[Mgs] ZDDP

[Max Heim]

You may be correct about 1950s oil, but I think your conclusion is wrong.
There are many reports of premature cam and lifter wear using current oils.
My MGB cam wore itself down to about .25" lift, for example.

Look at it from an engineering perspective: zinc and phosphorus are
ingredients included specifically to protect against flat tappet cam wear.
Modern oils reduce the amounts of these elements because phosphorus destroys
catalytic converters, and they do not add any substitutes since they are
formulated for modern engines with roller cams and are targeted for low
friction/high fuel efficiency, not anti-wear characteristics. So it stands
to reason that modern oils do not protect flat tappet cams as well as
formulations with high zinc and phosphorus.

Maybe premature cam wear was an issue in the 1950s, too, but that doesn't
mean we have to live with it now. By the 1970s, at least, high ZDDP oils
were commonplace.

Should we go back to oil bath air filters, or leather disc shock absorbers,
because they used them in the 1930s?

--

Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Menlo Park, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires



on 1/10/13 11:12 AM, Stephen West-Fisher at steve at coastaldatasystems.com
wrote:

> At the risk of another war-
> Just buy a good quality oil and forget about the ZDDP. Current oils have
> levels about the same as late 50s, early 60s oils.
> 
> --
> Stephen West-Fisher
> N4IK
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mgs-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:mgs-bounces at autox.team.net] On
> Behalf Of frankk12 at verizon.net
> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2013 2:04 PM
> To: MG List
> Subject: [Mgs] ZDDP
> 
> Has anyone found a  source for ZDDP that is reasonable? I checked MOss and
> the shipping is 50% of the cost of the ZDDP.  My local NAPA store has never
> heard of it.
> Frank Krajewski