Oil for old bikes

[OldHog66]

The old shovel is rebuilt, fresh bore, new pistons, new valvetrain....

There is a lot of hoopla these days about modern oils no longer having zinc, necessary for metal to metal contact in allowing things to seat without premature wear in older engines.

Does modern HD oil have zinc? if not, anyone recommend a zinc addtive?

or other oil mfgs that still have zinc? or...do I care?

Are Old Pan/Shovels immune to the issues of lack of zinc after a rebuild?

(learned this lesson a hard way on an old chevy motor rebuild a few years ago.

Appreciate input from anyone with solid facts about the matter.. what do you run in your old scooters?

[Jack K]

I've seen enough threads on this subject to know your not going to get a consensus.
You ask for facts on the matter,,, I offer none. But, you ask what oil others run in their old scooters and I can offer something on that.
In my H-D and Indian flatheads I run Valvoline 50 wt, period. Well, maybe not "period", I do run Amsoil in the primarys on the Chiefs.
In my 52 pan and 66FL I run Valvoline 50 wt for about the first 1,000 miles and 60 wt Amsoil there after.
I'm not in the business of selling oil, but I've had very good luck (I guess luck is the right term to use) with these oils. I went thru the motor on the pan in1993 and it has had a lotta, lotta hard miles and still runs and sounds good although it is beginning to leak oil around the base gaskets enough to be annoying.

[Sargehere]

Down here in the South (Fla.), I run H-D straight 60, if I can't get Valvoline 60 for airplane engines from an airport (just cheaper than paying H-D's inflated prices). Aero oil is designed for hotter-running air-cooled engines, and the climate down here is a few degrees warmer than "up Nawth."

[bmh]

what type of oil do I use?

Clean

[OldHog66]

No advice on Zinc

that's my primary question... about how the lack of zinc in modern oils affects newly rebuilt OLD HD motors... Does any modern oil still have zinc?

[bmh]

I have been using Valvoline R series oil in either 50W or 60W as required for longer than I can remember. I've got no complaints, got 35K out of my last shovel top end. And if the valve spring collar hadn't broken on a missed shift I'd have gone another 10K easy. Of course I change the oil in something like that every 2000 miles ,1000 in the winter when I ran her year round. Bottom end has about 45K on it and still going strong.

[Chris Haynes]

You can buy zinc additive.

[portagepan]

Right. ZPPPlus. Made in USA.
Mike

[panz4ever]

Along the same lines...Can you run synthetics like AMSSOIL if you have a fresh rebuild. see they sell it in 60 wt

[bmh]

Synthetics are fine to use. I use Amsoil in the stuff I ride everyday. A fresh build will like synthetics better than a motor with some mileage on it. The biggest problem I've seen with using synthetics in older motors is that the stuff seems more prone to weep past the gaskets. This is most likely due to the synthetics having better flow characteristics coupled with the fact that motors that have seen numerous rebuilds often do not have pristine gasket surfaces. A good gasket dressing like Hylomar will go a long way to help with that.