Duke: ZDDP additive

[Dave F.]

I've read Dukes posts on oils and ZDDP, and also searched the archives, but I still couldn't tell how to respond to my father who sent me the following, which was passed on to him by a friend.

I had never heard the part about about diesel oil and bearing clearances.

-Dave


PREVENT DAMAGE TO YOUR ENGINE!

Over the past 20 years, unknown by most, motor oil manufacturers have been incrementally reducing the amount of a major component in motor oil. The reason behind this is to keep our air clean by increasing the life expectancy of catalytic converters in new cars up to 100,000 miles or more. That is fine, but what about cars without catalytic converters?

The oil component in question is ZDDP *. This oil additive has been used in motor oil for almost 70 years to handle areas of extreme pressure like flat tappets and camshafts, wrist pins, pushrod ends, rings and so forth. Car manufacturers have tried to address this in newer engines by using roller lifters and re-engineering other areas of extreme pressure.

Older engines (pre mid 1990s) using the new oil formulations are not fully protected as they have been in years past. About 3 years ago engine builders noticed a marked increase in engine failures. One engine builder said that he experienced more engine failures in 3 years than he had in the last 30 years. A search began to find out the cause and they discovered that the oil formulation had been changed. In 2005 the level of ZDDP in motor oils had been dropped to below the minimum level recommended by automotive engineers.

See our website at http://www.zddpoiladditive.com/for links to articles by Hot Rod magazine, High Performance Pontiac, Comp Cams, American Engine Rebuilders Association and others that discuss the problem. Or search for "ZDDP" in Google to see the thousands of discussions and articles.

Once the problem was understood, alternative solutions began cropping up. These included using diesel engine oil and racing oil. However, both of these have their shortcomings when used as the motor oil in a street driven gasoline engine. Oils for diesels are designed for engines with different bearing clearances, different viscosity needs, and are very high in detergents. Racing oils are very expensive and are not designed for long term use and do not usually come in the viscosities needed for a regularly driven vehicle.

Our new product ZDDPlus was created by car enthusiasts for car enthusiasts. Now the answer to the problem is simple, just replace the ZDDP in your favorite brand name oil by adding one 4 ounce bottle of ZDDPlus at each oil change. Instead of guessing that you have the correct level of protection, ZDDPlus ensures that you have the correct level of protection. For approximately $10.00 per oil change it is cheap insurance. ZDDPlus was created to fill the needs of collector car owners.

See detailed information on ZDDPlus at: http://www.zddpoiladditive.com/zddplus.htm

Our company ZDDP Oil Additive is your source for ZDDPlus. Our mission is to supply you with ZDDPlus as quickly as possible. We have the product in stock and we will ship it to you immediately.

If you are an officer or member of a car club you may want to inform your club members of the ZDDP issue in your newsletter or web site. Feel free to use the information in this email, our website or the links in our website. We recently talked to an old friend who we had not talked to in some time. He just went through 2 new Chevy crate motors. One of the engines had a quality control problem but the other had a camshaft that went flat even though he used the recommended break-in procedure. Please don't let this happen to you or your club members and call us if you have any questions.

ZDDPlus Pricing:
Single 4-ounce Bottle of ZDDPlus $9.95 plus $6 shipping
Four-Pack of the 4-ounce Bottles of ZDDPlus $39.80 plus $8 shipping
Six-Pack of the 4-ounce Bottles of ZDDPlus $59.70 plus $8 shipping
For California orders sales taxes apply
Call us for club discounts on larger quantities

ZDDP Oil Additive

P.O.Box 4547, San Dimas, CA 91773

Phone 909-392-8440

[John L.]

Re: Duke: ZDDP additive

Can't wait to hear what Duke says about this
There's got to be a more economical additive than this.
Regards....John

[Duke W.]

Re: Duke: ZDDP additive

The Southern California Chapter Driveline, our chapter newsletter, came out last week with an article by me titled "Engine Oil for Vintage Corvettes".

Vinnie is publishing a slightly re-edited and enhanced version of this article in The Corvette Restorer, and it will include artwork of typical acceptable API certification labels than were graciously provided to us by The American Petroleum Institute. I don't know if the article will be in the next issue or not. Vinnie just got the API artwork this week.

This 1627-word article covers all the whys and wherefores and should answer every conceiveable question, but here's the bottom line.

Go to any auto parts or any big box store and buy any oil that has an API certification label with CJ-4 as the first listed category. If you don't typically do cold starts below 10-15 degrees F, then the 15W-40 viscosity range is just right.

The part about diesel oil viscosities and bearing clearances is gobbledygook. All motor oils are blended from five basic group stocks to yield various viscosity ranges. Diesel engine oils (C-category) are blended to yield slightly different viscosity ranges to further distiguish them from S-category oils for modern spark ignition engines. Instead of 10W-30 and 20W-50, which are typical S-category ranges, C-category oils are typically 15W-40. Any of these three viscosity grades are fine for typical vintage car service in mild to hot weather. Up until I switched to 15W-40 diesel engine oil in all my cars a couple of years ago I used S-category 20W-50 for 30 years year round in my mild Southernn California climate.

These vendors are just trying to scare/intimidate/put you on a guilt trip so you will buy their product. They're as trustworthy with the truth as politicians! They don't necessarily outright lie, but they conveniently delete relevant information and present garbled information that may make sense unless you are well versed on the subject. Typical nominal design bearing clearance for both spark and diesel engines is near .001" per inch of journal diameter, and that number has been in the textbooks since long before I was an engineering student back in the sixties. Nothing has changed.

And "very high detegency" is exactly what vintage engines need since their less precise fuel control leads to more crankcase dilution, which detergents/dispersants neutralize. S-category oils are blended for modern gasoline engines that have very pricise fuel control and quicker warmup, so they have less crankcase dilution problems. Also, their "roller everything" valvetrains don't need as much ZDDP as vintage engines. The salient question is: What modern commonly available oil has the best additive package for vintage engines ,and the answer is CJ-4.

The API service category label is the "donut" on the back label. That's all you need to know, everything else is just a why or a wherefore, history, etc. The article contains the full story of why you don't need to spend big bucks on "boutique oils" or supplemental addtives - ZDDP or otherwise - with the exception of a bottle of GM EOS in a fresh engine, and I consider this strictly optional, not mandatory, if you use an OE equivalent cam and OE equivalent valve springs.

Help me slay this dragon once and for all. Read the article when it comes out and tell all your car guy friends about it. (I'd suggest you copy it for real non-believers, but I don't want to suggest violating copyright laws. )

Always take manufacturer's marketing material with a grain of salt. Remember, their purpose is to sell you their product. My objective is to give you the unbiased technical facts.

This additive is 10 bucks per oil change. Ridiculous! Five quarts of CJ-4 should cost no more than about 15 bucks, and you don't need to add "insurance".

Duke

[Dave F.]

Re: Duke: ZDDP additive

Thanks Duke. I look forward to the article. -Dave