I just wish my local wal-mart would get the Pennzoil Ultra in the 5 qt jugs. All they seem concerned about giving shelf space too around here is Mobil 1 synthetic, Pennzoil yellow bottle and valvoline white bottle. The rest come and go.

 

Well PQIA has done 2 more rounds of testing on synthetics & posted up the results.

In the first round of tests they posted a NOAK of something like 6.6% for Pennzoil Ultra, the lowest by far, BUT Pennzoils PDS shows a number about twice that, at 11.9-12.6% depending on the multi-viscosity chosen, so I wonder what gives with those numbers being off That far???? http://www.pennzoil.com/wp-content/u...icMotorOil.pdf

 

Did a lot of searching today after contacting PQIA about their NOACK numbers for Pennzoil Ultra & Platinum & they said they were confident of their NOACK values & suggested that there may be more TDS sheets floating around out there for the Pennzoil products & they were right, here is a link to a May-2012 TDS that's very close to PQIA NOACK numbers. http://www.epc.shell.com/Docs/GPCDOC...1207271344.pdf EDIT: This is the TDS for the SN Ultra recipe. Yup Pennzoil is that far behind on keeping their TDS website up to date!!!!

SN 5W-30 = 6.4% & that's impressive.

NOACK has become important to me, as two of my vehicles suddenly began to consume oil as soon as I began to use the SN recipe of my long used brand, that I'd never had consumption problems with before. Suspecting its NOACK had increased, I was able to confirm on PQIA that it had indeed increased to 15.5% & retested at 15.1%, so I began a search for an affordable low NOACK crank case lube.
What I discovered on PQIA was that many dino SN recipe lubes NOACK had gone up, many in the high 14% range, so I had problems finding an Affordable lube with a significantly lower NOACK % evaporation figure to test with.

Now with PQIA & the newer SOPUS May 2012 data sheets test confirmation & the rebate Pennzoil is offering, I know what brand those two vehicles are gonna get on their up comming summer OCI!!!!! We'll see if a lower NOACK lube fixes their consumption problems, bet it does!!!!!

SO, again, any of you out there with hot running engines, be sure to check your crank case lube level often, as a lot of the SN recipies have a higher NOACK % evaporation & you sure don't want to run an engine low because the oil evaporated & got low. Caught mine in time, but sure was surprised they both were down 1/2 qt & not even half way through their OCI!!!!!

 

Update: MOM says that over the past 5 Years, 20% of bulk oil Still doesn't meet specs, some are seriously short, some not so serious. One in Five Bulk Oils Bad

If after 5 years, 20% of those places sampled Still don't meet spec, it would seem that MOM isn't having much positive influence improving the quality of bulk oil, so those who use bulk motor oil in your vehicles, or fleet, sure need to make sure that your distributor, or installer is providing what you expect & are paying for!!!!

 

PQIA is beginning to focus on the expanding use of 5w-20 in a wider range of newer engines, so it has begun a series of VOA tests on that viscosity, like done on 5w-30 a few years ago & here is a link to side by side comparisons of some different manufactures 5w-20 offerings, NOACK concerns are found, bet more tests are to come. The Petroleum Quality Institute of America

EDIT: If you are having useage problems with what your using, look up its NOACK/% evaporation figure & if you don't know the number, or can't find it published in the manufacturers PDS, call their hot line & request the value. Many SN service grades of 5W-20 & 30 are running up there at or above the max 15% value, so if you suspect you may have NOACK % evaporation useage problems, look up your lubes NOACK value & if high, maybe consider using a recipe with a lower Noack % evaporation number & see how useage goes.

 

PQIA has posted the second round of 5W-20 VOA tests & more brands show high NOACK % evaporation at, or over 15% including Motorcraft & one, Valvolene Next Gen tested well out of spec around 18%, but Pennzoil had a stellar low of around 6%, so it says something about the base oils being used in SN recipe lubes. Looks like Pennzoil may be putting their Pearl gas to liquid Group lll+ to good use. So again, if any of you are using a 5W-20 in a hot running engine, keep a close watch on your engines oil level during your oci. The Petroleum Quality Institute of America

 

If those results are accurate so much for considering Pennzoil yellow bottle a "conventional" oil.

 

Well we'd have to include Quaker State too, as their 5w-20 NOACK % evaporation tested very low also!!!!

 

Agreed. If they are using gtl in these oils and continue doing so, it could be a real game changer.

 

They are flush with GTL GPlll+ right now, so who knows what kind of curve EXXON/Mobil will throw at the market, but if we consumers can manage to keep an eye on whats going on, we sure can come by some good quality lubes for not too much of our gold. But unless we can manage a VOA on what we're buying, or find some other way to keep tabs on what the lube manufacturers are doing, it could go away as fast as it appeared & we might not know the difference!!!

If I had an engine that began consuming 5W-20 oil after the SN/GF-5 recipe hit the market & found that its NOACK had gone up, either of those two, or Pennzoil Platinum or Ultra, with their Noack below 10% would be four good ones to consider trying, to see if increased NOACK is the problem, as consumption should drop if it was.

I'm doing such on 5w-30 in three of my rides right now, as the NOACK had gone up to 15.5, retested to 15.1% on my long time used brand lube, as soon as their SN/GF-5 recipe hit the market!!!!

 

PQIA has posted the third round of 5W-20 SN virgin oil analisis results here. The Petroleum Quality Institute of America