zinc oil useage?

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Someone somewhere other said, oils for diesels contain a lot of detergents which reduce the effectivenes of the zinc. Any truth to this. I have used Rotella 15-40 for years but I never drove them THAT much. 60 mi a day to work till that one met a new owner. Back before I retired!
 
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It seems that Rotella took most of their zinc out of their oils years ago. Don't diesel pickups have catalytic converters on them now?
 
lemondana said:
It seems that Rotella took most of their zinc out of their oils years ago. Don't diesel pickups have catalytic converters on them now?
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Dunno!!!I have mu old '95 12 valve. The "kid" has a new Cummins Nisan ( ypung people buy such!) and it has some "stuff" that mixes with the diesel. It goes in another tank' Don't ever forget which tank is which!!!!! :rofl: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead:

Smart people have to slow down and turn on thier SMART brains!!!!!
 
Rapid Robert said:
decades ago an experienced racer told me that he changed his oil (& filter iirc) after each Saturday night session & at the time I had just accepted it as gospel thinking how toxic that a dirt track environment must be. it certainly does sound excessive & later someone else has said they changed the oil every time but only the filter after several races. I am open to thoughts/suggestions. RR
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You said the cam is broken in already and I assume the rest of the motor is too. So you don't need break in oil any more. Now you need racing oil for flat tappet cams. There are many oils that are suitable for this. Take your pick.
As a hobby stock you will probably put more or less 30 laps on the motor in a night including hot laps , heat race and feature race. If everything is working as it should there should be no need to change the oil after one night of racing.
There is a long list of things that could compromise the life of your oil caused by things not working as they should be.
Here are a few things in no particular order. This is not a complete list.
1. Oil contaminated with dirt
2. oil overheated
3. oil contaminated with water/coolant
4. oil contaminated with fuel
5. oil contaminated from parts failing inside the engine.
 
Can never understand why people use diesel oil in a petrol engine.......
There is a plethora of oils available for both types, & using the correct oil ensures the right additives are in the oil.......in the right quantity.
 
I use the Oreilly brand 10w30. It's made by Valvoline. I also use Rislone ZDDP additive. I mix it together in a five gallon bucket before I dump it in. It's what I can afford so it's what I use.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I use the Oreilly brand 10w30. It's made by Valvoline. I also use Rislone ZDDP additive. I mix it together in a five gallon bucket before I dump it in. It's what I can afford so it's what I use.
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This surprises me. I could swear it was you who said additives don't mix and I believe it. The oil will just be what it is. 10w30 0r the additive. That's what the engine sees .
 
And my last understanding. Off the shelf oil has detergents that mostly null and void the benefits of any added zinc. If you want the benefits of zinc you will have to buy an oil that is NOT approved for ON road use. IE, you can not buy it from your local store shelf.
 
Bodyperson said:
This surprises me. I could swear it was you who said additives don't mix and I believe it. The oil will just be what it is. 10w30 0r the additive. That's what the engine sees .
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I never said they don't mix. That's just not true. I have said I prefer to use a premixed oil with ZDDP already in it, but it's getting so expensive, I have to find other means now.

Here's the oil I use.

And the additive.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I use the Oreilly brand 10w30. It's made by Valvoline. I also use Rislone ZDDP additive. I mix it together in a five gallon bucket before I dump it in. It's what I can afford so it's what I use.
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I did the same but with Pennzoil non synthetic. I'll report back if I had any issues.
 
I know this is going to be controversial, but the theory is zinc additives don't really make a difference with a flat tappet cam. It certainly doesn't hurt during break-in and you should continue to use the zinc additive especially for peace-of-mind. The truth is, the Jeep 4.0 has been been using a flat tappet cam forever and they do not use any special additives or special oil when it leaves the factory. Also, the owner's manual does not say anything about additive during oil changes (I've owned two Jeeps over the past 20 years) and when Jeep owners get an oil change at a commercial location, they never add Zinc.

(This is more of a curiosity statement than it is a scientific fact. Please don't beat me up. Just throwing it out there).
 
Of the puter chart for high zinc content motor oil conventional Rotella 5w-40 is ranked pretty high. Not near as expensive as the high zinc race oils, but I am NO racer.
 
I thought it wasn't good to run a diesel oil in a gas engine??
 
Some oils are dual rated, carrying both the C & S (diesel and gas) ratings such as SN, CK-4. Many Rotella grades carried dual rating for decades. What the new FA-4 diesel oils came out a few years ago, some oil companies, including Shell, chose to stop the dual rating. Even though some oils may meet both ratings, there may be much better oils for a certain application.

I've heard Shell may be labeling Rotella containers with the dual rating again. But since they're paying me to not work now, I'm not up to the minute on their offerings.
 
I doubt there is an engine oil today that does not have some zinc in it. The debate is how much is enough to give protection to engine parts......& it is not just FT cams that benefit from zinc.
 
Bewy said:
I doubt there is an engine oil today that does not have some zinc in it. The debate is how much is enough to give protection to engine parts......& it is not just FT cams that benefit from zinc.
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ALL engine oil MUST have zinc in some form and at some minimum limit or it's not engine oil.

Not sure about dual rated oils but using diesel oils in gas engines is bad policy. There is a reason why they make different oils for different fuels.

I mean, no one in their right mind would run out and buy Nitro 70 grade oil for their gas burning engine.

Same difference.
 
Newbomb Turk said:
ALL engine oil MUST have zinc in some form and at some minimum limit or it's not engine oil.

Not sure about dual rated oils but using diesel oils in gas engines is bad policy. There is a reason why they make different oils for different fuels.

I mean, no one in their right mind would run out and buy Nitro 70 grade oil for their gas burning engine.

Same difference.
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Diesel oils have a higher anti-wear load in the form of ZDDP. The catalytic converters in diesel vehicles are designed to be able to deal with this.
 
MidnightSwinger said:
Diesel oils have a higher anti-wear load in the form of ZDDP. The catalytic converters in diesel vehicles are designed to be able to deal with this.
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No they don't. I just said ALL engine oils MUST have zinc (which IS ZDDP which is zincdialthylditiophosphate...spelling is questionable) so all engine oils have it.

Zinc is an incredible power eater. More isn't always better.

The tribologists who develop oils do so with fuel usage in mind. A gas oil isn't the same as a diesel oil which isn't the same as an oil used for alcohol based fuels.

And the additive packages (and base stock choices as well) for each fuel group is different.
 
There was a time not so long ago when Rotella diesel oil was the hot ticket item to combat flat cam lobes. A lot of people swore by it - including MANY on this site.
 
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