Engine oil seems so simple. It's slippery. It keeps metal parts from fusing together. It's messy, especially when it has been squeezed, slung, and sprayed around the inside of a hot engine for ...

In the "What's That Stuff?" on motor oil, Steve Ritter mentions zinc dialkyldithiophosphates (ZDDP) as a key antiwear agent (C&EN, March 13, page 38). It has been used in motor oils for more than 60 ...

Let's talk about Zinc. When we say Zinc in reference to motor oil, we are actually referring to the compound Zinc DialkylDithioPhosphates. That's hard to say or spell, so we just call it Zinc or ZDDP.

As someone who's driven classic cars daily for around 15 years, as well as working on and restoring such cars throughout my education, I take vintage automotive maintenance very seriously. Many of ...

Back in the 1980's there was a Valvoline ad campaign using a series of laconic drivers at the wheel of cars fully invested in their smoking death throes who used the tag line "Motor oil is motor oil." ...