Heres what I learned ; So it was time to change the break-in
oil in my 460 crate engine and I did a quick search on over the counter, reasonably priced easy to find oils. The Local Brad Penn dist didnt answer the phone and I needed the
oil that morning so gave up on it. After consulting the latest product sheets for a few of these racing oils I learned the high ZDDP (
zinc.phosphate oils ) can still be found in oils marketed as "Racing Oils" but most are limited to the 50 weight oils (straight 50 or multi-grade 15W or 20W-50 to meet the recent rules that limit the ZDDP content to I think about 800ppm (so CAT's live a long happy life) in 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, weight oils.
I decided on the Valvoline VR1 Racing
Oil , 20W-50 because its easy to find, cheap and has the 1200-1300 ish ppm I was looking for. Readers note, I'm still using a can of Comp Cams cam break-in lube to be conservative along with the VR1 oil since my engine has less than 10 hours on it.
I learned of a "new to me" Mobil 1 product 0W-50 Racing Oil "formulated for NASCAR Cup engines" with big time 1850ppm for ZDDP, but I imagine that its special order and big bucks per quart ????? Perhaps some of you are already using it ??
I also read the Mobil 1 15W-50 is "back by demand" according to the web site and has ZDDP loadings in the 1200-1300 'ish ppm range. I couldnt find it in my local parts stores though but it shoud be reasonably priced ????.
One question I would like answered by the Lube experts here is at what ZDDP depletion level (its used up as the oil ages) is the oil no longer considered safe to run in our flat tappet cams with high spring pressures (700, 800 900 ppm ?) of course thats a mail order oil analysis to find out. Most new oils with SAE SM rating I think are limited to 800 ppm max ????