In this issue you will find a story by Leo Stutzman describing the now famous “No Zinc Oil Bug,” which is lurking close by. I have been following this topic and suggest that all old car owners take it seriously. The oil industry has responded to mandates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce vehicle emissions by reducing/eliminating the ZDDP (zinc dialkyldithiophosphate) content from motor oil.

According to the experts (?), operation of a flat tappet engine without adequate ZDDP will result in lifter and cam lobe wear. There are many excellent web sites covering this situation with pages of research, analysis and charts for your information.

For the last two months I have commented on some maintenance items, so will mention a couple more at this time. Most of our members’ vehicles are drivers and not transported in cozy protected enclosed trailers. This means that we encounter occasional rain or that silent rain—snow flurries—which require the use of windshield wipers. When was the last time you replaced the blades? Not only do old dried out blades do a lousy job of clearing viewing space, if a dried or old blade separates from the metal holder, there are immediate scratches to the windshield glass. This will happen in a matter of seconds—then the damage is done. For a relatively few dollars, replace the blades now.

My toolbox has a variety of strange looking tools that I have developed over the years for a specific use. A spark plug socket that has been modified to fit in a difficult location, open and box end wrenches that have been bent into strange configurations, odd looking screwdrivers (or commonly called pry bars), that get used for all types of different jobs. We have all found our own shortcuts and ways of doing things which I’m sure would be of interest to all the members.

Please write a short story describing your custom tools or tips on how to do some repairs or maintenance. If we get enough responses, possibly we can run a monthly HOW TO column. Lets try it out.


Thank you for belonging to the NAOC.

—Sky Borst