Oil Survey

[Sluggo]

OK, what brand, weight, and additives are you using for engine oil. If you don't mind the extra work, tell me why you made that choice.

[tarafied1]

I use Valvoline ZR1 racing oil with zinc phosphate, 10W30. I use it because I have a flat tappet cam and it is designed with higher levels of zinc. 

Racing Oils contain additional additives for increased horsepower and reduced friction on metal parts, provide extra wear protection for high compression/higher horsepower engines, and include less detergents than regular conventional motor oils.
What solutions does Valvoline offer to the zinc issue?
Valvoline offers two solutions to the zinc issue:
Valvoline VR1: Contains 75% higher zinc than SM motor oil with a balanced additive package designed to work in both racing and street-legal applications. This product will protect older style push-rod and flat tappet engines. Valvoline provides this product in both multi and mono viscosity grades: 20w50, straight 50, 10w30, straight 30, straight 40, and straight 60.
Longer-Lasting Zinc/Phosphorus: Valvoline uses an advanced zinc/phosphorus additive that keeps higher levels of phosphorus in the motor oil where it protects the engine instead of poisoning the catalytic converter. Valvoline is the only brand offering this unique additive across its entire line of passenger car motor oils including SynPower -- the only synthetic offering this additive.

[cmayna]

I use Brad Penn's green racing oil in Red and the goat, lots of zinc.   When we finish building Shag's motor guess what oil the builder  insisted I use?  Yes, Brad Penn.

[monkeystash]

I use Mobil 1 15W-50 in the Goat and Fairlane, both hydraulic flat tappets.  It is supposed to have 1200+ ppm zinc, and has worked fine for me for years.

[silverblueBP]

I used the Valvoline race oil (dino) for the first year, Redline 30wt race oil since. No oil related problems so far, only idiot Mark problems 

[johnpro]

Royal Purple in both my '66 and daughter's '67 (both flat tappet). 

I use Valvoline synthetic in the '69 (all  roller, baby).

[apollard]

Mobil 1 15w50 in everything except the wifes car - it get M1 5w30. No roller cams in the mix, since my 5.0 block is still waiting for machining. :cry

[janschutz]

Royal Purple in my '68 Daily driver with a 351W, it does not have a roller cam.

[Jack1966]

10W40 Mobil 1 in roller block (switched to 5.0 for roller cam and avoid zinc controversy).

[SAC69]

I use Valvolive VR-1 Racing 20w-50 and had been adding a bottle of STP (red-top) for 2-stroke engines (could not find it last week when I changed the oil again) as both have higher levels of the needed flat-trappet anti-wear properties.  The engine internals are original, 116k miles.

[67rtmcshelby]

Brad Penn 10-30, Rotella 15-40 with ZDDP+, Amsoil 10-30 with ZDDP+

[opentrackerSteve]

I am using Amsoil products in all of the vehicles in my fleet (including filters). I change them annually and have oil analysis done on each sample....

Here is what I am using in each:

1965 Mustang:                     racing 15W-50
1988 Alfa Romeo Graduate      racing 15W-50
2003 F250SD 6.0L TD            Marine 15W-40 Diesel oil
2007 VW Jetta 2.5L              european 5W-40
2007 Ford Focus ZX3            synthetic 0W-20

[tarafied1]

what is Brad Penn? Never heard of it or seen it...

[cmayna]

It's a mixture of Brad Pitt and Sean Penn :rp

http://www.bradpennracing.com/History.aspx

[blue65coupe]

Mobil 1 in the stang and wife's car.  Both have had Mobil 1 since day one.  Everything else gets Castrol.  10/30 weight on all with no additive.  The Blazer (castrol engine) has the 4.3 and has 180,000 miles on it with 0 engine issues.  With some of the 4.3 issues I've seen, that's enough to tell me the Castrol is doing ok. 

[garner67]

351w hydraulic cam & rockers

After running Rotella for the first 2000 miles, I switched to Amsoil 20-50w synthetic.   

My decision was narrowed down to Royal Purple, Brad Penn or Amsoil.  After reading a bunch of oil data, I picked Amsoil, but I think you'd be fine with any of these oils.

CMayna sent in a bunch of oil samples to be tested.  Maybe he could post those test results again?  Craig???

[opentrackerSteve]

Interesting info on them. Their oil typically has twice the amount of zinc anc phosphorous than what I am using (not sure if that's important for my engines - the Stang has over 150k on the clock).... but interesting nonetheless.....

[midpack]

Interesting info on them. Their oil typically has twice the amount of zinc anc phosphorous than what I am using (not sure if that's important for my engines - the Stang has over 150k on the clock).... but interesting nonetheless.....

The Amsoil?

[opentrackerSteve]

Bradpenn has more than Amsoil....

[KBMWRS]

Wesson.
Sometimes before frying the chicken sometimes after. :craz

[1497]

Valvoline in the Shelby
Castrol Syntec in the BMW (meets OEM specs)
Mobil 1 in the 68. (roller cam and rockers)

[PJ Moran]

I'm currently running Joe Gibbs racing oil (10W30) at the instruction of my engine builder, Mark Biddlle of Panhandle Performance:

Since the oil won't be changed often, the oil we need to run is from Gibbs and is designed for hot rods that sit for long periods of time. It has an additive used by the military in their stuff so the oil won't go bad like a conventional will.

Mines a full roller engine, so I'm not into the whole zinc/phosphorus thing.  However, I'm not sure I accept the need to run this high-dollar oil just because it's not a daily driver.  When the weather's nice, it'll get out most weekends.  Not so much in the dead of winter or summer.  I probably won't put enough miles on it in a year to require an oil change, though.

I'm thinking about switching to Mobil 1 next time...

[Midlife]

Rotella T, 10W40, I think.  Why?  At the time, it was the highest zinc content oil available at parts stores.  Royal Purple, Brad Penn, Joe Gibbs stuff is not stocked in town, and neither is red STP.  I'll be probably getting ZDDP from Eastwood and adding it to standard oil.

[70 StangMan]

Valvoline 10W-30 along with Cam Shield.

[Sluggo]

Great info guys. Thanks.

I'm going to run Valvoline 20w50 VR1 and add GM EOS for break-in. Mainly due to immediate availability.

After that I'll probably run Castrol GTX Diesel. It has a pretty high amount of zinc.