Doesn't matter what's in the oil? I guess in the past the zinc was just an accident. So maybe new lifters are junk as most is likely being made in China but how many cams were ruined by improper break in. I've been building for over 40 years and I never had a cam go out in 15 minutes but I have sure seen plenty of other people wipe one out before the first oil change. As for roller cams being a fix all, that wasn't my intention either. I do however go along with the idea of building old stuff just because it's what I grew up with and I love it but I also love new tech like OHC, SFI and COP's. Now that brings me to drive gears, I've had to replace my share of cams in stock vehicles that wiped out dist. drive gears too. The last engine I was working on was a roller cam STOCK 5.7 L that would not time up and run right because there was so much wear in the distributor drive that the cam sensor system would not phase in. It would run good at idle but run like **** anywhere else. I never finished fixing that one because the guy couldn't afford the repair bill and I retired since then. Nothing warrants indefinite life expectancy aside from good oil and maintaining the vehicle and even that's a given. But I can assure you that cam manufactures make much ado about using cam break in additives with cams requiring it! So as far as what's in the oil, I'm going to stick with my opinion and what has worked in the past and lines up with the instructions on the cam sheet and use an additive in any vehicle that requires something in the oil to keep the lobes with a peak on them. Now at the time, I own a Cummins 5.9 with a flat tappet system and I have no idea how many miles are on it anymore. I haven't used anything but some Slick 50 in it many years ago and good oil, haven't changed it as much as it should have been at times but I did replace the valve springs a while back with stronger springs because it needed them after I turned up the Inj pump and increased the boost press.. The last time I needed to install a stronger set of springs was in a 360 AMC which in those days was something every AMC needed because the stock springs where crap new, after a few months the cam and lifters went away, none of the parts got move from their OEM holes. The cam simply was not hard enough to handle the load. I did the same thing to an later 360 I had but I traded it off before it went down on me so whomever got it, it was their problem, I did it because the engine would not idle right without the springs. All old 360 AMC were low on springs and would miss fire at idle do to lifter pump up. But this is off subject. Factory rollers and old flats and zinc are all a part of something few of us have the expertise to argue with, so it does matter what's in the oil from engines to old Jeep Quadra tracks. If it wasn't in there, it would die an early death! Trust me on this ! You don't run cheap oil in a Diesel and expect it to last half million or more miles. Don't expect a G360 trans to live behind a Cummins with the wrong oil in it either. Wait till you find an engine that has been run with multi visc oil in the very old days and take it apart to see build up on everything that looks like a coating of rubber strings everywhere, with so much wear on the parts it looks like sand went through it because it gelled up and would not pump. What was in that oil? What ever it was didn't work.
