Hi Gary,
Keith Ansell of Foreign Parts Positively Inc has looked into this subject
quite extensively.
You can read about his findings on my blog here.
http://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/?p=49
Michael Salter
http://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-healeys@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-healeys@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Editorgary@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 12:31 PM
To: healeys@autox.team.net
Cc: bsgil99@direcway.com
Subject: Oil for Vintage British Cars
I'm doing an article on basic British Car maintenance for Sports Car Market
magazine and also, incidentally, rebuilding the engine on my MGA, so the
topic
of oil is very important to me.
Here's what I understand is the conventional wisdom:
Nearly all oils for gas engines have reduced or removed the additive zinc
dithiophosphate (ZDDP) from their oil because of negative effects on
catalytic
converters in order to meet new American Petroleum Institute (API)
standards.
However, this additive was essential to long-term survival of tappets and
cams,
i.e. in all vintage British engines.
Having researched most oils on the market, the conclusion is that only two
oils still on the market still have this additive, Castrol 20W50 GTX and
Redline
10W30 or 10W40. Castrol HD30 still has the additive, so would be appropriate
for the first 3000 miles on rebuilt engines, though because of the
high-detergent nature, would NOT be appropriate for gearboxes.
I know this topic has been bandied about on this list, so for you technical
folks out there, is this the latest word? Are there any other oils that
might
still have ZDDP (e.g. I've heard that Valvoline Racing oil might), Are there
other oils, such as Amsoil, that don't have to meet API standards and so
might
still be usable in our engines?
Thanks for your input.
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