Selection of the Right Motor Oil for Flat Tappet Engines

[richardlw]

Someone posted this somewhere around page 43 of another thread and I see people jumping to the end to ask questions that were answered. I thought it would be good to be where people will see it up front and get a good overview of what oil does and how to decide what to use instead of the opinions of others who may not know the facts.
It was originally written for the Corvair, but 95% is applicable to the rest of the flat tappet engines (and others).
It grew from the original project, but most have written that it is worth reading all the way through.
Hope it helps.
Selection of the Right Motor oil for the Corvair

[billybek]

Read this on the big oil thread and it is very informative and well written.

[tcar]

Here, read this:

Ultimate Motor Oil Thread or Why we hate CJ4/SM oils

The summary on the first page is good.

[richardlw]

The only issue I have with it is adding an aftermarket additive to a correctly formulated oil. Your chances of doing more harm than good are too great. Stick with a fully formulated CI-4.

[Bill Verburg]

have you seen this Mobil product sheet
Mobil_1_Product_Guide.pdf
extended perfromance and V-twin seem appropriate to our cars

[HarryD]

Richardlw,

Thanks for the link.

[barndoor]

After reading as much of the GIANT thread on oil here on Pelican that i could stand,I bought
BRAD PENN.
since I live in a rural area,(and after checking with Brad Penn) I bought it off ebay from the cheapest seller.He even charged 20% less for shipping to a Business address.Which came to just over
$5.50 a quart.
Brad Penn,made in USA,a small company ( I assume), good for your Porsche.
I'm just trying to make it a little easier for all of you pulling your hair out over this Oil Issue.
For some of us Hair is valuable..............

[Steve@Rennsport]

Originally Posted by barndoor

After reading as much of the GIANT thread on oil here on Pelican that i could stand,I bought
BRAD PENN.
since I live in a rural area,(and after checking with Brad Penn) I bought it off ebay from the cheapest seller.He even charged 20% less for shipping to a Business address.Which came to just over
$5.50 a quart.
Brad Penn,made in USA,a small company ( I assume), good for your Porsche.
I'm just trying to make it a little easier for all of you pulling your hair out over this Oil Issue.
For some of us Hair is valuable..............

FWIW,.....I do stock Brad-Penn here in Portland.

[Roger 911]

I just bought a case of Brad Penn 20/50 as well. I realize this question is probably covered in the "50 page oil thread", but does anyone recall what the main advantage is of Brad Penn vs. something like Castrol GTX 20/50 (which is what I've used for years)?

Thanks.
Roger

[HarryD]

Originally Posted by Roger 911

I just bought a case of Brad Penn 20/50 as well. I realize this question is probably covered in the "50 page oil thread", but does anyone recall what the main advantage is of Brad Penn vs. something like Castrol GTX 20/50 (which is what I've used for years)?

Thanks.
Roger

This is what Mr Navarro has to say:

Originally Posted by cnavarro

The Castrol GTX 20w50 still has SG levels of Zn and P, so yes, technically it's ok, but that's not everything when considering an oil. GTX is a very low quality oil, and as such, doesn't perform that well regardless of Zn and P. For very short drain intervals and pleasure driving, it's probably ok. There are better choices though. At least the HM holds it's viscosity a bit better than the regular GTX.

[richardlw]

Castrol appears to have very few products that are group II base oils. Probably a decent 3000 mile oil for supermarket moms.

Brad Penn starts with better base oils, and there is a variety of blends to go for.

I didn't look specifically at 20W-50 oils as they have none of the advantages needed by most cars for low temperature protection. If you really want the hydrodynamic lubrication of a 50 wt at operating temperatures, go for a synthetic that will give you startup protection. You will do more damage to a turbo en the seconds it takes a thick oil to get to it than in operation at high temperatures with a thinner oil - unless your turbo is out-of-balance. In that case, not even a thick oil will help for long.

[EarlyPorsche]

Does Brad Penn make a 5W-30 so I could use it in my normal car engine too?

[richardlw]

Having realized that I hadn't updated my oil paper in about 2 years, and that people are still downloading it 11,000 times a month (between the English and Spanish versions), I decided to review it and update it.

I originally wrote this for my Corvair friends, but it applies to many of the older cars.

Will it end all the oil questions? no, nothing will. But it should put to rest most of the myths and get people on the right track saving engines.

The English version is up, so you can click on the link and on over to the new version.
Selection of the right oil for flat tappet engine

[richardlw]

Just updated with the addition of new oil analysis from the late 60's.

[BGCarrera32]

I'm not a big fan of Brad Penn because it's green. To me it makes it that much harder to see if something is slightly amiss in the oil.

Go here:

Joe Gibbs Driven - DT50 Synthetic 15W-50

[James Brown]

great article richard, thanks

[pkracer21j]

Does anyone have any experience with the new castrol synthetic 5w-50? it says on the bottle it has added ZDDP and is formulated for classic cars, I've been very tempted to try it in the DD Carrera

[Joe Bob]

Just go to O'Reilly's and buy the VR1 Racing 20/50......it's on sale. I got it for $3.79 a quart. Sale ends on the 27th.

Synthetic makes my engine leak.

[dshepp806]

Originally Posted by Steve@Rennsport

FWIW,.....I do stock Brad-Penn here in Portland.

Never knew that! Thanks for that information,....

BEST!

Doyle

[porterdog]

Oil Analysis: Shell Rotella T6