<VV> Subject: Re: Castrol Syntec / ZDDP / SL

[Stephen Upham]

Just my luck.  I bought the 10w-30 Castrol Syntec that doesn't mention  
any of that.  So...  I priced the Mobil 1 15w-50 that was one of the  
recommendations.  It was nowhere to be found at the local FLAPS.  I  
called Mobil and they gave me two leads.  One in Houston, a scant four  
hour drive away, and another in West Dallas that was manageably  
close.  Unfortunately they wanted $39.99 for half a case. I decided at  
that point to go with the Brad Penn 15w-40 (the "green" oil) that I  
could also get locally for $60 a case.  It is rated by the  
manufacturer as having 1500 ppm ZDDP.  I have used it since just after  
the initial 500 mile break-in period and have not noticed any ill  
effects.  I do need to do an oil analysis after about 1000 miles  
(wouldn't you think) after this next change just to check for any  
abnormal amounts of wear. BTW, I had Amsoil labs and Herguth  
Laboratories in Vallejo, CA to do  analyses on some synthetic oil that  
my dad had been selling in the 80's that was still in the bottle that  
was marketed under the Synthoil name.  I have about 120 of them left.   
They have about 1190 ppm of zinc, 1140 of phosphorous and 650 of  
barium (averaging results of the two tests).  They tested slightly  
above 14 viscosity on average with 12 being the lowest and 16.8 being  
the highest at 100 degrees C. The tech that I talked to at Amsoil said  
that he thought that the oil would work well based on the results of  
the testing.

Stephen

Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2011 22:02:11 -0700 (PDT)

The last time I was in to the local Auto-Bone, a month or so ago, they  
had the
20w50 syntec on the shelf.  I bought enough to do both vairs.
<snip>
The front label on the bottle has a yellow box stating "Specially  
Formulated for
Classic Cars".
The rear label has the usual blah, blah, blah about how wonderful the  
oil is,
but then there are two things:

A yellow stripe in the fine print where it says: "Increased antiwear  
additive to
help prevent flat tappet camshaft wear".

Then, further down where it starts to list the API info, there is a  
sentence
which reads: "Does not meet the emission system compatibility  
requirements of
vehicles since 1993".

It still shows API service SM/CF in the non-star circle and then API  
Service SM,
SL, SJ, CF in text.

Everett Wilson
North Richland Hills TX