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Zinc/ZDP in motor oil, the last word.

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DaveatMoon

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This is a hot discussion on every car forum on the web, and a lot of people have been told a lot of things by sources that are not exactly the last word on the discussion. If a last word does exist, it is in the form of Mr. Robert Olree.

I don't know this man, but he is a close friend to one my friends in the Buick Club of America. He's an antique car enthusiast and restorer, and he is probably the single most authoritative expert on motor oil in the United States. He is the chief engineer for lubricants for General Motors, and was a development engineer for Ethyl Corp. before moving on the GM. Among his many published papers on the subject is SAE research paper #2004-01-2986, entitled "How Much ZDP is Enough". He is currently the chairman of the International Lubricant Standardization and Approval Committee.

He has written for the Buick Club of America (BCA) a paper entitled Engine Oil Mythology. Once and for all it places to rest the myths of ZDP. The explanation of the testing regime for motor oils, including the wear to flat tappet engines, is the key to understanding what (if anything) the removal of ZDP means to your LBC. If you've been trusting to anecdotal stories and sales pitches for this material for information on ZDP, this should be the be-all and end-all of that.

I've attached a file of this report to this post. To read his paper you can also click on the link below for the thread in the BCA forum. Greg Cockerill, the BCA member that started the thread, gives a good introduction to who Mr. Olree is and why he's an important source on this topic. The paper itself is a .pdf file embedded in the first post.

All should read it. :smile:

Engine Oil Mythology
 

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I had read that before, and may have posted a link to it here when it was in a club newsetter I found online.

Makes perfect sense to me.
 
So, a big to do about nothing!
 
This is one of the articles I posted before. Long article, but scroll about 1/3 of the way down to "The Zinc Question"...

I like the statement just above it, albeit writing about another additive:

"QMI's press releases like to quote the Guinness Book Of Records in saying that PTFE is 'The slickest substance known to man." Far be it from us to take exception to the Guinness Book, but we doubt that PTFE is much slicker than some of the people marketing it.'"

Having said this, I'll admit I'm running Valvoline VR1... just in case. :wink:

Mickey

Oh, and be sure to read the last four sections...
 
As I said.....
 
Interesting line: "<span style="font-style: italic">Then there is the myth that new engines will not break-in on synthetic oils. Apparently there was an aircraft engine manufacturer who once put out a bulletin to this effect.</span>"

The two current major engine manufacturers not only don't recommend breaking-in with synthetic oils, they don't recommend breaking-in with anything but single-weight straight mineral oil (with some possible exceptions with turbo-charged engines). That's noted in their latest service bulletins regarding which oils to use, and in their notes on engine break-in.

Not disputing the rest of the article (I didn't know it was a big issue to begin with anyway), but this makes it sound like there was once a service bulletin that caused a myth - which isn't the case. Heck, you can't even run automotive oils in the typical airplane engine anyway.
 
Howdy Folks,

One of the suppliers (VB, TRF or Moss) was having a special on ZDP.

I can`t find it anywhere again. I`ve emailed the TRF but no reply as of yet if they were offering the special.

Who would know; Who that was?

Thanx, Russ
 
I did some research on this a while ago, and wrote a document on my findings, which is on my site. That, and the original article from which the referenced one seems to be extracted. These are available at

https://www.nonlintec.com/sprite/

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

It's important to note that the ZDP concentration in many modern oils is indeed uncomfortably low, but these are mostly low-viscosity oils intended for modern cars, which don't need it--does anyone really put 5W30 in an LBC? It happens that the higher-viscosity oils of the same make often have significantly more ZDP; I use Chevron Supreme 20W50 in my Bugeye Sprite, for example, which is 0.12%, as high as it gets in ordinary oils. It's also cheap and readily available here in S. Cal. You can find this info on the oil-company web sites, although you might have to hunt a bit in some cases. But there are plenty of options for oil with 0.08% ZDP concentration, or greater, which really should be good enough.

So, I consider this a minor issue, at worst. Just one more thing to think about, easily dealt with.
 
I was just reading the Castrol webiste, and what they have to say about flat tappets and Syntec 20-50.
That's what's in my TC engine now.
 
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