Something else is to blame and it isn't the oil.
Josh
We have some specialty oil companies that are doing good things but I feel that some of the basic formulations, rather than just the zinc or phosphor contents are more to blame than anything. I bet if a guy was running on a stash of Pennzoil from the 70's he wouldn't be having any problems with cams going flat.
There are plenty of examples of people using Brad Penn, Gibbs, Kendall etc break-in oil and still having cam failures.
Maybe I'm lucky, but the last 3 Crane cams I have installed and broken in within the last 10 years I used regular Rotella and left both inner and outer springs installed. I'm not messing with reinstalling that crap later.
No issues.
Keep in mind most cam suppliers are using cam blanks from only a couple suppliers. So it doesn't make sense to try and compare any of the cam companies against each other. They are all using the same stuff.
The key also is nobody is taking into account that a ZDDP content of .14% or more is good for short term break-in, but horrible for long term durability. .008-.10 is considered the best for long term durability.
What happens is Joe Blow thinks he needs a boatload of zinc using some Brad Penn concoction with some GM EOS pushing the total ZDDP levels well over .2%. Guess what happens? It literally attacks the metal. Sure the cam breaks in perfectly fine, but over time the cam then becomes wiped out. It might take 1000 miles, it might take 10,000 miles, but running a syrup receipe of zinc isn't the answer.
Using 70s oil isn't the answer either. It actually has lower zinc than a comparable "90s" SG rated oil. So does SJ. SE and SF are garbage. SA-SD are complete junk as well.
Current CJ4 diesel oil has as much or more zinc than the old SG. How many wiped cams using SG? How many wiped cams using SJ?
What else was going on in 2000/2001 with the introduction of SL? The economy tanked, Johnson no longer made high quality lifters and companies tightened their bank accounts.
Josh