In recent years, most all of the previous oil formulations have undergone a "de-zinc-ing" including MANY popular "racing" oils. Kendall held out the longest, but nowadays the ZZDP content of even that has dropped under 1100ppm.

Brad Penn is probably the best oil for the money, if you have a special application.

BUT, if you have a roller tappet motor, and you are oiling thru the pushrods, and you are setup with "tight" bearing clearances and reasonable valvespring pressures - then you probably don't need a mega-zinc oil.

Just my thoughts.
MC

I was told by Dave Crower to stay away from synthetic oil with my solid roller.

Why? That doesn't make any sense.

All good replys!!!!

but whats the answer to the original question???

No best answer. Oil threads always get a lot of good info and a lot of different opinions. You have to put together all the feedback from people who know about this stuff and draw your own conclusions. My conclusion to your original question is yes, zinc is good in a roller engine but not necessary. I just put high zinc Kendall 20w50 in my 525.

hondahp4, I am guessing by your board name that you either ride a motorycle, really like oil, or both.

FWIW, Honda HP4 and other lubes by Honda are (at least they were a while back) blended and packed by Idemitsu Lubricants America Corp. They were called Apollo-American before changing to their corporate owners whose name is Idemitsu Kosan Co., LTD.

You may want to change your board name, oil brand, or both.

Ken

My next oil change I'm going to try the Amsoil Z-rod.

I know. I run the 851. SAE oil, 20w-50. At the intervals i change my oil, I dont see the point in spending the extra money for the synthetic.

Use of Synthetic Oils
Crower does not recommend the use of synthetic motor oil in any application, particularly in hydraulic and flat tappet camshafts. If your car manufacturer's owners manual suggests running synthetic oil, you may do so. The minimum gains in horsepower are offset by the excessive wear to cam and lifter surfaces. We have found that the benefits, of synthetic motor oil, do not outweigh the costs and may endanger your engine's life. Crower recommends a non-detergent / race only petroleum based 30wt. motor oil in all performance applications. The lack of phosphorus and zinc in current oil blends is catastrophic to engine longevity. For all applications we do recommend running our ZDDPlus additive, which adds zinc and phosphorus back into the oil.

Synthetic oils are by far superior to petroleum products. Yes, they do cost more, but provide much more protection, quicker lubrication at start up, cooler operating temps, which means less friction, therefore increased horsepower and reduced wear. They last longer, typically 2-3 times longer. You just have to make sure you have an oil fortified with Zinc still. Yes, thats what the AMSOIL Zrod is made for, along with the other two links I posted. There isn't a NASCAR team that runs petroleum, and I'm pretty sure those motors all have rollers and flat tappets.