was all she wrote for that one.

The guy that installed it in the Corvette put in Mobil One.

I have been using Brad Penn since it came out, plus a bottle of STP every oil change.

I have a daily driver 2000 V10 F350 dually crewcab that has 495,000 on it without touching the motor.

My 2008 V10 F350 dually crewcab gets the same, turned 156,000 this week.

Lots of info floating around about this subject, all I know is what I know.

K

 

Is GM Engine Oil Supplement still available?

 

Reportedly it was off the market while, letting stock of the original run out, then reformulated. No firm info on ZDDP content now.

 

My understanding is it is the same, the big change is from being and "oil supplement" to a "break in additive"

 

Newest Speedway catalog says that you must use a zinc additive on all the flat tappet cams they sell. It is available from them for $12.99. You are to use it for break in and a bottle each time you change your oil.

I think the cam just went bad in my 48 truck. I will use this additive from now on.

John

 

EOS is still available, under a different name (sorry, don't remember what it was). Comp Cams also sells a break in additive that's avail. thru Summit, Jegs, etc. Other mfrs. sell similar products. I drive my '32 w/59A flathead quite a bit and I run Castrol 20W-50 with a bottle of the Comp Cams stuff and no problems so far.

 

Schaffers make great stuff too... also made with PA-grade base stocks

 

They don't call it Quaker-Cake for nothing!

Not true. It has .08% - down from .10-.12% of prevous levels. .08% is about where it was at in the '50s & '60s.

Brad-Penn is the old Kendall green oil - arguably the best non-synthetic oil on the market. Conoco-Phillips bought the Kendall name a few years back, but the refinery at Bradford is still up and running with the same oil dudes mixing the additive package.

Oh, and the ZDDP isn't like a sacrificial zinc anode, it doesn't go away or get used up. You're mixing you zinc compounds...

The CJ diesels still have .10% or so, so they're about where the level of SL and older automotive oils were, although they are down from the .12-.14% of the older CI/CI+ ratings.


Overall, a non-issue for most engines. Break-in and aggressive cams w/valve springs to match are probably the only exceptions...