By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

The big Seattle area Mopar show is just two weeks away so I decided I better give my Satellite some attention. It received its annual sponge bath, plus I cleaned the wheels up a bit (ok, so I'm not too big on detailing). I was also going to change the oil, but then I realized that I had depleted my stash of Rotella T, which I've been running in my Mopar for the last five years. I drove down to the local parts store, and they were out of Rotella. Then I remembered this post by Dan Strohl over at Hemmings and decided I better do a bit of research before either switching brands or driving across town to buy the latest version of Rotella.

So there's been a lot of hysteria on the message boards about the new CJ-4 standard and the lowering of of the zinc content that our old engines need. A little research on Moparts and the H.A.M.B. revealed that the amount of zinc in Rotella T has indeed dropped, but only to 1200ppm, which is still a farily healthy amount of zinc. I have about a quart of Rotella left, so I'll probably buy one more gallon of Rotella T, then next time I may switch over to Delo 400, which reportadly has a tad more zinc.

What did you do this weekend?

Comments

GTwildfire
May 19, 2008 10:10:23 PM

I did some touch-up and finish work on my Firebird. Contemplating the purchase of a new ragtop on Wednesday... found one dirt cheap with a LIFETIME WARRANTY. Hopefully in the fine print, they don't mean a fruitfly's lifetime.
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Also replaced a belt tensioner.

Highspeedhijinks
May 19, 2008 12:37:50 PM

I held the first (CarDomain Members of Upstate NY) club meet (I know the name needs work) and well I'm sad to say it was an udder failure. One member besides my self showed up Saturday night for the meet and greet. Thanks to Member (679499) for showing up.
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I also picked up my new motorcycle, 65 mpg here I come.
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On another note. Gas hit $4.00/gallon at a local gas station. He's high for the area which is averaging $3.90 a gallon, but there right on his price gouging heals.

Doug and Dill
May 19, 2008 11:18:08 AM

OH as for my weekend, sweat a lot on Saturday during the heat wave in Seattle, and then happily sweated through the XXX Drive-In Season Opener yesterday!

Doug and Dill
May 19, 2008 11:15:56 AM

Valvoline VR1 Racing Oil was recommended to me for the break in on my engine rebuild... I've continued using it in my 65Impala sine... it has 1300ppm Zinc across all weights... DElo400 seems to have 14ppm in 10w-30, but 1270 in the other weights.

Now allow me to sound naive.. why is the zinc important??