My friends 510 project and the Electromotive L-3 cam, which has too much lift for the valvesprings we had, lead to a long conversation with Iskendarian cams about camshafts. He got a nice auto cross cam and the advice to use ONLY GM EOS and Diesel or Aero oil. EOS is a very high moly additive. Isky said that the Diesel and Aero oils were the only ones left with good additive packages.

Comments?

I hope SammyG sees this as he is in the oil business and has opinions on oils.

Geoff

Yeah, oil can be "controversial " but I found it interesting in that I have heard before that the lack of "energy conserving" properties was beneficial.

My concern was that Both diesel and Aero engines run a much narrower (even constant) RPM and there may be some properties associated with varying RPM. (Strictly a guess)

If you have incompatible cam/lifters there is NO OIL going to rectify the condition- You ARE going to be a statistic, and probably in less than 100 miles.

That pretty much goes without saying.

There has been an alarming increase in break in cam failures in general though. The above was Isky's take and recommendations on the subject. We all know that the first 30 minutes of the new cam and lifters life is THE most critical. Any thing that can be done during that time to ease its life has to be a good thing.

For aero engines break in we run straight mineral oil and 75% power for 25 to 50 hours. There is an
additive you can buy for some of the oils I can't remember which. It is just an additive (small bottle) for
helping with camshaft wear. Zinc, and phosphorous are the typical anti-wear additives. Moly is a friction modifier. Apparently
API has asked for a reduction in phosphorous because it clogs up catalytic converters. Duckryder you
probably have heard that non energy conserving are better because of bikes. Energy conserving tend to
have a high moly content. This causes wet (bike) clutches to slip. Dry clutch no problem. I am running
Amsoil in my bike f4i and love it. Shifting is much smoother.

Yes, but all the failures I have witnessed would have never been lessened in severity by an oil. The problem was metallurgical- or the part was pure junk..

A better oil will help the better parts to last longer in the upper end of their life if used in break in...

Like I said, no oil is gonna keep a soft lifter or lobe from wiping out, OR keep the pushrod cups from bursting like what we saw last year with the ONLY lifters that had never went flat on us.

when I get this fixture done its gonna drastically decrease the myths about lifters and cams./

I was not suggesting oil will save a cam or lifter. I was trying to point out that in aero engines it's just straight mineral oil for up to 50 hours @75% power. I believe the additive is to help the oil stick on startup. Remember most of these engines sit for a long time between runs. Personally I would not run aero oil in my car. I would run deisel oil though I have heard it is good. The reduction in phosphorous may be a contributing factor in newwear problems.

I have broken engines in with peanut oil before! My old 2332 TI engine used zero weight oil!

If I was caught pouring a jar of skippies into a customers $50,000 TSIO540 I think I would be looking for work.

My Nascar buddies run it in 75K engines all the time for break in.... They run a mere 8-10PSI of oil pressure too! WILD!

they also have relatively high loading (more EP properties needed) and operate at MUCH lower rpm.
in addition - aero oils have to deal with scavenging LOTS of lead; full synthetics don't do that as well.
we haven't had to deal with lead for over 20 years.