WEDGE WORLD TECH
From Hughes Engines
Dedicated to bringing news
And truth to wonderful
World of Mopar wedge engines
Issue #1 Oil and Flat Tappet Cams
Welcome to the first issue of Wedge World News. Our goal is to help our customers to understand the issue they might have to deal with when working on Mopar wedge engines. These include 318LA,5.2 Magnum, 340 and 360 LA, 5.9 Magnum 383.400, 413 and 440 engines.
Note: These are ENGINES; they are not “motors” that you plug into the wall at night!!
Oil,Cams,Chat Rooms, Lies, & Money Don't believe all the lies that are spread in Chat Rooms by chatters about flat tappet cams. The problem is not the flat tappet cam. They are the same as they have been for over 125 years. It is the oil, baby, the oil!
Twenty five years ago the "government" (and we are here to help you) decided to make the oil companies stop or reduce the amount of Zinc (ZDDP) in the everyday oil they sold. The Zinc (ZDDP) additive in the right quantities was what allowed a flat tappet cam to live. The oil companies did not mention this to anyone, even NASCAR teams (that were using their oil) were wiping out cams right and left. All flat tappet cams are bad "The sky is falling- The sky is falling". When the oil companies finally told the NASCAR teams the problems, some teams began to brew their own oil. Joe Gibbs was one of the leaders in developing his "Driven" oil which saves a lot of cams/lifters and continues to this day. The "government" also said that ZDDP would ruin catalytic converters - and they said that the COVID virus did not come from a lab in Wuhan, China. I read that on the internet, too!! It's gotta be true. (Now about that ocean front property I have for sale in North Dakota).
In the intervening 25 or so years many people made and sold oil additives. Some even worked very well. But some of them will not mix with oil and end up as a "lump" of additive in the bottom of the oil pan, and that is where we are today, only most of the additives left won't mix or help. But all is not lost.
There are oils that work with flat tappet cams. Driven Oil for example. This oil is actually better than oil in the old days, pre-government "help". Is it good because we use it? NO! We use it because it is good, and it works!
May 2025 update!! Well, it looks like the days of the flat tappet cams may be over, regardless of what oil you use!
The manufacturers who make cam cores are cutting back on the number of flat tappet cores they make and are looking forward to the day they won't have to make them anymore at all!
