monte70car Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Spring is coming and its time to change the motor(still got the break in oil in the pan busy schedule last year kept it inside). What is the ideal motor oil for a flat tappet cam shaft. The old cam I ran the Shell Rotella t for the zinc, is there anything better on the market and what would be the ideal weight? As the oil filter I will be using a K&N filter which I have had since last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gprimm Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 There will be lots of opinions on this. My preference is a synthetic oil, 10/30 and I add a Zinc additive for the cam. I use premium filters such as K&N, Mobile 1 or Delco synthetic. With the consolidation of the oil industry, a Mobile petroleum engineer has told me that.there are 3 base oil manufacturers left, then the additives are combined with that. I don't pound my cars, therefore I feel comfortable with normal synthetics like Mobile 1, QS, Valvoline. For the price I dont buy the "high end" like Royal Purple, although I did find that marked down to $20 a gallon at Meijer and bought some. Now deciding which car gets that without the others finding out and getting jealous:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallaby Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I was a little concerned with the royal purple simply because of the darker color. I have a new engine and kinda gauge the oil by how it looks on the stick. I remember Union Oil also had a top shelf purple oil back in the day when oil came in a cardboard can. I have heard that the new diesel engines are equipped with cat converters now, so the zinc has been dropped from those oils also. That includes the Rotella. A zinc additive is a good idea, or the Valvoline racing oil still has it, and it is labeled "for off-road use only". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam (Bones) Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Amsoil has a syn oil with zinc, I use the in my 454 even though it has a roller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
footballubet Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I'm still running Rotella T with flat tappets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dans '70 Z20 Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I have also heard the diesel trick no longer is valid. For reasons Robert mentioned above zinc levels have been reduced from them now also. I have heard Brad Penn ( Brad Penn website ) or Mystik( Mystik website ) still have oils with high zinc content. many restoration shops here carry them Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montefrazer Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Hemmings also sells a high zinc oil. http://www.hemmings.com/store/new.html About half way down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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