Well get that camera fired up Doug, we haven't had any progress shots in a while

Any thoughts on what a good, and available in Canada, high zinc oil is. I gather pre 75 motors are mostly flat tappet cam and need far more zinc than the stuff you find today. I've heard Joe Gibbs is good but I doubt I can get it here. Also Barry Penn which I can but from the mainland so still a bit of a pain. It needs to have 1200 ZPPM and of course none of the labels say anything. Presumably oil for diesels is high zinc but I haven't been able to find anything that gives a number. Don't want to wipe my cam in a week.

I went through this last year and found that most of the racing oils are over 1000 and Brad Penn has 1500
http://www.penngrade1.com/Zinc.aspx

You might want to think about a break in oil first.
http://www.penngrade1.com/Products/High ... n-Oil.aspx

Sadly about 7 years ago the manufacturers thought it would be a good idea to cut back on the zinc in the oils due to the zinc contributing to plugged catalytic converters.What many engine builders I know and trust suggest if you are running a flat tappet cam(solid or hydraulic) is to add the GM zdp additive to your oil for initial start up and break in,after your 20 mins of run time dump it and add fresh oil and keep adding the GM zdp additive at every oil change for the life of the engine.Shell rotella oil has the highest zdp rating in Canada if I remember right,lots of guys run this oil in there hot rods.The only other option is to run a roller cam HTH

Its been awhile since I did my research on this subject but I will tell the things that I remember and you can check to see what you find. Oils with a high level of ZDDP in the USA have to be marked (for off road use) so the uninformed motorist doesn't buy it and ruin his catalytic converter.

The problem with using diesel oil is the higher amount of dispersants and detergents used because of the higher amounts of soot and ash with diesel fuel, and some of those detergents will cause excessive ash buildup in the combustion chamber.

Racing oils have just the opposite problem with not enough detergents, because it reduces the effectiveness of the oil in racing applications, so it has to be changed very often.

Brad penn has higher levels of ZDDP and also has the detergents needed for extended drain intervals. The GM additive was a good source but I don't think its available anymore, although there is a new one with less ZDDP most likely.

Don't Know much about this subject but on this old Chevy board they have some comments on the subject.

http://vcca.org/forum/ubbthreads.php/to ... Post241987

Seems to me that after you break it in I would run something like Castrol full synthetic 5-30wt. My Mini comes from the BMW factory with that and the recommended oil change interval is 15,000 miles and they wont change it sooner as there warranty pays for it. : It is about $10 a quart but I am sold. I have about 90 thousand miles on the car and my "normal" shift points are 5,500 to 6,000. ( just happened to look this morning getting on the freeway it was 1st to 2nd 6,400 2 to 3rd 6,200 so it is not being babied. anyway that is just my 2¢ and might be worth just that much.

Here is a couple links that I saved for quick reference. The first one should have an answer to just about any question you have.
http://www.nwquattro.com/forums/index.p ... 419.0;wap2

This one tells the reason for Brad Penn break in oil having lower levels of Zdp
http://www.penngrade1.com/CMSFiles/Augu ... D_PENN.pdf

Wow, lots of good info to sift through, thanks guys!

I have the break in oil part sorted out so it's the what to run after I'm looking into.

Not sure about the stuff you mention Doug, zinc burns out catalytic converters so that's why they reduced it in the newer oils. Since your car would have a cat it's unlikely to have high zinc but who knows, hard to find a tech sheet that lists PPM levels. I did find one for Mobil but they don't sell the one I need here.

Now I have to read through all these links, thanks again

Rob
Comp Cam makes that ZDDP additive for break in and every oil change for flat tappet cams.

Its also sold in small bottles in Lemmings news in small bottles.

Im looking for a good deal on a case if any one knowing some one giving a break for bulk orders.

I got the small bottles of ZDDP from a seller on ebay. I know he sells it by the case:

http://myworld.ebay.com/zddpluscentral&ssPageName=STRK:MEFSX:SELLERID&_trksid=p3984.m1543.l2533
See if this is what your looking for. Mel

I sure know a lot about oil now, never realized there was so much to know

I'm going with the Brad Penn oil as my regular oil, they have an oil specifically for flat tappet cam motors. It seems like most companies keep messing with most of the oils so even if you find something you like odds are they'll change it, diesel oil is high in zinc but I'm hearing they have or will lower it like the rest of the oils. You can use an additive but it's hard to gauge where you're at if the numbers keep changing, you can have too much zinc. Quaker State has a new oil, called Deny, the 10-40 is around 1200 PPM for zinc which is great but for some reason we can't get it in 10-40 here.