What oils are you flat tappet guys running?
 

Looking to do an oil change on my newly acquired Firebird and was curious to hear what you guys had to say. I’ve been running Delo in my other flat tappet cars. Thanks

Never mind. Just found a whole thread posted a couple weeks ago. I’ll stick with Delo or Rotella.

Valvoline VR-1 should be in the conversation, imho.

I use VR1 in all of my old cars

VR-1 is what I have been running in my 67 GTO since I got it. 10-30 weight.

Conventional Pennzoil (30W, as recommended) is all it has seen for decades. Since the zinc and phosphorus was reduced in oil, I add ZDDP-Plus every oil change.

VR1, with a can of STP.

Are you guys getting it at your local auto parts? I had to order it from Summit a few weeks ago.

I’ll look into VR1. Looks like a good alternative. Thanks

I get it at O’Reily’s and Advance Auto

Yup...local parts store

I only use Valvoline VR1 20w-50 that already has all the zinc needed in it.

I couldn't find it a few weeks ago at my parts store either. I wound up using another Valvolene product and added the zinc, courtesy of Lucas.

That’s what I’ve been running too.

As does Old Goat 67.

I've been running Rotella for years.

When I was a teenager in the 70s, the first thing my dad did when he bought a car was change the oil to diesel oil. He was a mechanic, so I assumed he knew what he was doing.

I didn't quite follow his footsteps at first. I ran Castrol 30HD and GTX for a number of years in my Pontiacs until I wiped out a cam lobe on my 74 T/A after only about 10K miles around 1996. That's when I started reading about the ZDDP being removed from the oils, so I switched to diesel.

I always ran Rotella in my 78 and 93 3/4 ton 454 Suburbans. I retired the 78 with over 300K miles and sold the 93 at 250K miles. I never had any oil related failures with Rotella.

EVERY old school mechanic I know runs the diesel stuff in flat tappet jobs... thats why I have done the same. It’s good stuff.

I would be careful on the diesel oils. As emissions standards for diesels change, the zddp content may change as well, or may have already. There are plenty of oils formulated specifically for old flat tappet engines, so for me personally I would either run one of those oils or use the additive unless I was truly certain the diesel formulation I was using had adequate zddp.

I'm adding the Lucas ZDDP Zinc Plus additive to Mobil One 15-50w. Going to switch that to Chevron Supreme 10-30w with the Lucas ZDDP at the next oil change.

This is what I run. I used to get it super cheap from Ruralking.com until they stopped shipping to California.