interesting read (oil zinc levels)

kenbob wrote: I read an article in some farm magazine about 20-30 years ago where someone tested cold starts on an engine and found out 90% of all engine wear occured during cold starts. About the same time Consumer reports did a test on the frequency of changing oil.  They used New York City taxi cab fleet as their test base.   There conclusion was we spend too much money on oil changes as there was little difference between the cabs with different oil change intervals.  Seems like it was a useless test as cabs have very few cold starts over their lifetime.

x2, I have read somewhere that one cold start (cold cold, like cold enough to need an oil pan heater) in a car = 500 miles of wear (I forget now if it was 500 or 5000, but I think it was 500, 5000 seems like it is a bit high...)

we ran this in our pulling tractors. 
https://lucasoil.com/products/engine-oil-additives/engine-break-in-oil-additive-tb-zinc-plus

I think the most important part to this is as collectors our tractors sit more than they run....through the changing temperatures of the season's and just time itself the oil starts to run off of the steel parts inside, the next time we start the engine it runs without sufficient lubrication on the surfaces for a period of time due to the oil being cold and having a thicker viscosity or maybe due to the older lubricating system and that it's just not there yet. The cam lobes and followers can start to develop small amounts of corrosion that runs into Spalling on the followers and surface delamination on the tips of the cam lobes....this is where the zink kicks in to protect this all. I agree with the above responses if we wouldn't be using advanced exhaust systems with O2 sensors and electronics we would still be using oils that are more zink fortified.

Another topic is starting....people say well I just start it for a few minutes a couple times a year so I know I'm good.....Well, this may be causing more harm than good. As the engine starts to warm up condensation is made due to temperature differentials, this could be worse on a cooler day for example....unless you get the engine to full operating temp to completely burn off any condensation that has been introduced into the crankcase u may be shutting the engine down with small amounts of moisture inside that will induce rust more than if you'd of left it alone until the next time you were going to run it for a longer period of time.

x3 steve on your last two posts!! this was the point of my two threads on this subject.just trying to save us all some grief down the road.

Edited by ac45dave - 12 Feb 2018 at 9:28am

kenbob wrote: I think your 5000 figure is right.  That article I read the wear was more than 90% I think it was 97 or 99% but I said 90% to be conservative.  Seems like if you had a good engine and never shut it off except to change the oil, it would run forever or close to it.

The more I think about it the more I think it is, because I remember it being kinda shocking how many miles worth of wear it was....


DakotaSteve.... I agree completely on the condensation issue, the amount on the outside of my engine I assume is sorta close to the inside, and that is a LOT of water getting into my oil. TO combat this I always run it till it is hot, (like you suggested....) and also change the oil in the spring to get the watery stuff out.  My 0.02....

- Ben

I agree on viscosity....another benefit of the synthetics....they have a much better flow rate at a given temp than most petroleum based oils, therefore they are going to get to where they need to be faster.

For example...I use a 0W-40 weight in my Honda Foreman. I use it for ice fishing in the winter as well....when it's -20 on the ice and I start up..it's flowing like a 0 weight, when it's 90 in the summer it's flowing like a 40 weight. You wouldn't do that with petroleum based oils.

I've used Rotella 15W40 in both my old motorcycle and old tractors.  So far, so good. these are opposite ends of the RPM scale- My '70s Yamaha redlined at over 9,000 rpm and the tractors are under 2,000.  Has worked fine in both.  I switch to 10W30 in the winter (for the tractor, motorcycle hibernates), but it's still Rotella.  I see no reason to buy anything more exotic or expensive.

Edited by HoughMade - 12 Feb 2018 at 11:52am

Brian, yes I agree. I personally feel that the zink in the oil helps prevent things like "Rust".
Engines that sit more than they are ran can use anything that's in their favor to help their longevity.
Oils have been discussed and discussed for many years....I'm sure that won't change. I think as long as the info is out there folks can pic and choose what they believe in and what suits them.

JC you are using sideways math there.