levels of zinc in valvoline racine oil?
 

are the good levels in the valvoline brand?or castrol?how about royal purple?

Valvoline racing oil is good for use in with flat tappet cams...

Castrol...? Dunno but never did find any of their oils with zinc in them...?

Royal Purple is full synthetic and would be fine for the flat tappet cams but for ring breakin you need a special hone finish...

All oils have Zinc (Zddp) in them, it's just getting less and less. If you want to know 100% for sure what you are getting, call the company because things are changing faster than anyone can keep up with.

im just having a hard time finding a good oil to use in my early motors with flat tappet cams mainly because most auto stores dont carry a big variety of oils other than pennzoil,castrol and valvoline and I just came out with specials at my store that include valvoline racing oil

Pick a brand of oil, go to their web site, look up the spec sheet for the oil you're interested in using. Look at the HTHS rating, the higher the number the better it will protect cams and lifters. Example Mobile 1 synthetic, 15-50, HTHS rating 4.5. If you find a higher rated oil let me know.

This subject has been and will be discussed to death because of the oil companies trying to meet guidelines put forth by the EPA.

The general concensis, kinda sorta, is that if you have used the break in lube/paste/goo that was provided by the cam manufacturer and the breakin has gone well, PROVIDING you are not running monstrous spring pressures, todays oils will be fine for flat tappet engines.
This is also discussed in length at http://www.bobistheoilguy.com
It's a great site worth spending some time at.

I just scored 3 cases of Shell 20-50 for .49 a quart after rebate from Checker/Schucks/Kragen/Murry. Great deal for me anyway as my 3 Chevies do just fine on it. In case you are interested, the deal is on for a couple more days.

Mark

I use Valvoline VR1 racing oil. According to their web site, they have a good amount of ZDDP. I run it in my flat tappet stroker, and have been since the new engine about 1 1/2 years ago.

Available at NAPA, although it may be a special order item.

you want Shell Rotella deisel oil, thats what all the talk about it is everytime you pick up a mag.

Rotella has been/is being reformulated with lower ZDDP due to the new diesel engines, some with CATS.

Check the oil company web sites and look at their specs.

Burned up a new cam in a big block Chevy (comp cam) comp cam said run Rotella T,No more problems. :thumbup:

Jmark is right. This subject has been all over the net. I guess the safe thing for me to do is use roller cam kits in future builds. :thumbup: