Popcorn ready.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/11/tribology&fsrc=nwl

__________________
Mike

82 Spider
86 560SL (For Sale)
87 CX25 TRD Turbo 2
89 Milano Verde
89 Mondial t Coupe
92 300D
94 E420

An article suggesting that diesel rated oils are better for old cars than normal gasoline oil?

Great read. I'll probably start doing the same for my brother's 1990 Nissan.

__________________
-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

Didnt expect to see an oil thread spawned off an Economist article!

For those who don't want to read it it the cliff notes takeaway for us is keep using the diesel rated oil you are using in our old Merc's.

If you own an old gasoline car, read the article.

__________________
-------------------------------
'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

Man, what an article.

I looked on the specs chart for Mobil 1 and it only has half of the 'required' zinc and phosporus for his Lotus.

__________________
Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

The anti wear additives (zink) mainly was no longer added starting in the nintes' ---diesel oil in everything from now on for me.

Awesome info. Had the nice side effect of making me aware of tappet technology... I assume Mercedes engines now use roller tappets? Does anyone know were they first introduced?

__________________
-Brian

1984 300SD, 375XXX miles, Light Ivory w/ Palomino TEX

I think there was a thread on this some time ago. At the least I have a link at home that talks about the same thing and how to spot which oils still contain zinc. (The Rotella 15w-40 that i've always used is one of them )

__________________
1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

Makes me want to switch to using 15W-40 Delo or Rotella in both my cars.

The 190E with 222k miles uses Castrol 20W-50.

I could forward this link to my mechanic and see what he says.

__________________
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

The Mobil-1 web site has a chart here (dated 5/27/2010) that lists their various products and their attributes.

Mobil-1 TDT 5W-40 is listed as having 1100 PPM phosphorus (K) and 1200 PPM zinc (Zn). This appears to be a "good" level for our older engines. The other Mobil-1 automobile products all are lower (generally 800/900). There are several products with higher K/Zn levels but all are motorcycle or "racing" oils and do not appear to be diesel rated.

Chevron's Delo web site was a little harder to navigate but I eventually found a product data sheet for Delo-400 LE 15W-40 here that gives phosphorus 0.12% (1200 PPM) and zinc 0.13% (1300 PPM) so it is just slightly higher than the levels in Mobil-1.

Therefore, I plan to continue using M-1 in the 606 and Delo-400 in the 603. The recommendations that older gasser owners consider switching to an oil with higher levels of K and Zn (whether diesel-rated or not) appears sound. It does appear that diesel-rated oils are more likely (but not guaranteed) to have higher K/Zn levels. As usual, do your homework!

Jeremy

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

All 6 of our MB's are using 5w40 Rotella Synthetic, gas or diesel. They all run great. I've put 25k on my 300E on the stuff and it loves it. Runs great and uses nothing between 5,000 mile changes.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Interesting read with explanations. Nice.

__________________
92 300D 2.5L OM602 OBK #59

Or just buy it here...

Now I can justify keeping only the TD&T around, ... which is what I do anyway. Even the Cub Cadet likes it.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

So the question I asked in MTU's thread I'll ask here:

Will our diesel rated motor oils still contain a fair amount of the zinc stuff?

__________________
-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.