Zinc Additive
 

Had a 327 redone and was told by the builder to add a zinc additive to the oil and run VR1,,,14 hours later the motor had a knock and every bearing in the motor is wiped out. My question is, the VR1 says extra zinc in formula and the additive looked like soft scrub when I poured in in. The mains were down to the brass and even the cam bearings are worn, could this have been "over zinked" ? The motor was never hot and oil pressure was 60 till the end. Thanx Don

Interested in the answers here.

Zinc didn't do it. Your engine builder did.... Take it to Fast Forward

Fyi I run Rotella T 15/40 because it has lots of zinc in it!!

monster have you had problems?? I stated it wrong, the machine shop did all machine work, I assembled I.have done dozens without any trouble till now. Could not find anything what so ever wrong. Just odd how every bearing is gone after only 14hrs, and yes plenty of assembly. lube.

did you replace the crank?? if so then the micro finish on the crank was too rough and ate the bearings then the **** bearing material went through the cam bearings because the cam bearings are feed by the main bearings.. have the RA checked on the crankshaft..or if it was machined he used too rough of a stone..if thats the case take it to another machins shop and have it checked and get it in writing..about 6 yrs ago eagle has major issues with their final finish on their crankshafts and it caused premature bearing failure...we saw major problems when we had engines on the dyno..i would let the engine run and brake ion the cam then do a pull..after the first pull i would dropp the oil and look at it for metallic pieces in the oil..we ran across a dozen of bad cranks from eagle and a few from scat..then we switched to callies and the problem went away..

I know the crank was checked and I assume turned, I will have to find out...thanx for all the input

Your engine builder didhttp://leee.fnihonectt.com/10.jpg

I dont think Rotella has the zinc anymore...

This needs to be a sticky. I wonder how many of those old cranks from Eagle or Scat might still be floating around in inventory?

Thats what I was told also, I run nothing but Kendall 20w / 50 (has zink) of Joe Gibbs oil

All oils have zinc, but not like they used to.

If you are lucky, you should have 1000 PPM, probably less.

Tried to tell people a thousand times. Too much zinc can make oil foam, therefore losing any and all film strength. You need to buy oils that are formulated with high amounts of Zinc. i.e. Mobil V-twin, Amsoil Dominator, Amsoil Zrod, and yes even Shell Rotella(Non-CJ4). Oil manufacturers spend multi millions of dollars on each and every formulation to make them just right to specs they want to meet. Would you add an extra egg or extra flour to your favorite cake recipe?

With that said would you break in a flat tappet cam with just to tells or would you add zinc. And how much zinc is too much?

Buy an oil formulated with High levels of zinc. Oil companies have not removed the zinc, they've just reduced it, due to all the new emissions on the newer vehicles and its adverse effects on catalytic converters. Most diesel oils, motorcycle oils, Racing Oils, and other specially formulated high zinc oils, however, do not have to meet these new requirements. You do need to break in a motor however with petroleum products. Synthetics create too high of a film strength to let rings seat properly and cams break in.

I don't care if you ran 1.99 Wal Mart oil the motor should have ran more than 14 hrs. I know guys that run the cheapest oil you can get your hands on and get 100's of hours out of there motors. Sounds like your crank was ground in the wrong direction or maybe someone glass beaded the bottom of your intake it will do the same thing...

Why did you have the 327 rebuilt, did it fail previously? I don't believe the zinc you would add from something like stp oil treatment would cause this. Fuel or water in the oil would though. How did the oil look, minus all the glitter and gold?

I guess what I am hearing is that I shouldn't add the lucas Zinc break in additive everytime I change my oil. I use Rotella 15/40.

I used a break in additive in a rebuild / flat tappet, after i ran the motor with the additive it looked like water was in the oil. After two oil changes oil looked normal.

Oil looked fine..the motor is in a Owens ski boat I restored

Can you expand on this?

Glass beading an aluminum intake on the bottom side is a big no no. The glass embeds in the aluminum then when the motor gets hot the aluminum expands and drops all the glass right in the oil and trashes the bearings. Kinda like liquid sandpaper. To much zinc in the oil will corrode the journals on the crank. Vr1 oil has 1400 ppm of zinc in it. Zinc doesn't get corrosive until you get over 2000 ppm of zinc Lucas oil is the only one with that much zinc in it. I personally wouldn't add a break in additive to VR1 but I highly doubt that is your issue. If you grind the crank in the wrong direction it will leave burs stand up in the wrong direction and the points will trash the bearing 2... If the crank is ground in the right direction the points on the burs will just lay over. We are talking stuff that needs to be seen with a microscope / magnifiying glass. Just ask anyone who knows what they are doing.

Are you saying Lucas oil is corrosive?

Ken

I'm saying its right at the limit. I don't really care for it. Seems like water to me.

my understanding also