Oil for your ZZ4

[jm8032]

Ordered a case of Amsoil 20w50 for my BH Trike (ZZ4) and in a conversation with the Amsoil dealer he suggested I use 10W30.. His statement is below

“There is a pretty easy and reliable rule for oil: your engine needs 10 lbs of oil pressure for every 1000 rpms. You want to use the lowest viscosity oil that will maintain that pressure. Too thick of oil moves too slow and can't carry heat away quickly, and it steals power with higher friction and oil pump drag.”

Okay; I was always told the ZZ4 needs 20W50 and I have always used Amsoil. This fellow knows a whole lot more about oil than I do and I always want to do the best for my machines. Stick with the 20W50 or change to 10W30?

Opinions / Thoughts?

[hogv8]

GM recommends to use 5w30 or 10w30 . That all I've ever used in my ZZ4 engine . I don't understand why a lot of ZZ4 owners don't use what GM recommends?

[502wingman]

Here in Europe we all use 20W-50.

5W-30 is what you use in all climates from Michigan to Florida.

We dont use the bikes in the winter time.

Also these engines are supposed the do their work in cars and trucks (especially the 502s BB). So there is always a "baseload". So GM recomends a thin oil.

A BB in a bike is like reving it in "neutral" all the time; no serious load crusing down the road.

I could hear the valves clicking in my BB, sounded like a sewing machine. No valve clicking with 20W-50 anymore.

[Gladiator]

20 W 50 is also recommended in the Boss Hoss Handbook.

[Ron Radulski]

GM Performance Parts (which is where our BH crate engines come from) recommends 10W30 motor oil (synthetic after break in). I use 15W50 Mobil 1 synthetic in my ZZ4. GM Performance Parts recommends 15W50 in their Racing Circle Track 350 V8's (crate engines). I believe if that is what they use in their circle track racing engines, that is what I will use in my Boss Hoss ZZ4 engine. End of story.

[hogv8]

Well you guys use what you want but I'm sticking with Royal Purple 10w - 30 . I use 50W oil in my Harleys .

[Sonny]

The reality is it doesn't really matter what you put in. It's just personal preference. Nobody will have engine failure from using 10w-30 instead of 20w-50 or from using one brand over another.

[mmaupin]

Sonny,

I agree. The main thing is to keep something in there, although there is a lot of science in this area that I would not come close to understanding.

Early in my career, I worked for a pipeline company that moved finished petroleum products. Most of our pumping stations were unmanned, checked by a human once per week. The pumps were driven by 500 to 2000HP electric motors / fairly good sized stuff.

Occasionally, we would have a mechanical seal fail on a pump. This in turn would wash all of the lubricating oil from the bearing housing, leaving the bearing running in gasoline, sometimes for days.

The bearing were babbitt bearings with temperature sensors built in. Amazingly the only difference we saw on bearings running in gasoline vs. oil was about 10 °F temperature rise.

[Sonny]

Personally I think the differences in oils is minimal and overrated. Not that I would but I'd be willing to bet you could just use dollar store oil in your engine and never have an oil related issue. It's all basically the same stuff. The ZZ4 is just your basic run of the mill engine with a few performance tweaks. There's nothing special about it in terms of maintenance. If it was under the hood of your family sedan and out of sight you'd likely forget about it.

[Ron Radulski]

Personally I think the differences in oils is minimal and overrated. Not that I would but I'd be willing to bet you could just use dollar store oil in your engine and never have an oil related issue. It's all basically the same stuff. The ZZ4 is just your basic run of the mill engine with a few performance tweaks. There's nothing special about it in terms of maintenance. If it was under the hood of your family sedan and out of sight you'd likely forget about it.

Sonny, I basically agree with you. I still remember from "back in the day" when a neighbor of ours who was an engineer at Holley Carburetor in Warren, Michigan once told me. "ALL motor oils are GOOD for lubrication. What separates one brand from another is how long it will last before it breaks down and SHOULD be changed". One last thought Sonny. If I had a ZZ4 350 GM Performance engine under the hood of my Family sedan, I don't think that I would forget about it! It would probably be a "sleeper" type car and I would probably be getting tickets by showing off the power that it had! LOL!!!