Thoughts about zinc additive in these old engines

I'd appreciate any insight about wether or not its useful in older engines for cam/tappet wear. Some articles indicate that some engines need this?

What do you guys think?

Hopefully this works. I tried to copy another thread on this subject. Here you go!

zinc - zink and oil

Yes the ond motors do need this. http://www.valvoline.com/faqs/motor-oil/racing-oil/

MANDATORY ON EVERY!! oil change!!

I find this very interesting, I havent put many miles on my truck or van because of restoration stuff going on..

Im quite suprised that this is not some kind of a sticky or talked about more often...I cant be the only one that really wasnt aware of this.

After all the time and effort Im putting in to making these things road worthy I sure don't want to ruin the heartbeat by not being informed and putting in zinc!

One of my engines is a rebuilt 144 and the other is just a good running 200 six. No indications yet of any tappet wear but Ive read in some of these articles that some cams were ruined in as little as 900 miles! Now thats a lot of wear in a hurry.

Ive worked on cars since 1976 and just kinda figured all the oils were good enough for modern and old engines. I have not yet put any zinc additive or oil in my econolines but I am going to get some, maybe today.

So what are you guys using? A certain kind of racing oil or just putting the additive in with regular 10w30?

I work on a lot of old engines and I always recommend to use the valvoline VR-1 racing oil that you can get at oreillys or most parts stores. It has a very high ZDDP content of all oils these days. I also usually have them use a lead additive if I know there aren't hardened valve seats in the heads. I have to use lead additive on one of my sbc engines with double hump heads on them due to lack of hardened seats. It really helps with wear and tear on this old stuff. I agree, this is something that people need to know about!

Just watched this on you tube, interesting, says it really only matters on break in?

Cory, Good point about the lead additive as well.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xILCJc2o_L8

I disagree with the only on break in thing. If it matters during break in it matters ALL THE TIME! More fresh rebuilds are ruined during break in from improper priming and incorrect oils etc. used during intial start-up. It is also important to note that any engine without a roller cam MUST spend its first run in time to allow the cam to break in and keep the rpms around 1500-2K during that time! Comp cams website has a lot of information pertaining to properly breaking in an engine as well as other sites.

I want to add DONT USE FRAM FILTERS!! They are crappy, they collapse and are poorly designed. There is a lot of other people with the same issue on frams. DO NOT USE!!

Found this about rislone additive, seems like a decent option/alternative.




http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_oil-supplement-with-zinc-zddp-treatment-rislone_7660002-p#fragment-3


http://barsproducts.com/system/pdfs/23/original/4401%204401-5%204401-55%20FAQ.pdf