Zinc in oil...thought y'all might want to see this...

A buddy of mine is a marketing director for Valvoline's commercial and industrial lubricant division.
Last night over dinner I brought up the subject of lower zinc quantities in today's modern oils and how a lot of us are concerned about excessive wear on our flat tappet engines.
So, he had a couple of guys in their tech department contact me today.
One of them sent me the attached .pdf file that helps answer some questions and gave me permission to post it here.
The Valvoline oil that is labeled "not for street use" has a very high zinc content but is not formulated for a daily driver. There is a fine balancing act required for detergents and other additives needed for a street engine.
They recommended their VR-1 oil for street engines.
Check out the attachment.
I know this sounds like an ad, but that's not my intent with this thread. I can't count the number of threads we've had on here related to oil and zinc additives.
I definitely trust these guys over some of the other online oil "experts."

They, and the other companies, have really changed their story since 3 years ago. I called ALL of them back then, and they all said "no problem" with SM oil in old engines because of the backwards compatibility. I just wonder how all these "experts" were wrong, since they now all make special oils with more zinc. Should we believe them now? I don't know.

Even Honda uses a special "break in" oil in their new vehicles, and they emphasize not to change it for SM oil for at least 5000 miles. I wonder what they know, and what is in their break in oil.

Well, all he's really saying is the suckers think they need zinc, so its a "problem" for them and an opportunity for us. We'll sell them something that has zinc. Only "fact" I see is that the SM oil is backward compatible. Don't know about other people, but I prefer facts over widely-held beliefs. If you go to WallyWorld and look at their house brand oil it says SM, SL, SJ.

I got tired or reading everyone's claims,listening to everyone's opinion and all the "quote,this oil is better than that oil".I had heard a lot of good things about Brad Penn Grade 1 Racing oil compared to a lot of others.I have been using it for 2yrs,it is actually the old Kendall GT 1.Go to the Brad Penn website and read the history.In December I had a few more guys that started the same thing all over again,its junk,this oil is better than that oil etc with nothing but an opinion to back it up.At that time I deceided to spend a couple bucks and get the real facts.Here is an unbiased oil analysis from Stavley Services in Kansas City.Should answer a lot of questions.Now,I would like to see someone else step up and do the same with some of the other brands.Would put an end to the guessing.

I sent in two samples (one new and one used) of Valvoline VR1 20w-50 racing oil for analysis at the local Caterpillar oil lab. This is thier SM rated oil, part number 211 that they claim has extra zinc.
Results for the new oil sample in ppm
Al-0 Ca-2121 Cr-0 Cu-0 Fe-1 Pb-0 Mg-21 Mo-0 P-1049 K-5 Si-4
Ag-1 Na-0 Sn-0 Zn-1182
The used oil sample had Zn-1172

This PDF was posted here several months ago. Same as then, it appears to be informing salespeople of a marketing angle rather than telling us anything at all that is useful.

well, i am running the VR1 in my stroker and I broke it in using regular oil and zddplus (and some EOS- ya, a little paranoid). i changed the oil after breakin and used VR1 and zddplus and after 1000 miles, i checked the cam and lifters and did not have any flat lobes or lifters.

next oil change will be VR1 and Hughes Extreme Pressure stuff. so far so good (knock on wood)

565/575 solid cam