In other words, A LOT of engines need it. Most Chevys until 1988 are flat tappet, Ford until the early 80s, and Chrysler somewhere around the same time. There are so many engines on the road that need the adequate protection that I'm actually surprised how small the selection is for them, particularly when the popularity of the sbc is considered. I think it's safe to say that there are tens of millions of vehicles on the road that need it. There's no way it isn't profitable for the oil companies. And there are more choices now than there were 5 or 10 years ago, so they seem to be realizing this.


Lawrenceville, GA

I'm not sure where you get that number.



I tried to find an accounting of actual numbers of vehicles on the road by year model and I couldn't find it.



They do talk about "average age" of vehicles on the road and percentages of vehicles that are more than 3, 5 10 years old etc....



I couldn't find much on vehicles more than 20 or 30 years old.





If I was going to build up an SBC, I would use after market roller-follower tappets, cam and roller rockers. Which would eliminate the need for oils containing high amounts of ZDDP.





It's too bad that someone hasn't come up with a cost effective way to put rollers in a "Y" It'll probably never happen and we'll always need to have to use some sort of flat tappet lubrication snake oil


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1955 F-600/272/E4OD// Disclaimer: No animals were injured while test driving my F-600 except the ones I ran over intentionally!

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This post was created using OpenSuSE Linux x64 and Firefox

It's only an educated guess. Most estimates seem to put about 135-140,000,000 automobiles (not including motorcycles, atv's, scooters, etc) on the road and almost 40% are 10 years old or older. So that's nearly 54,000,000 which are a 2000 model year or older. For simplicity, let's use 1985 as the year roller cams were used regardless of the brand and use 1930 as the starting year for the calculation. For 15 of those years, the special oils have not been needed. For 55 of those years, it is needed. Now these cars 1930-1985 may not be driven every day but they are driven and need oil probably at least once a year. I don't doubt that if you saw a curve showing the year model and the number of vehicles in use, it will be skewed toward the 1985-2000 models. If you assume that it's split 50/50 between 1930-1984 and 1985-2000, then approximately 27,000,000 are on the road that need it. If you split it 25/75, then there are 13,500,000 that need it. I don't know what the actual figures are, but I'm sure there is a substantial number of vehicles that really need it.


Lawrenceville, GA

Well, it's probably not a bad guess I suppose.....



I would expect that roughly 10% of the vehicle population needing something would command more products aimed at a particular problem..........but the opposite seems to be the case.... maybe the oil companies feel that since additives like Zddp Plus and others are available, they don't have to put it in oils..... Oil certification is largely based on



There's so much mis-information out there......it's difficult to get independent info on this stuff....

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1955 F-600/272/E4OD// Disclaimer: No animals were injured while test driving my F-600 except the ones I ran over intentionally!

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This post was created using OpenSuSE Linux x64 and Firefox

04 was the year all auto motors were mandated to go roller lifters, many motors before were flat tappet such as all the FE's, Y's, 385's, M's and Clevelands, MEL's & Windsors. This is just to name some of the Fords that still need it, let alone all the other brands I would say it is still a high number of engines that need it.

I think starting in 07 or later all the truck engines were required to go roller lifters.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

It's very hard to find non-biased info on oils because the writers are usually trying to sell oil or oil additives.....



I did find the following articles that maybe puts it in a better perspective......you'll have to read and make your own decisions. I know I am going to stop using 5W-20 in my new Honda! AND I will be running either 5W-40 (synthetic) or 15W-40 in my 292!!



The first article does have some marketing BS that you sort of have to ignore but the second one is pretty much "marketing-free"!





Cheers,





Rick



http://www.synlube.com/sae5w-20.htm



http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/518/motor-oils

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1955 F-600/272/E4OD// Disclaimer: No animals were injured while test driving my F-600 except the ones I ran over intentionally!

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This post was created using OpenSuSE Linux x64 and Firefox

 Hi y guys-

  Here comes another two cents worth.

  About two weeks ago I walked into the local Walmart and a guy had a table set up promoting Valvoline motor oil. Sooooo............I asked him about ZDDP and flat tappet engines.  He was honest enough to admit he was relatively new and didn't know from squat what I was talking about. He did however make a couple of phone calls and talked to a 20 year engineer who stated that Valvoline VR-1 Racing Oil had the ZDDP additives but that was the only one he mentioned.

  Now, I don't race and consider a street driven car a totally different animal from one that's raced. I, therefore won't be using VR-1 Racing Oil in my y block, or FE's, or 385.  Like many others I used Rotella 15-40 as a stopgap measure but I don't think you can be sure exactly what amount of additives you're getting.

  So I went to a ZDDP additive specificlly for flat tappet engines. Not a break in additive, but engineered to run with 5 quarts of oil and provide the protection needed from oil change to oil change. You can get it from Summit, Jegs, O'Reilly's etc. It runs about $8 a bottle and I figure that's cheap enough against the pain and cost of major repair. The aftermarket cam companies recognize the need and are getting into the market,ie Comp Cams, Isky.

  And belatedly, I want to say congrats to Ted and his crew on the stunning perfomance at the EMC and of course to John M. for his outstanding work on the development and manufacture of new components!!!!

  I want all to know that since the EMC I have been a absolute pain in the butt to all my scrubby friends spreading the y block word!!!!!!!!!!

     Best to All,

    Missouri Mike

   

 

I'd rather be lucky than good.................

    but good ain't bad!!

Just because it's "race oil" why would it be harmful to an engine? I doubt the oil knows whether it's a race engine or not.

Doing Fords for 45 years. '56 Customline Victoria

E.J. in Havana FL

The way I understand it is race oils simply don't last as long. They offer a lot more protection for a shorter amount of time. The way I interpret VR1 is that it is a performance street oil with racing in the name to attract the guys who like to say "I'm using racing ____ in my car." My friends who do race happen to use Valvoline racing oil and it's not VR1.

I have used VR1 exclusively, for the extra flat tappet protection it offers, with the new build of the engine, using normal change intervals, and for the 10000 miles I've put on it so far, there are no signs of impending doom.


Lawrenceville, GA

For anyone that is interested, the following article is pretty good. It puts oil in a fairly good perspective....and it's not just someone's opinion or a marketers sales pitch.....

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/cms/


After you read it, you'll see why there's few that recommend using a non-synthetic 10W-40 oil for anything.....(except maybe lubing the squeaky door!)



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1955 F-600/272/E4OD// Disclaimer: No animals were injured while test driving my F-600 except the ones I ran over intentionally!

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This post was created using OpenSuSE Linux x64 and Firefox