You can't speak for the "board" Dave

I'm sorry... I have to reply to that one, Dave. Quick and I were friends. Not best friends since high school or anything like that, but we were friends. He made me a deal on some parts. We had friendly conversations all the time, and I was kind of bummed to see him leave. There is no way he would have attacked me like that. And I know he wouldn't call me a racist.

Now Robster or Rodster or Roloster or whoever the hell you are, please do not ruine this thread. It is a good thread with great information. I would ask that the mods remove all of the irrelevant banter, but I know they won't, so I politely ask that anyone else please don't distract from the original purpose of the thread.

dr dave

pixiedust... are you talking about a windage tray that our generus hostess sells here?

//www.minimania.com/part/MIN500/TRANSMISSION-GEARBOX-WINDAGE-TRAY-MINI--MINI-COOPER-S

i can make this with the cardbord in my garage. much lighter than even crappy carbin fiber. I think if you are outside the box you can make anything. I will make it and show you all.

i ran and invented and had mini spares manufacture  and sell a oil seperator plate to go between the trani and crank  1990 . 

re the zinc & cam followers-

A current problem is ALL the cam followers [lifters] coming out of UK are made elsewhere, and none now supplied have the correct convex radius on the face. Many are dead flat, some are even concave. The more expensive ones (lightened or Isky) are as bad as the cheaper ones. Unless convex, the lifters don't spin as designed.

Both Keith Calver in UK and Graham Russell in Australia have resorted to radius grinding NEW ones to make them useable.
If you fit flat or concave lifters to a motor, expect cam problems- regardless of the oil used.

I'm just gonna revive this thread with one post because I don't really feel like re-typing everything I've posted in this thread. I'm not an oil expert, but I've done plenty of research, spent my own money on oil analysis, and gone above and beyond what 90% of most drivers do to find the right oil.

Yake what you want from it. Seems that there's a new oil thread every couple months and all the same players in the game have to be convinced again. Put whatever oil you want into your car. But don't do it blindly. Do your research or don't complain when you get bad results. This is all my very informed and educated opinion.

One more thing about the Amarillo-TX drive I mentioned - I had that the Mini floored literally for hours. It was the only way to keep up with traffic pulling uphill and with power slowly declining as the altitude rose. I only stopped for fuel - never stopped to cool the engine off or let it rest.

(In Wyoming, I had it floored at least 7 out of 10 hours driving in that state, as the power really had gone away at 8,000 ft. altitude and I had to pull to the left to let semis pass me on the right. ) Ah, how nice to have a turbo to compensate for altitude...

Bluedragon is right. I would say that any oil with a Zinc level above 1000ppm will be just fine for any enthusiast that is changint the oil every 3,000 miles.

If you aren't interested in the Shell Rotella T6, you may look around at others. I would; however, recommend that you don't buy an oil thinking "you can just use ZDDP additive to raise the Zinc content". This is bad practice, and there is no real guarantee that it will be soluble in your oil.

I'm not here as an advocate for one oil over another. If you don't want to run Rotella T6, by no means will it hurt my feelings. haha. I really just want people to be able to research an oil and make sure it's gonna work for them. If you want to run dino oil, go for it.

But I think the community here can/should agree that synthetic oil will work with our cars as long as you do a little homework.

There isn't any non-synthetic 5w40 because only synthetics have the properties to enable such a broad range. Conventional motor oil with such a range would be more VI (viscosity improver) than oil, and VI is what breaks down under heat and pressure. It's one reason why synthetics are usually "better" - because synthetics don't depend on VI to get multi-viscosity properties, they are less likely to break down. 

I've used synthetics for 40,000 street miles of Mini driving with no issues. Redline 20w50 synthetic took the punishment of climbing out from Amarillo TX to Denver CO at 100°F with no issues (temp gauge nearly, but not quite, at max - highest I had ever seen it hit.)

If a specific oil doesn't work well in practice, that's a good reason to stop using it. But there is no inherent reason not to use synthetics. I really have not yet seen the logic explained on how a synthetic can be bad for these engines. I also believe the zinc issue is overblown to some a considerable extent - my personal belief is that there was some bad metallurgy coming out of various cam manufacturers around 2004 and they latched onto diminishing zinc as a scapegoat.

Massive amounts of zinc in the oil don't mean more protection - it means longer lasting protection. Zinc doesn't build up like a thick coating on parts subject to friction. If people ran cars with low zinc oil for 10,000 miles between changes, they might find the zinc levels depleted. But most enthusiasts change their oil much more often. I would be very surprised if the oil of an enthusiast, changing oil every 3,000 miles, had any signs of zinc depletion with any modern motor oil.

So....couldn't find any dino 5w40.  All I found was Castrol Edge 5w40 and Rotelal 5w40....both full synthetic

edit..I just reread Mtymous posts...I may give the Rotella a try.
As A bonus....Walmart had VR1 on the shelf....I bought some to try in the summer

x2 on this oil

this is what I have been personnaly using in my 77 with a 1380, single carb. I tend not to drive it on those really hot summer days.

Fry an egg on the asphalt type days. No complaints though. Seems to be great oil. I havent had the head off in years though so I cant verify the valvetrain.

//www.phillips66lubricants.com/brands-products/Single.aspx?pid=325&brand=Kendall+Motor+Oil

I'm on board with Pippip. Valvoline VR1 Racing Oil. I ran the 20/50 Castrol for years. The A-Series engine even runs better on Valvoline. I noticed it from the first time I switched, (else that or it had to be the fresh wax job on the paint! HA!)   Mini Estate

//www.minimania.com/msgThread/112124/1/1/What_oil_to_use

None taken here either. The car is an '89. It will look very different in the coming months. haha.

The garage was pretty awesome, but now I'm stationed in Oklahoma. Not nearly as nice of a garage, but I do have a storm shelter that I can/do use as a mechanic's pit. haha.

thanks MtyMous. No disrespect intended. Hope none taken. I like the pics of your car btw. Year?  You have a really nice garage!

I hope none of this comes off as argumentative or presumptuous. My wife asked me if I was arguing with someone online because I typed a lot of stuff. haha. I try to put "haha" and other things to show some humor. But really, I've just done a lot of research and paid a decent amount of money to decide on the oil I'm currently running. And it's worked very well for me.

I highly encourage anyone that is even interested in truly getting a good oil take the same steps. Research before, and at least send out a sample after a couple oil changes. I think I usually pay around $40 or so.

It's not going to mention that it's compatible with seals on a brochure. It's just by nature of the oil group. Group III oils are generally derived from a traditional "dino" oil for their base oil. This means it won't be any less compatible than your good old dino oil.

The "data sheet" referenced isn't very detailed on anything really. haha. It's more of a salesperson's brochure if you ask me. And it doesn't really do a good job of explaining the oil in any way that we usually find relevant.

The "ZDDP" is a common term used around here that the layman can assume to mean Zinc and Phosphorus. In actuality, it's an additive used in the oil manufacturing process that adds the Zinc and Phosphorus to the oil. So you won't ever see an oil analysis that lists the levels of ZDDP. You'll see the amount of "ZDDP" displayed in a measurement of the two metals.

It is marketed as a diesel oil. The main reason it is marketed as such is because it has a very high sheer resistance which is important to big rigs. There is more detergent than normal in T6, which again is important to the big rigs. But mostly because it's "Heavy Duty" and the oil it replaced was also marketed at Diesels. haha.

As far as the numbers I'm talking about (ppm numbers specifically) they are coming from the oil samples that I sent out to Blackstone Labs. My USED oil came back 3 times and never had a Zinc content lower than 1000ppm and that was used for ≈ 3000 miles. I can't remember the Phosphorus numbers but I know they were never less than 900ppm. Which is still great. The numbers I posted were from my own sample of "virgin" oil that I sent to Blackstone before I ever ran the oil in the first place. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of my analysis right now. I'm on leave in Texas and can't scan them. But I just did a quick google searh and found another person's analysis. His numbers were consistent with mine. And Blackstone labs is known for having their numbers come out a bit low on virgin oil samples because of the method they use for testing.

Here's the virgin sample:

interesting that the specifications and approvals codes list both diesel and gas - for use in any vehicle????

they say SM : while superb, it is not current SN grade ( since 2011) .  All these are superior to older oils

see API Service Classifications Petroleum Quality Inst of America

nowhere in this data sheet does it say anything about zinc, phosphorus, or ZDDP.

No mention of being compatable with seals.

It appears to be marketed at big rigs and diesel equipment.

Do I have the right product? Is this the Rotella T6 in question?

Can you elaborate on those ppm numbers and where you got that data?

//s02.static-shell.com/content/dam/shell-new/local/business/rotella/downloads/pdf/rotella-t6-brochure.pdf