Howdy Y'all,

Oil threads usually turn into "Here's What I Use, and I've Never Had a Problem" and while anecdotal "evidence" might indicate what to use and what not to use, it's not very scientific....

Reading ads from distributors and suppliers that tout a (their own) brand is simply a biased advertisement.

Companies like Comp Cams, Isky and others will tell you what to use for break-in and long term use and you can usually believe them because they're not in the business of selling name brand oils (except maybe cam-lube additives) .....They also don't want to have to warranty their product too often....

It's useful to find articles by people who do not make money from hawking their particular type of "snake-oil".

I like staying informed by reading info from Lubrizol and other industry sites. They're one of few the companies that make those additives that others put their name on from (I hope no one thinks that all the oil companies make their own "secret sauce")

I also found a pretty good article on automotive lubricants at Machinery Lubrication (one of my other favorite sites)..... They don't try to sell you any oil, so it appears that they might be a little LESS biased.

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

Cheers,

Rick

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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

I was thinking a good diesel oil like Rotella and Delo should have enough zinc. Here's link to a thread that has a chart with the amounts of that brands have in their oils. http://www.earlycj5.net/forums/showthread.php?86554-Diesel-oil-Zinc-content


~DJ~ AKA "Bleach"
1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan 30K original miles

Been using 15w40 Rotella and it has never let me down. A FL1A filter and we are good to go. In the summer I do run some STP as well.

Hutz,

If you are running that kind of horsepower in your Y, you have got to do an article for the Y block magazine. Contact Bruce Young...

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I see you used Joe Gibbs break in oil why not use his HR-3 racing oil designed for flat tappet engines. It has high levels of zinc and phosphorus for these type of engines. I run the HR-3 15W-50 Hot Rod oil in 62 F100 292 twin turbo y-block. I have been running that oil since I first built the engine. I am running over 600 whp horse power and 750 lb/ft of torque at the wheels with no failures. I would have to believe that the oil has proved itself in my eyes. I would suggest calling Joe Gibbs their tech department is great to talk to.

BudMan, these engines love synthetic oils with the old level of zddp period. From my experience Amsoil 10w 40 as Ron uses and /mobil 1 15w 50 have worked great for me since the 80s and have protected my engines from everything from drag racing to easy street driving and no sluge buildup at all after a couple hundred thousand miles. I'm sure their are others oils that are real good to but I can attest on these two brands really work well. Is this confusing enough?

-Gary Burnette-

Yep it can be a can of worms that is for sure. After much research and trial and error of different oils and one Highly Recommended oil having a foaming problem as the anti-foam agent did not do it's job, I settled on Brad Penn and in a 10W30.

If you check the original factory specs on Y's you will find that the factory reccommended 20W with 5W20 in Cold Winter conditions, this will all depend on if your engine builder built to specs or if they clearance for a thicker oil. I use the 10W30 due to unleaded fuel causing them to run a little hotter as lead was a cooling agent in fuels of days gone by.

Good Luck with it.

312T85

What?

Just my 2 cents worth, but I have been using Amsoil 100% synthetic Premium 10-40 for years now without any problems. That particular oil is formulated with extra ZDDP and made for flat tappet motors. You can look up the specs on their website.

Rono.

  Ron Lane,  Meridian, ID

I would suggest using a deisel or race rated oils. These have the higher amount of zddp whicb will help protect your cam. The newer oils have a lesser amount of zddp due to it harms the cats in the exhaust system. If i remember correctly, in the starburst on an oil container, you dont wanna use anything that is sm, due to lower zddp content, unless you use a zddp additive.oreillys has a zddp additive.

Brad Penn, Valvoline VR-1, Wal Mart 10w-40 what ever you like as long as the wt is 40 or above when it has an API SM rating.  Try Wolfs Head Golden 40wt, it'll never let you down!

   God Bless.   Tim                           http://yblockguy.com/

350ci Y-Block FED "Elwood", 301ci Y-Block Unibody LSR "Jake", 312ci Y-Block '58 F-100, 338ci Y-Block powered Model A Tudor

tim@yblockguy.com  Visalia, California    Just west of the Sequoias

As Bill says, you will get a dozen opinions on what oil you should use. Generally speaking, avoid oils with the "sunburst" gear on the label as they are intended for modern engines with roller valve trains, and most are reduced in ZDDP additive. Beyond that..??

Paul