I drove the Shell Rotella 5-40 Synthetic as soon as it became available in around 1998. For the ALH, I believe it was one of the best oils on the market.
When EPA changed the rules in '07 requiring the ZDDP be reduced 50% I felt that was like a doctor telling you to take 1/2 your heart medicine. Sure, we could add ZDDP, but a $12 per oil change, that is an unreasonable cost. Our opinion is, the oil you buy should be correct right out of the bottle.
That is what led us to the Schaeffer's 9000 5-40 oil. And we also recommend a break-in oil made by Joe Gibbs, BR. The initial 1/2 hr break-in is 'the life of the cam'.
We do not say this lightly, as with our modified cam, cam bearings, bolts and break-in procedure, along with a limited list of 'approved oils'; we have 2,200 cam kits sold in the last 10 years, with only 3 cam failures. We have many cams exceed 250,000 miles and still performing well. Our mileage leader has almost 450,000 additional miles. We are very happy with our survivability of the cam. It is a part of our success story.
But there are rules to get where we take it. NO MOBILE 1!! NO Castrol! We do not use any additives, as the oil is correct as we sell it.
As for the cams out there, we have seen some head-shaking troubles. Let me first say that just about every cam built for the PD cams today are BILLET. It is NOT because it's BETTER to be BILLET. As a matter of fact, one cam brags that it's a billet cam when IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME THING, ONLY WITH A BIGGER PRICE TAG!
The reason for billet is not particularly because it is better, but because it's actually CHEAPER to produce!
We checked out every cam we could get our hands on, including a Chinese cam and tested them. The first thing I can say is the cams 'Made in Turkey' are good materials, but the same wrong cam profile on the OEM cams.
As for where they are made, the one that says, 'Made it Spain', should say 'Made in Turkey'. We examined the cams closely enough that you could see, not only were several of the cams made in the same location, you could see they were made on the SAME MACHINE! The chatter marks from grinding and the lateral slop as the stone wandered sideways on the cam lobe were identical... like a fingerprint, on several of the different labeled cams.
Each cam was also etched with a Green YAG laser to mark each different cam. But really, they are all the same thing, made in the same place. However, we think there may be a grading system, that some cams are graded better and some worse, from the same factory.
We know there are many who try to install a stock aftermarket cam and are replacing the worn-out cam at or before a timing belt change interval. It's not just the cam, but the cam followers, cam bearings, bolts, worn out oil pump and labor that when required to be replaced again, make a cam that lasts worth the extra cost.
To those who can 'pull it off' and get away with a stock cam, I can tell you the BEW has better life expectancy for a variety of reasons. Past that the reason one cam might survive longer than another: it's driving style, driving distance, cruising speed, temperature zone, and maintenance that will exacerbate wear issues or protect from them.
Homeworld:
If you would like, we would be happy to send you an estimate of repairs. Along with our parts, we also provide 'technical support' and can offer the loaner tools to get the job done right.
