Yeah, that's why I use it. Any parts store or Wally World will carry it. And, seriously, you, of all people are worried about cold start ups??? SHEEEZE.

You'll have to show me proof of a BTR stage III recommendation. Must have been a long time ago.

You need to rig that boat where just the props are in the water. Much smoother ride. That old "everything that goes up must come down" thing is quite the bummer for those crazies that race offshore

 

I’m not saying all Mobil 1 oil is bad, because there’s so many types and grades, each of which may have been reformulated over the past two decades, that it would be silly for me to make a blanket statement like that.
And what works wonderfully for one engine might be disasterous for another. The former local Mercedes dealer (who proclaims himself to be a car guy) used to religiously use 15W-50 Mobil 1 oil for every oil change in the wife’s Merc when it was under warranty, and it sounded like a bucket of bolts. As soon as the warranty expired, I switched to Moli Lube 5W-30 and it sounded much better.
But it is a fact that the formulation for the Mobil 1 5W-30 has been changed in recent years (I believe contemporaneous with obtaining the GM-owned dexos 1 designation) and, as far as I can find out from researching it, that involved the removal of zinc from the formulation. So I think that old motorhead and realcanuk are onto something there. Besides, both of those guys are usually always right, albeit a bad influence, as far as concerns me spending money on car parts.

 

LOL. Not always right ! Often there is no clear cut right or wrong.

I do believe that engine viscosity should be based on the engine build. Clearances etc. On a built engine a good builder should know what's best.
If running a stock short block, I personally would use the recommended viscosity, 5w30 I believe in our cars, but would use a higher zinc oil for the extra wear protection. The downside is if you run cats, high zinc is supposedly bad for them.

Ask 100 people and probably get 100 different answers. Getting Driven oil is a pain here too as no one stocks it. I just order a case at a time which lasts me a year at least. I wouldn't let availability sway any decision you make since it's cheap and easy to just buy a years supply.

 

Pardon me for preaching to the choir, or stating the obvious...

The ZDDP levels were lowered to extend cat life, as cars are lasting longer. I SUSPECT, the EPA (or equivalent) has pressured makers of "main stream" daily oils to reduce the ZDDP for catalyst life longevity. Or Dexos spec?
Hence "racing oil", "motorcycle" or "Marine" oil is outside of that sector, all IMHO.
Next to relgion, the ZDDP is as controversial.
ASTM test 4683 test for high temp/high shear breakdown. The higher, the better...all oils have to have this test done. Sometimes not to easy to get.

 

We don’t have a Wally World down here. What is that anyhow? Sounds like a redneck amusement park to me!
BTW: it’s frickin cold down here today. It hit 72 degrees earlier this morning. Brrrr. Actually I’m really enjoying the weather today, except the rain, of course. The funny thing is that I have friends who are American, Canadian, European, etc. and they all complain about it being “cold” when it hits 78!
I seem to recall that you chided me for choosing such a small cam, way back when, and then you told me to call Brian and said something like, “I bet he’ll even talk you into buying one of bigger camshaft grinds...” That’s my recollection anyhow, but the wife often tells me I live in an “alternate reality”, so who knows if that even took place?
As far as the boat is concerned, we were trying to keep it out of the water as much as possible to cut down on hydrodynamic drag.
It seemed to be working too. We were getting so much air at one point when we hit a wave and went airborne, I could look right through the doors of the helicopter flying next to us. I was driving, strapped in with a 5 point harness, leaning back at a 45 degree angle with my feet planted on the floor to help buffer the impact on my spine, with my friend Ian was similarly strapped in behind me, operating the throttle, with us communicating constantly over the intercom. I had to tell him when we were approaching a turn to disengage the turbo and drop the inside tab, etc. That thing had a secondary turbo with a manually-operated waste gate that kicked in like nitrous. Most damn fun I ever had in my life with clothes on. Mucho grande cajones are a must for that though. Or a death wish.

 

the Mobil 1 15W-50 was the factory fill in the twin turbo Callaway Corvette and had high concentration of Zinc and other additives in it that other weights did not have.

 

Yep, I actually look at the specs, rather than the numbers on the bottle, because some 5W-30 oils are actually thicker than some 10W-30 oils. And they respond differently to higher temps too, because of the almost infinite combinations of additives.
My cats committed mechanical suicide a while back, or at least one did and I took a drill bit to the other. So, that’s one less thing to worry about.

 

Yeah, I’ve been trying to educate myself on oil for a while now, and the one thing I’ve learned is that it’s like everything else: one man’s sugar is another man’s poison. Some say zinc/zddp is the shitz, other says it’s not worth ****.
Anyone on here using Royal Purple? I actually had their holding company Calumet, offer me a dealership on RP products, because I do a lot of business with their sister company, Bel Ray. They even sent down one of their sales reps to scope out the market. He spent most of the time on the beach though. Maybe they offer suntan oil too??
Seriously though, I think all of the dexos certfied oils will have little or no zddp, so maybe the best option is to try an off-road or motorcycle oil in the right viscosity.

 

I've not seen other reports and I searched many other forums, chalked the lack of others reporting due to the cost of the 2110.

My particular car idles from cold at 40 psi as it did when it had 1 mile, and would drop to 31 when hot. It would climb to 55 psi at WOT. The camshaft was installed in late 2008 and ~4200 miles. When I replaced the cylinder heads in 2013 with TFS, decided to replace lifters while there. The heads and lifters were installed at 21k miles. No change since then in OP readings other than it drops to around 22psi in the hot summer and still climbs to 55psi at WOT.

 

just saying I'm comfortable with 40 psi hot idle.would always wonder about a mod that would cause op to drop even if 55 psi is enough.good luck with yours and hopefully never cause an issue

 

So, I’ve decided I’m going to order the Johnson drop-in lifters, as soon as I can get my hands on them.
I’ve also decided to switch from the Mobil 1 to Valvoline VR-1 Synthetic racing oil (black bottle, blue oil - pic below), in the 10W-30 grade. I’ve used this oil exclusively ever since it came out in my race car, my boat and my 6.2 liter truck in the 20W-50 and 10W-30 grades, respectively.
Even though it’s 10W-30, it very close to the viscosity of Mobil 1 5W-30, as per the PDS for each below, with the added benefit of zinc protection.

 

That oil also does well in Rat540's psi test, too.
Getting drawn back in the *what oil is best vortex* for a bit, I also like Amsoils Z Rod 10w-30 (scores high in same test), and Amsoil Premium Protection 10w-40. Both have really good NOACK and TBN numbers, high ZDDP levels and good hi temp/high shear numbers.

I do think we can get too overly concerned with oil sometimes, as MOST of these oils are far superior to anything used years ago...

 

Yep. And I think it's MUCH more important to change the oil often and use a decent filter vs scouting out the current "oil of the day". Particularly if you're known to run around with your right foot matted to the floor. It's not the HP you HAVE that degrades the oil....it's the HP you USE that does it !!

 

Okay, so after pulling the other head off today and taking those 8 lifters out, I decided to do a closer inspection. After looking at all of the lifters with a magnifying glass from various angles and with various light sources, I may have been looking at this wrong all along. I’m now convinced that rather that what appears to be wear in the middle of the wheel, what is happening is that the shiny outer edges of the wheel is actually burnished and this gives the appearance that the middle of the wheel has been scuffed. I don’t have a new lifter to compare the finish of the wheel too, but from looking at the machined areas of the lifter body, the finish seems to be more of a “satin” finish than a shiny finish. This is confirmed by the high polished look of the areas on the side of the lifter body where there is also some burnishing from side loading if the lifter in the bore.
Take a look at the following pictures so let me know what you think. The pictures aren’t the greatest, I know. I’ll see if I can get some better ones with a different camera.
I’m still going to replace the lifters, hopefully with the Johnson 2110s, but I wanted to report back on here, because I may have inadvertently given both the LS7 lifter and/or the Mobil 1 oil a bad review. Anyways, take a look and feel free to share your views.

 

Interestingly enough, a week and a half ago I went through replacing the lifters on mine. After having two custom cams and now back to stock cam and springs...the oem lifters started to make noise. My lifters looked a little bit worse than yours and I also had the BTR .660 springs and ran 90% of the time Rotella T6 5w40 or 10% Mobil 1 0w40. I was told by my good friend that double springs are the cause along with floating valves for lifter wear like that. He told me that even though Brian Tooley sells them as drop-ins, they should always be checked for correct height and so on. I'll tell you that there's no way I will close the engine and later on have to reopen to change the lifters.

 

Really don't believe in "drop in springs" In a majority of cases they will be close and many will get a way with it, but its just not the right way to do things. Most combos will have some differences that will effect heights and pressures.

 

I was always skeptical about measuring, but I learned my lesson. You can also tell by removing a couple of springs and look at the bottom of it. If it's shiny it is spinning on the locator and that's a no no. Basically spinning springs=valve floating

 

Thanks guys. Interesting discussion. I’ve always thought that the best thing would actually be to test installed spring pressures and shim accordingly to achieve the highest seat pressure on all springs, since I would assume that spring pressures themselves can vary from spring to spring, irrespective of installed height. If I were doing a high RPM solid roller set up with adjustable rockers, etc., I would check the installed spring heights.
As far as the lifters are concerned, I called BTR today and they’ve already shipped out the Johnson 2110 lifters. I’ll see how they work. Everything I’ve read so far indicates that they use the same 7.4” pushrods as the stock LS7 lifters. I’ll definitely check the preload and report back on here.

 

Interestingly enough, even switching from 243 and factory LS7 lifters to the TFS heads and 2110's required the use of 7.400" pushrods. I already had several sets from 7.375" - 7.475" in the cabinet. To my surprise after measuring and calculating preload at ~.045" if I remember correctly.

Make sure you measure your PR with a set of calipers, as most are +- .010" from stated.

 

Thanks. I’ll definitely check that.