API SM motor oil

Anyone got any theories about PTFE I.E. slick50---protect 100---in the old engines?

I think this is kind of simple to solve. Hey everyone on this board with a Hudson is your cam failing? has your engine died? do you have a triumph engine under your hood or a 36-48 Cadillac engine? when I pulled the pan on my 308 last year the cam was covered in oil seems to me the oil pump and oiling system was working fine. Just pulled down a 308 that had been sitting on my garage floor for a year the cam on that was covered in oil. I use straight Quaker State 10W30 always have never had an engine fail.

So come on people who is having their cam fail who has pulled down an engine and seen excessive cam wear or lifter wear. I could care less about the crap I read on the Internet want to hear from people with Hudson engines......

This has been beat to death on most car forums. The general agreement is that for the most part, we antique car people don't have to worry, ZDDP was not in the oil available when our cars were designed and built anyway. In our cars: valve spring pressures are lower, most (with solid lifters especially) have gentler slope cam profiles, and we change our oil more frequently than is really necessary. As long as you properly break in your fresh cam and lifters, and drive it like a valuable old friend rather than flogging it like a rented mule, change your oil as appropriate, we will not have any problems. Some of the complaints I have been hearing about cams and lifters have been from before the removal of ZDDP. Some were traced to a bad batch of lifters for Ford products that did not get heat treated and failed quickly. Antique cams being re-ground improperly causing lifter wear, a bad batch of cam blanks from a third world supplier, and so on. The one thing that seems constant is that everyone wants to blame the oil first. That seems like taking the easy path. The Bronze and oilite bushings and gears will do fine as long as they have an adequate supply of oil, and are not overheated. Adequate supply, that means clean passages through the engine, do not use "non-detergent" oils in any car! They will not dislodge any existing crud and cause problems, they will simply prevent any additional sludge from forming, which will block oil passages, slow drainage to the pan, and impair splash systems badly. All of the crud that stays suspended in the oil can be grabbed by the filter when so equipped, or dumped at our usual intervals. We don't need to panic over SL or SM oil ratings.

Let's worry about something else, like "why won't the hardware stores carry cloth insulated wire anymore?"

Zephyr and Jim,

nice to see some sensible posts on this so called problem. I for one am sick and tired of seeing this issue trotted out like an old pony every six months. And right you are Zephyr there is nothing wrong with using detergent oils in your old car and its better for them. I have a feeling that most of this crap is put out by engine oil additive companies using fake ID's on car club boards.

In a previous post I asked for anyone who has pulled down Hudson engines to post any evidence this is happening to our engines and so far no posters. I have two cams on the bench now out of high mileage engines and if anyone wants I will post pics of the lobes to show the wear is absolutely normal and actually on the low side compared with other engines I have pulled down.

Hopefully we can put this one to sleep. Change your oil often and it won't break down and you are correct we treat our cars like fine watchs and they run great.

I stripped the 267 V12 in my 36 Zephyr a couple years ago, it had 84K on the odometer. Those particular engines have non adjustable solid lifters. (mushroom stems to any Ford guys hanging around) The engine needed to have the crank turned .010", cylinders knocked out .020" to bring them back round, but the cam was fine, as were all 24 lifters, stock size cam bearings right in and after re-grinding valves and setting inital clearance, the engine runs silky smooth and almost totally silent at 400RPM idle. holds 40 psi oil pressure hot and does not overheat even in Florida weather at parade speeds. I stripped a 37 V8 a couple weeks ago, it was a low mileage (50k) wreck. It must have been abused back then, it was .030" over in the holes, crank .020" under, as disassembled and had more sludge than I have seen in an engine since the early 70s. It's really not worth rebuilding. The point of this ramble is that the 2 engines are of similar design, the V8 was far lower mileage but had been rebuilt once already, the 12 had never been disassembled. they were as different as night and day inside. I attribute the difference to oil change intervals. the 8 hadn't been touched since it was wrecked in the 50s, apparently it had been run hard and not properly maintained. The 12, being in a Lincoln sedan with higher mileage had likely been serviced properly and had minimal wear, and light sludge. If we overhaul our engines carefully, check all clearances when assembling and maintain them with proper oil changes, coolant flushes, etc. they will outlast every one of us by a long shot.

I've wondered about some of the panic posts I've read too, shills for snake oil companies.... makes sense, it does seem that there is always a recommendation of some oil or additive that will take care of the perceived problem, it doesn't always come up in the inital post, but usually shows up quickly.