I know that many on this site use VR1 due to its high zinc content, and I was on board as well until I heard a guest speaker at a continuing education class I take here in northern NJ—Collecting Cars as a Passion. The speaker is a race oil engineer/designer with over 20 years of experience with a major motor oil brand, and actually designed the motor oil in this past weekend's Indy-winning Honda.
He gave a crash course in lubricants as well as how to read and understand the API donut on the back of many, but not all, motor oil containers. Turns out that VR1's SG rating (and the lack of the API donut on the container) means it doesn't meet API's current classification guidelines. Actually, the SG rating has been phased out since 1988 and is now considered obsolete. The SN classification—along with SM, SL, and SJ—are considered current. The SG classification is so old that the engine tests for it were retired many years ago. In a nutshell, if the container does not display the API donut, anything could be in the bottle. This gave me pause to say the least.
VR1's zinc content is .13 to .14, which translates to 1300-1400 PPM, low for a racing oil that needs to be above 1600 PPM. Also, racing oil is not really designed for street use. The speaker designs and sells his own ZDDP additive. I can post the website, but I don't want to appear to be hawking his product. He is very helpful and will discuss your cars/needs one on one. I went through my cars with him and he recommended a modern synthetic with the SN rating and a ZDDP additive for maximum protection. I've always been skeptical of using synthetic oil in an older car due to leaks, but apparently that's just not true of modern synthetics.
Again, no affiliation here at all; just thought I'd pass along some food for thought that got me thinking...
He gave a crash course in lubricants as well as how to read and understand the API donut on the back of many, but not all, motor oil containers. Turns out that VR1's SG rating (and the lack of the API donut on the container) means it doesn't meet API's current classification guidelines. Actually, the SG rating has been phased out since 1988 and is now considered obsolete. The SN classification—along with SM, SL, and SJ—are considered current. The SG classification is so old that the engine tests for it were retired many years ago. In a nutshell, if the container does not display the API donut, anything could be in the bottle. This gave me pause to say the least.
VR1's zinc content is .13 to .14, which translates to 1300-1400 PPM, low for a racing oil that needs to be above 1600 PPM. Also, racing oil is not really designed for street use. The speaker designs and sells his own ZDDP additive. I can post the website, but I don't want to appear to be hawking his product. He is very helpful and will discuss your cars/needs one on one. I went through my cars with him and he recommended a modern synthetic with the SN rating and a ZDDP additive for maximum protection. I've always been skeptical of using synthetic oil in an older car due to leaks, but apparently that's just not true of modern synthetics.
Again, no affiliation here at all; just thought I'd pass along some food for thought that got me thinking...
