It's not the bottom end that suffers, it's the cam and lifters.
When my B motor had approximately 70-80K miles the cam lobes were worn down
to nubs, and the lifters were spalled all to pieces. I didn't do the initial
breakin -- it supposedly had under 10,000 miles when I installed it (I did
pull a main cap at the time and the bearings looked brand new). While I have
had it it it has used 20W50 Castrol. But over that period Castrol reduced
the amount of ZDDP several times.
Since I put in the new cam I have been adding STP with every oil change,
since I can't find a motor oil with a documented adequate level of zinc. I
won't run racing oil because it's a year-round daily driver (over 210K so
far), not a 500 mile/year driveway queen.
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
on 8/28/10 12:35 AM, Barney Gaylord at barneymg@mgaguru.com wrote:
> Chuckle. Something wrong with "the average LBC"? My MGA fairly
> often does 500 miles in a single day. 385,000 miles and
> counting. So far I do not worry about ZDDP, except during a new cam
> break in period. I run NAPA 20W50 in summer and 10W40 in
> winter. Current engine has 75,000 miles, going strong, never had the
> bottom end apart.
>
> Barney Gaylord
> 1958 MGA with an attitude
> http://MGAguru.com
>
>
> At 11:23 PM 8/27/2010 -0500, "Ron S" (<iverside> wrote:
>> The street version does not contain zddp. VR-1 does contain zddp
>> and is labeled for off-road use only but does not contain the high
>> milage additives of the street version. It is meant to be changed
>> after every race, or about every five hundred or so miles. This is
>> about the milage the average LBC `weekend tourer' does in a driving
>> season in a moderate climate area.
>> ....
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