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oil brands?

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Richard_Brown

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Ok I read and read online and it seems that Castrol has a oil for older cars containing the right additives for solid lifter engines.
what oil are you using in your TR's?

I assume Synthetic oils are not a good way to go on older engines rebuilt or not.
 
Valvoline VR1 20W50 works for me.
 
I use Brad-Penn Grade 1 Racing 20w50 Semi-synthetic motor oil. It contains a little ZDDP.

Here's what an experienced British sports car owner/driver and mechanic told me: "In general, synthetic oil is a lot better than conventional oil (and more expensive). The term is a bit misleading: it is oil, made out of petroleum, just like the other, but it is made synthetically -- that is, it is concocted from pure ingredients, not just refined down to a certain viscosity. This gives much better control of its quality, and eliminates residual crud. I've always used synthetic oil in my old cars. Synthetic oil gets into places regular oil doesn't, especially when it is cold. It also finds leaks that the others don't."
 
Richard , a couple of stores carry the Brad Penn around here. I would go with that
 
Richard_Brown said:
Ok I read and read online and it seems that Castrol has a oil for older cars containing the right additives for solid lifter engines.
Click to expand...
Funny thing is, all the other oil manufacturers that make that claim also give the amount of ZDDP present. Since at one time they claimed that reduced ZDDP was fine for all engines, Castrol's claims are basically meaningless (kind of like fresh frozen fish). Castrol also claims that any oil from a modern refinery can legitimately be called "synthetic", so that term is also meaningless (at least from them).

I've been running Valvoline full synthetic in all my old engines for many years. Unlike Castrol, I have never had a problem that I attributed to the Valvoline. It doesn't seem to leak any worse than conventional oil, and in once case actually reduced oil burning considerably from what it was after running Castrol GTX for a few changes. (Went from 1 qt/5000 on VR1, to 1 qt/500 with the GTX, to 1 qt/3500 with the SynPower. This was a Chevy V6 with some 150,000 miles on it before the switch to GTX.)

But the cost is kind of high, and my TR3 has started leaking pretty badly, so I'm going to pick up a case of VR1 and use that until I can get some of the leaks stopped.
 
When I finally get to 1000 miles on my new rebuild using Joe Gibbs Break-In Oil (2 oil changes), I'll be switching to Kendall GT-1 20w-50. My machine shop, having done lots and lots of racing engines, recommended them. Says the Kendall still has enough ZDDP in it to protect my Triumph engine.

FWIW the Kendall web site says:

"GT-1 High Performance with Liquid Titanium, SAE 20W-50, also contains a boosted level of zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) additive to provide additional wear protection and enhanced oxidation resistance for use in the most demanding applications. It is particularly recommended for use in turbocharged engines and in high-performance engines with flat-tappet camshafts, especially during the critical break-in period"

I know ads are always suspect and I can't seem to find out just how much ZDDP is actually in the 20w-50, but I do trust the shop owner who has dealt with this problem for some time, and has been a personal friend for years.

Just my 2 cents......
 
I always used Kendall GT1 in my V8s when it was still Kendall green oil. But now the old Kendall is Brad Penn as the Kendall name was purchased by something else. If you want the original formula green colored oil, go with Brad Penn.
 
I just use the regular VR1. I change out my oil in this car much more frequently than my regular car that I don't see much benefit in the synthetic - also being a non-detergent oil I err towards more frequent changes.
 
Actually I was just looking at that the other day. The "street legal" VR1 has detergents and all the other additives to meet the API SL standard. And it also has the maximum recommended level of ZDDP.
 
Brad Penn green here. Sort of like the idea of it being domestic and right next door from me.
Plus it works great in the spit.
 
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