oil type and weight ?

rotella straight T30 I don´t recall well, but someone will chime in soon, do some search and you will find tons of threads on the subject.
another popular oil here is the valvoline VR-1 (racing only)20-50....

vondy wrote: I use the VR-1 in my 69 302 HM.

Me too, the 20w 50

I am running Straight 40 Weight Valvolene VR1 in my 80. You can get it at some NAPS Stores. It is called Racing Oil and not for on road use so it can be little hard to find in the weight that you want. I came up with the staight 40 from a search of this site. I will be changing mine soon so any advice would be appreciated it I am using the wrong weight.
Also people use the Shell Rotella .

Donald

SNobsessed wrote: Donald - 40W is great for the summer, might be hard to start if you ski in colder weather (not many people do, but this crowd has a few that do!).

SNobesessed,

Thanks for the info. I am not one to get in the water in the Winter Time. Too much swrinkage !!!!!! I will winterize mine in mid October so that a cold snap does not catch me off guard and I break a block.

Thanks

Donald

Be cautious with the Valvoline VR-1. I too used it in my drag bikes and collector cars, because of the need for ZDDP for the flat tappet cams. VR-1 had the ZDDP greatly reduced if not eliminated to meet the later API ratings (SL & SM I believe). At that point I switched to Valvoline motorcycle specific because it maintained the ZDDP. But now it too has had the ZDDP removed. There are a few companies now marketing oils for 60's collector cars, Brad Penn & Summit Racing for example that maintain the ZDDP because they meet the older API SG grade. They are labeled not to be used in emmission control equipped vehicles. Personnally I have switched to one of these in my bikes and old car. The Nautique I just inherited will get the same treatment.

Mr. Mike.

thank everybody for your help . i will get some pictures up soon . my new baby boy has been a camera hog :)

8122pbrainard, I boil oil for a living so it costs me nothing but time to run a sample down to the refinery lab and get a spectrograph done (a means to verify zinc content in oil or lead content if checking fuel). The time period I am refering to is when the "Not street legal" warning went away on the VR-1 bottles, so did the zinc. That is when I switched to the Valvoline motorcycle specific oil, it still maintained a high zinc level, probably because it did not have to meet API grades, JASO instead. Approx. 1 year ago the Valvoline motorcycle oil did not advertise on the label anymore that it contained ZDDP, also it now stated "Safe for catalytic converter equipped motorcycles". Guess what, the zinc level went to virtually nothing at the same time. Your reference to the VR-1 containing 75% more zinc than an SM grade oil is correct, but 75% more of nothing is still nothing. Don't get me wrong, I have used exclusively Valvoline Racing oil for better that 30 years with stellar results, but they have apparently succumbed to EPA regs. and market share. As for the Brad Penn and Summit branded speciality oils I mentioned, I have only recently started using the Brad Penn in my vehicles so I can really not report on service life other than to confirm it does have ZDDP levels allowed in an SG grade oil. The Summit brand I have no experience with, I just saw it advertised in their catalog for that niche market. As for synthetics, let's not go there in this post.

Mr. Mike.

After doing some internet research, it seems this zddp/oil is ever changing. I'm not sure if Shell Rotella single weight is even any good any more. What is a satisfactory amount of zddp?

MRHemi - You will be 'Mr. Oil' if you get this data, as we all count on the information shared here.

BTW, my oil analysis was done on VR1 which followed a low-zddp oil change, so if there was any dilution, it would be on the down side. As I understand it, the zinc gets used up as the hours accumulate, so having over 1000 ppm at an oil change was encouraging.

Lewy I put that same oil (rimula) in my 1973 vette but will change it to the vr-1 in the next oil change...Anyway I change the oil every from times periods as the car get little and no use..its a weekend driver...I chance the oil every 6 month or more if I use synthethics..
I could not open the link so what are the major concerns about using diesel oil on a gas engine?
For the boat it has always been 2 changes per year no matter the hours. It was esy to remember...Now I have a log book in the glove comparment where i write down all the services done, with date and detail of the work done..Is a good way to keep a record!!!
For the boat I will start using the VR-1 also..@ $10 the quart here!!!

Here ya go Pete. Straight from the hot rodders market. zddPLUS
Eastwood sells it.

Andy,
Thanks for that link. It really confirms there are others that believe in the qualities of the zincs as a lubricant. I am starting to here via the ACBS members, who are probably 99% flat tappet, that problems with cams becoming round are popping up!!!

92ccc wrote: Does oil made for marine use such as mercruiser oil still contain zinc?I have used this in all my boats for years without a problem,also when talking to my local machinist,the lack of zinc is not really a problem for engines that are broke in,it is more pf a problem when installing new flat tappet cams.

Tony,
Maybe your machinist is slow and needs some engine work!!! He's contradicting everthing I know, heard and am hearing. (see my last post)

BTW, I feel you're just paying a premium for the Merc "marine" oil. There are equal if not better oils out there.

I'm going to be pretty pissed off if Valvoline is lying, but this says VR1 still has sufficient Zinc/Phos.

mrhemi wrote: As for synthetics, let's not go there in this post. Mr. Mike.

No, really give us a brief heads up on synthetics.