Anyone ever used or recommend ZDDP Oil such as Valvoline VR-1 - or is it overkill/unecessary on these engines

Have two 240s - one has 350 and the other has 150K miles

Currently use 10w40 summer, 10W30 Winter - Castrol GTX

Thanks

No need for high ZDDP oils in these old red blocks. Or for that matter in a lot of other engines where people seem to be wringing their hands about it. The approx. 800PPM of zinc and phosphorous in the latest (API SN) oils is plenty to protect your nicely broken-in Volvo.

But you may want to consider 5W30 as your "winter" oil, as it has the same hot viscosity as 10W30 but will flow and lubricate faster at cold startup. For what it's worth, I use it year round in my 1983.

Some good info in this link, from a GM powertrain and lubricants specialist. The whole paper is interesting, but the ZDDP part is contained in the "Starburst Oil Myths" section. http://www.nonlintec.com/sprite/oil_myths.pdf
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Son's XC70, daughter's XC60, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), and XC60. Also '77 MGB with Chev V6, and four old motorcycles. Long gone: 1981 244, 1994 940 and 1998 S90.

Hi Bob,

Just catching up on the zinc question and enjoying your Starburst Oil Myth link.
Here I thought that name only referred to a chewable candy or fireworks!

The part API lettering is correct about the SN designation for the latest revision in oils.
I have concluded that every so many years they change the letters, SF, SJ and so on.
Now they have finally gotten to the letter N.
Reducing and adding different additives to make the present newly letter oil “backward compatible” to a previous oil. This way a chain is created to make a “no loss” in engine protection.

This has always been one criterial perimeter used to redesign motor oils or other petroleum products and marketing has always played a role in twisting a hawing the truth to “up sell.”
Even the new synthetic oils had to work with the public or consumer demands, of which, is the manufacturers demands who want good for their products as well!

We have seen for a few years now, that API, has finally settled on some additive package that replaced the Zinc Phosphate, so the “N” is appropriate to mean, there’s NONE!
This has beat away the EPA and overall, it is cleaning up and helping the recycling oil industry.
In all likelihood the new oil you buy today is not made from totally Virgin crude but is a mixture that has to exclude the Zinc Phosphate to get the SN rating.
I’m pretty sure you are not going to find anything but SN since all the oil sold today is higher in price period!

The cheaper oil of my recent years of $1.00 a quart are gone!
Not that it cost more to make, but it had to go up in price, to bring the cost of synthetic down from where it started out in1974!

The 1974 oil embargo push forth the drive for synthetics and Mobil’s synthetic oil came in round “puncture spouting” quart cans! I have an article in Popular Science as a cover story!

Don’t remember when the cans went to foiled paper insides, maybe then too!
A case of oil was 24 quarts too!
I Remember bulk non detergent oil was sold in glass jars in gas stations, up till the sixties.
It was a Nickel a quart.
Even going back farther than 1974 and if non detergent oil thinking “could” still be around, well, that would be a giant set back!

Yep! Amsoil was there, with its ridiculous prices per quart, just the same. The race was on, but lots of empty seats!

What about Zinc Phosphate then?
What API rating was the synthetic, a SF?
Lots of turm...oil, as I Remember!

Today is about the same thing, except it’s called “market” sales or “branding” and anything else they can think of! There it is!
The amount of zinc in that tiny bottle of additive, of what type of oil carrier, is minuscule and probably not well disclosed either!
When it comes to synthetic blended oils ... I ask, just how much of which type oil is in a quart anyways?
It’s never disclosed!!
So, raise the price of conventional oil, to make synthetic oil look reasonable and WE all pay to get a more expensive seat at the oil race contests!

Yep, you don’t need ZINC in Volvos!

Phil

Just use what you been using. There's no magic you can do to an already high mileage engine. These red blocks go for many miles with regular maintenance. One of the best thing I do is to add "Seafoam" to the crankcase 100 miles before the next oil change. It will quite the engine tapping by removing and varnish built up from the engines hot oil.

Using 5w30 in winter is a good suggestion. I used 10w30 Castrol GTX for many years until I became aware of 5w30’s superior cold start flow and lubrication abilities. It is also recommended for use in newer engines.
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Will I buy another Volvo??? We'll see....

Thanks all - once again - it's all MARKETING - all useless products to increase their $$

It's the flat tappet OHV engines that suffer from lack of zinc. B18/20/30 in our cases. The Later OHC engines like your B230 can survive happily on much less due to the different wiping action of the valve mechanism. It was cut back due to the damage it did to cat converters. Very few OHV engines in cars when those came on the scene so oil manufacturers lost interest in making sure they were being properly lubricated. High zinc oil is a miniscule part of the market.

Castrol GTX did have higher levels of Zinc and Phosphorous years ago but now doesn’t.

http://www.pqiadata.org/CastrolGTX10W40.html

FYI.

You do know that all the marketing put into engine oils has made this a controversial subject with as many opinions as there are people?

Having said that, here's mine: as long as the viscosity and API rating at least meet Volvo's recommendations, you'll be good for astronomical mileages on redblocks. Of course oil changes should also be as frequent as recommended by Volvo.
With modern engines it's potentially much more important to meet or exceed the EXACT specs set down by manufacturers. Sometimes these specs are more specific and/or strict than the API ratings alone.

"With modern engines it's potentially much more important to meet or exceed the EXACT specs set down by manufacturers. Sometimes these specs are more specific and/or strict than the API ratings alone."

Yes. In the owner's manual and in a sticker under the hood of my 2016 XC60, Volvo make it clear that they recommend you use only synthetic 5W30 that meets the ACEA A5/B5 standard. API is not even mentioned. (ACEA is the acronym for the French language version of European Auto Constructors Assoc.) Relatively few oils meet that standard.
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Son's XC70, daughter's XC60, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), and XC60. Also '77 MGB with Chev V6, and four old motorcycles. Long gone: 1981 244, 1994 940 and 1998 S90.

After many years of working on RWD Volvos I've yet to see the kind of camshaft wear on any OHC red block like you see on the cam-in-block B18 and B20 motors. I also use Castrol GTX in varying weights on all the 240's I've owned. My 1980 245 has over 300k - oil changes at 3k with Castrol. I use the same on my rebuilt 144S B20 and have many track days logged. The same cam and lifters have been in 2 motors for a total of at least 200K miles -- but the lifters are from a SBC and the pushrods (different length with the SBC lifters) are tubular rather than the stock bits. I wouldn't worry about the oil for a B21-B230 with straight Castrol. - Dave