LFA951

I currently use Valvoline VR1 20W50 and I'm pretty happy with it, but with all the talk about ZDDP in oils, I am curious to know if there are any other better alternative oils out there, does anyone know how Shell oil compares?

daigo

Joe Gibb's racing oil.

LFA951

Isn't that expensive and for racing only?

quinnfiske

I have been reading all the stuff on this topic and get more confused the more I read. I just changed the oil in my car. Instead of the usual Castrol GTX, I used GTX High Mileage (less one quart) and added a bottle of STP oil treatment. I am hoping this increases the ZDDP level. A lot of people have been recommending Brad Penn oil, but I have not crossed the line of ordering oil on the internet yet.

rlm328

Valvoline's VR1 oils contain 75% more ZDDP than the standard SM oils on the market. It is also street legal. You can also still get the earlier spec oils from places like NAPA. I am using VR1 and do not plan changing out soon unless I start hearing about a lot of failures.

eniac

VR-1 does contain ZDDP so should be ok for our cars eventhough it's SM rated.

For SL oil, the only dino oils I have seen on store shelves are Kendal GT1 which is ok but not as good as it used to be, and *gasp* Autozone brand oil that is SL and says "blended for use in older vehicles" on the back.

JonH

Brad Penn in all my P-cars now, and my understanding it IS the old Kendal GT1 oil.

Auto_Werks 3.6

Napa brand also has an SM only 15w40 dino.. Technically they market it for diesel engines. If you believe them it is actually a Valvoline brand oil in a napa bottle. Who knows. I am not brave enough to try it in my 944. For now, I'm sticking to VR1.

schwank

Have been running GTX but once the new motor is in this winter, I'll switch to Redline or Brad Penn. I can get Redline locally, so...

Too bad it's like 3 times the price of the GTX though.

tone3721

What about lucas oils? I usually use the synthetic.

Keithr726

i use vr1 too and from what ive heard it is the best thats still cheap and easy to find at major stores like autozone

anders44

lubrication engineers

LFA951

I guess I'll stick wit hthe VR1, only reason why I was inquiring was because it went up from $3.38 to $3.98 at Advanced Auto Parts here locally. I also put in the STP Oil treatment, however I've tried to look for the STP 4 cylinder Oil treatment (red bottle) and can't find it anywhere...

ausgeflippt951

While ZDDP is a very important part of any oil for older cars, it's not all that necessary for our cars. ZDDP really only plays a factor for flat-cam applications, such as on old 911s. Our cars are fine to run Mobil 1, even.

Also, you shouldn't use the racing oils unless you're (a) driving the car very hard on a regular basis, and (b) rebuilding the motors more frequently than on a street car. Most racing oils lack detergents which help keep sludge in check. On high-stress engines, like in a race car, the sludge is typically being taken care of simply by the fact that it's being driven so hard.

So if you're going to drive your street car civilly, don't use a racing oil unless you use a detergent oil every couple of oil changes or so.

TurboTommy

So, what's the difference between older 911 cam/lifter combo vs our cars, exactly.