Not so good news, i called and talked to 2 people from Mobile and 2 from crane cams. The answer i got was as follows.

1. NONE of the oils available today at wallys auto zone ect will work with flat tappet cams..None it will ruin your engine if it has a flat tappet cam. This info came straight from 2 people at crane cams. The savage does not have a flat tappet cam but it has fingers that ride on the cam so it needs a higher % of zinc than new cars or bikes with roller cams. Beware things have changed!!!! Oil aint just oil anymore!!

2. The zinc in mobile 1 bike oil  20-50 is 1600ppm 10-40 1200ppm. last update was dec 2011???? This is bike oil, way lower in car oil!! Any car oil dont use it. The standards have changed what was true 1 year ago is no longer correct. Call them and ask for yourself!

3. Flat tappet cams need a min. of 1500 ppm to survive. most of the stuff out there today is 600-800 ppm. Add zinc or buy Brad Penn or other racing oil.

4. Crane cams could not recommend a min. ppm zinc content for our bikes.....but he said if using ANY over the counter car oil add extra zinc from lucas, red line or others!  They recommend Mobile 1 20-50 for bikes.

5. The lack of zink is also causing rapid wear of valve guides as well as cams and followers. He did not think much of ethanol either which brakes down the oil at the top of the cylinder and the valve guides....another story!

6. Bottom line buy oil with high zinc or zinc additive or get screwed

7. Modern cars and trucks use roller cams that do not need near as much zinc. The savage is not a roller cam it needs more zinc!

8. Update, old oil with the letters sg-1500 ppm or sf-1800ppm both high zddp-zinc content, after lots of searching, it seems Rotella T and Delvec DIESEL oil have 1200 ppm zinc which is enough for the savage engine.

This info came from Crane and Mobile 1 today im only the messenger. Maybe this info will change some minds and save some motors not just the ones in our bikes!!!

Here is a link to give some a better idea of what is going on.
http://www.opelclub.com/ZDDP2.pdf

More need to read this entire thread, times have changed Crane makes camshafts for many cars truck and bikes, they said dont use car oil there is NOT enough additives in it.

ALfromN.H.  FSO wrote on 08/09/12 at 05:58:55:


Al it has slowly evolved over the past decade or two. With synthetic and synthetic blend oils, chemical additives,changes in engine technology,etc. it's changing every day. Thank the diesel industry for helping us to have a supply of oil that meets the needs of our fine machines. Old school technology rocks!

After all the changes they have been making to oil.......I'm probably going to stop putting car oil in my car!

Dave wrote on 08/09/12 at 10:26:42:


I use T-6 in everything but my brand new under warranty Nissan -- and I feel bad every time I put SN grade synthetic car oil into it (when it gets past the 3 year warranty period T-6 goes into it as well).

T-6 you could comfortably run for a year at a time,  SN (according to Nissan) requires changing every 3,750 miles (and you wonder about it all the time as it is really some crappy weak oil).

The cat converter is always the rub with T-6, but I have been using it in cat converter yearly checked Acuras for 6 years now with no issues and I know my old acuras use/smoke some oil since  they are both past 200,000 miles now.   If I was gonna fail a cat test due to T-6, I'd have done it by now (knock on wood, twice no less).

The answer is a variable.   There are type 2 cats that have gone into place since my Acuras were new that are more sensitive to contamination (but are more effective) than the type 1 cats were.  

They also cost more ($400 is cheap for a type 2 cat).

I too value the engine and drive train more than the cat converter, but I have also gone through the drill where the engine light comes on and you have to replace a $150 sensor so I also get a glimmer to the other side as well.

I wish I could find a rock solid synthetic SN grade 5w30 oil that used one of the new calcium additive packages that had gotten the rep for being long lasting and just plain good on BITOG.  

Ain't any there, yet .....

Dave, if your car or truck has a roller cam the oil out there is ok for the cams, rollers dont put near as much stress on the cam as flat tappets or finger lifters. That said i dont know how to get past the guide wear and ethanol dilution of the oil...... The crane engineer i spoke to said chemists are working on both of those problems.

Maybe oldfeller is on to something, in the meantime add zinc, cats are cheaper that engines.......

Routy, things have changed in the last few months, call crane cams or mobile and ask about the zinc and other additive changes.

Routy wrote on 08/09/12 at 15:01:05:

The reason automotive engines are lasting longer even with the lower High Pressure additive packages is because of new tech in the engine itself. The valve train is where the highest pressure point in the engine when it comes to wear surfaces.  The addition of roller lifter or in the case of overhead cam engines roller followers has greatly lowered the wear in these areas, as has the increased lubricate filtering efficiency and capacity,  not do to revealing the pressure but because instead of rubbing over the cam it rolls over the cam.  The reason the older engines did not until recently start having issues with abnormal valve train wear is because of the high pressure additive packages.  Automotive engine oils also help with the use of friction modifiers but in the majority of the motorcycle world we cannot use the oils with this because of our wet clutch.  ZDDP works because it can stand the high pressures in those areas where the oil part breaks down.  In the case of older engines there were also higher levels of the ZDDP in the oils so that is why they kept from wearing out. Now with the new oils and the lack of a high pressure additive that is what is causing the issues in the older type engines with current oils.

Hope that makes sense and I'm sorry for the rambling

R.F.