Ok,i've narrowed my choice of oil to use to these (4) brands;
1)Castrol
2)Havoline
3)Pennzoil
4)Motorcraft
Of course all are 10W30 dino oils.Any comments or suggestions are welcomed.

 

Stay away from the Penzoil. Arnold Palmer was lying to us all along. I knew a now deceased machinist/engine rebuilder who warned me off of Penzoil. He told me that it took a very long time to hottank a block that has had Penzoil ran thru it. Also it turns BLACK alot faster than "other oils".
I am half way convinced that Penzoil is just recycled oil. I don't have any facts to back me up, it is just my opinion.

 

Penzoil is Parafin based, Which is a good lube, but probably not the best for a gas engine. Most if not all Hydraulic oils and transmission oils are parafin based, for high shear situations, and excellent anti-foaming properties.

 

Oh I'll just say Castrol GTX. A lot of their success is just good marketing, but they do make a good oil and its so easy to find.

 

I really like the Motorcraft oil for many reasons to include availabilty and price. I would put this oil up against any and all of the fake group III synthetics available here in the USA .

In all honesty I have not seen any better engine oil analysis when the Motorcraft oil is used in the right viscosity has been chosen for the ambient temp at the time of the interval.

Here is a 5200 mile analysis of my 4.6 with 75% hiway miles using the Motorcraft 10/30 and FL-820 filter and 75-95 F temps from 1 1/2 years ago. I have since began using Synergyn 0/20 synthetic with 9k intervals with excellent results however I am going to change back to the group II+ Motorcraft soon. At 1.33 per quart this motor oil is dificult to beat at any price with reasonable drain intervals.

Aluminum - 2
Chromium - 0
Iron - 9
Copper - 3
Lead - 1
Nickel - 1
Potassium - 0
Silicon - 10- good filtration
Sodium - 1
Calcium - 2027
Magnesium - 23
Phosphorus - 731
Zinc - 897
VI @ 100C - 10.1
Fuel - <0.4
Water - 0.0
Insolubles - 0.4

TBN - 7.0

This oil had more miles left ,

 

All of the oils are good EXCEPT Pennzoil. I personally use
Castrol 5W30 in my 3.0L Ranger....

 

Pennzoil is a fine oil - I have been using it for nearly 25 years. Anyone that tells you one of the major brands are junk has got a serious case of diarrhea of the mouth

That old parrifin oil stuff was true 50 years ago, but not anymore. Pennzoil, Quaker State and I think Kendall were all originally made with Pennsylvania crude stocks which supposedly were more "parrafinic", while Havoline and some other brands were made out of "asphaltic" gulf coast base stock. This changed a long, long time ago.

The key is to use a quality brand (all of the ones you have listed are good), stick with it and change it when you are supposed to. I personally like Pennzoil in my gas engines and Shell Rotella in my diesels.

 

I used to bash Pennzoil. Now that Shell owns them, the formulations have improved. My only objection to Castrol and Pennzoil is political, they are owned by European parent compaines.

Havoline would be my first choice in your list. ChevronTexaco has good lubricant chemistry and is very "open" with data and information.

Jim

 

All the oils on the list are good. I think the horror stories about Pennzoil are just urban legend's. IMHO, Pennzoil fell victim to it's own sucessful marketing as "the ask for motor oil." Back in the old days motor oils weren't as good at sludge control as they are today. So every engine had sludging to some degree. Now if you were using Pennzoil religiously, the conclusions were made that was what caused the sludging. I think the Pennzoil user's took better care of their vehicles and kept them longer. So naturally, they were dirtier than vehicles with less milage.

Scott

 

Scott - I think you're headed in the right direction. Pennzoil was probably the target of more criticism because they simply sold more motor oil than anyone else.

I can only speak for my experience, which is actually fairly substantial, when I say that I have seen a total of ZERO cases of sludge buildup that were directly related to motor oil. In every case I have seen where sludge was a problem, it was always traceable to either lack of proper maintenance, use of junk additives or another contributing mechanical failure.

 

Pennzoil is a great oil. Everyone always says they know a machinst/chemist or you name it that told them Pennzoil is bad. That is crap. Not one single piece of evidence exist to back this up. I have asked many times for proof and not a single person on this board that bashes Pennzoil has ever come up with anything other than "I know a guy that is a 'insert any official title here' and he said it does 'this or that'" Nothing but urban legends and a bunch of mechanics too stupid to do anything else to keep it going. I have yet to meet a mechanic or a machine operator that really impressed me. Most think they know it all and actually know very little.

 

I personally use Castrol GTX 10W30 and Motorcraft filters. I have used Havoline & Penzoil, both w/o any problems. I also used Mobil 1 a few years ago, but with the frequency of oil changes, I switched to "lower cost" oils. Good luck w/decision!

 

I use Havoline in my ranger. I have since new and I also used it in my last ranger. No problems with almost 200K miles. I also like that I can get it at K-mart for $1.00/qt when it is on sale. That is when I stock up.

 

I would say use any of the ones listed except for the Pennzoil and just check and change it regularly and you will be fine. I have had the best luck with Valvoline and now am a firm believer in Mobil-1. I will bash Pennzoil because it really is only suitable for dust control on country roads. I tried the new formulation Pennzoil 20-50 turbo oil in my dragster once at the urging of another local racer that is sponsored by them and the Pennzoil rep was very convincing and he gave me a case to try. I run my valves after every event and am used to seeing my nice silver titanium retainers and gold Crane rockers. They are always very clean as are the inside of my valve covers. Well after two hours of running that Pennzoil everything was black. I had to take the whole top end including my valve covers to the solvent tank to wash that black crap off. It even stained my aluminum rods. It took a lot of Valvoline to get it all cleaned back up.

I personally have seen the sludge of many Pennzoil motors. You know right away when you pull the valve covers or intake off of a Pennzoil engine. The whole thing will be a black featureless chocolate fudge encased gloop bin. In the last 10 years several friends have lost new car engines to Pennzoil in as few as 40,000 miles due to big gobs of that stuff coming loose and plugging up the pump inlets. The quick lube places they all went to every 3,000 miles replaced all 4 engines no questions asked. One was a Ford Escort, one Toyota pickup and a Toyota Camery. Another was a Ford Aerostar V-6. The local police department sued them after the use of Pennzoil trashed the whole fleet of police cars about a year after they switched to the Pennzoil lube joints. It never went to court and Pennzoil bought them new engines. They now have it done with Valvoline at the city shops. It’s way better than replacing engines. On my street strip engine with a .550 lift solid lifter cam, I drove it over 100,000 miles, with 5.38 gears, with the same lifters and springs and when it was pulled down for inspection it was as clean as the day it went together. That engine had 10-40 and then 10-30 Valvoline in it, its whole life. It is still in service today and it still has never been freshened. That said, I do have one other friend who swears by Pennzoil but he gets new cars every year and his race engine pitches the rods every other year but that could be how hard he runs his race engines.

For the last 5 years or so I have been using Mobil-1 in every gas engine I own. The main reason I use it is for it’s superior ability to handle temperature extremes. My wife has never even thought of warming up our Thunderbird before her 30 minute race to work. She hits the key and is up to 70 before the dome light goes out. This treatment had the rods knocking in our Mustang at about 100,000 miles on Valvoline. The T-bird on Mobil-1 has 170,000 on it now, and it’s still tight. On my dragster I can go to the starting line as cold as 100 degrees and that engine is protected as well as not having restricted oil flow from thick oil. It also is protected when I get run back to back in 115 degree heat and my engine hits 260 degrees I can still go. The insides remain clean and my bearings and springs are like new. This is something I could never do with Valvoline.

My neighbor is a crew chief for a Nascar Winston West Car and they buy their engines from Ernie Elliot. Elliot did his own testing and on identical engines he performed this test. Go out on the track and bring car up to speed and temps, come into pits and dump the water out of the radiator and then go back up to speed until destruction. The regular oil engine went 2 ½ laps before it pitched the rods and ruined the crank and everything. The Mobil-1 engine went 25 laps before it broke its valve springs from the heat but the crank and bearings were unaffected.

Now what oil do you want under the hood while towing up that 100 degree pass or driving through the dessert where it’s 150 miles to the next gas or maybe even stuck in a traffic jam and your car looses it’s cool and you can’t pull over?

 

Just keep in mind that Pennzoil, and Quaker State is the same
oil!!!!!!

IMHO don't use either oil!!!!