frustrated

drgr,

The engine oil suppliers have been pulling the zinc phosphates out of the oils by behest of the EPA. Reason being is that when an engine gets some mileage and starts buning oil, these zinc phosphates tend to plug up catalytic converters.

Cam manufactures are aware of this and do provide and reccomend the use of oil fortifiers to add to your oil upon break-in and there are also many aftermarket suppliers of the above.

I've got an engine right now that just developed a tick and after reading your post I'm gona tear off the manifold tonight or tomorrow and take a peak as I need to do it anyway (that's in my Uh Oh.... thread. I was using Valvoline VR1 and they have assured me that the zinc phospate content of this oil is over 1000ppm IIRC, but like I said, I'm getting paranoid about all this.