On Wed, 16 Apr 2008, Glenn Rierson wrote:
> Shawn,
>
> The label on the quart container of Valvoline VR1 has the notation "exceeds
> API services SM/SL/CD" and it also has the statement "ashless anti-wear
> additives and ZDDP provide ultimate wear protection". Where can you get the
> breakdown of the contents of motor oils?
See - this is the problem. The manufacturers are somewhat tight-lipped
about the actual content. The folks that have been beating this dead horse
can tell you that you might find content amounts on the web, but all the
ones I've seen aren't dated, so you don't know what you're looking at and
from when. Then there's a bunch of internet experts (!) that quote amounts
from dated sites... that leads to false notions about what's really going
on.
Bottom line: if the oil is API-SL, it has reduced ZDDP. End of discussion.
If you chose to use an oil like this (let's say Castrol GTX 20w50) - it
the bottle says API-SL or API-SM, USE A SUPPLEMENT. If you could find one
that is API-SG, and you KNOW that it used to have the ZDDP, then you'd
have what you're looking for. But good luck finding API-SG oil anywhere.
If it's the diesel spec CJ-4, it has the NEW lower amounts of "stuff" and
it won't help your cam wear. You can use it, but there's no benefit and
you'd have to add a supplement to get the increased ZDDP.
A bunch of specialty oils (like racing and/or motorcycle oil) are made to
work with old engines and these are what you need to look at.
Easy.
The old Castrol used to have about 1200 ppm (I think that's the unit) or
ZDDP, the new stuff has less, I think 800, but I KNOW that there is not
enough anti-wear stuff in it because I've wrecked a couple of cams in the
last few years and I was able to put two and two together and figure out
that the cam wear was due to the oil being different. All my cam failures
were since they went to API-SL for off-the-shelf motor oil.
> Glenn
Regards,
rml
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