The Green Oil

[Hippie]

I decided to give the vaunted (but inexpensive) Brad Penn motor oil a go. It's a sythetic blend. We'll see if it leaks all over like Mobil 1 did. Back to Castrol if it does.
AFAIK, Jake Raby allows only Brad Penn (and may still allow Royal Purple XPR as a second choice) for motor oil in his ACVW engines.







By golly it *is* green...and smells like plastic.





Brad Penn is a moderately high zinc oil (1500 ppm so - not insanely high), for flat tappets, but I think my cam and lifters look pretty good for 25K miles of pedal to the metal driving on predominantly modern SM grade oil (like Castrol GTX and Cheap NAPA oil) -Not exacly hot rod valve spring pressure on an old VW.

[vdubzen]

let us know how it works.

how much cheaper is it than regular synthetic?

[Kubelwagen]

I've been wondering about where blends fall out in the whole dino vs. synthetic debate. Anybody have a good sight to recommend?

[Hippie]

let us know how it works.

how much cheaper is it than regular synthetic?

I gave $3.85/qt vs $3.77 for Castrol conventional, and ~$6-7 for Mobil 1 synth, ~$9-10 for Royal Purple synth.

I've been wondering about where blends fall out in the whole dino vs. synthetic debate. Anybody have a good sight to recommend?

Usually they run about 30% synthetic content.
You can try snooping around here:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/cms/

[Bleyseng]

Can't tell crap in those pics! pull a lifter and clean it and check to see if it has its crown still or its worn flat. I don't like the lobe pic...

The point of using a high ppm oil is zinc protection of the flat faces of cam and lifter. Using a non zinc oil is playing Russian roulette.....

[Hippie]

Can't tell crap in those pics! pull a lifter and clean it and check to see if it has its crown still or its worn flat.

1. Mind your manners. The correct way is to say "Those pictures don't show me much." Now go slap your momma.

2. Uh, no. I'm using the lifters right now.

3. All common oils have ZDDP...they just lowered it back to 800 ppm typical, which is still much higher than it was in most of automotive history with flat tappets.

[airkooledchris]

Kendall is green, and I think are the same company as Brad Penn (check the back of the bottle above for the mailing address.)

Ive always used Kendall straight 30 or 40 weight oil in my busses and have started to use it in my beetle now to.

[Hippie]

I like Kendall, never saw green Kendall though, is that a new thing?

(Ya, know the two fingers up logo originally meant "the two-thousand mile oil" back in the '20s, when most were good for about 1000?)

[hambone]

The "peace" symbol must be as old as humanity, with 1000 different meanings.

[Bleyseng]

in Jake's spintron testing of the different oils and required zinc levels IIRC 1200ppm is the magic number so most modern reformulated oils are too low.

[Amskeptic]

in Jake's spintron testing of the different oils and required zinc levels IIRC 1200ppm is the magic number so most modern reformulated oils are too low.

And for cars that sit six months of the year . . . zinc is busily eating your soft lead babbit bearings. I have seen eroded bearings, not a pretty picture at all. Ask dhoch14.

So, I used the $13.97/gallon dino Castrol GTX 20-50 and got totally adequate lubrication and superior mileage out of my bearings and rings and what more need I say? At 419,000 miles, my first crankshaft was still in standard spec. Camshaft had 200,000 miles and showed wear but I expected to replace it. OEM lifters were good at that mileage, I had grief with the Bus Depot-supplied Febis.

Now I have an original-build Volkswagen 2.0 at 43,135 miles, and it is getting the Castrol GTX treatment. T'will be good nuff say I.
Colin

[Bleyseng]

They changed the oil formula's only 2 years ago so all bet's are off on that continuing for BobD...What once was aint no more....

[Hippie]

API SM introduced November 30, 2004.

[tristessa]

And for cars that sit six months of the year . . . zinc is busily eating your soft lead babbit bearings.

So what you're saying is .. don't let 'em sit for six months?

[Amskeptic]

They changed the oil formula's only 2 years ago so all bet's are off on that continuing for BobD...What once was aint no more....

. . . I have put almost 200,000 miles on the Road Warrior since then. If the formulation reduced the zinc, did that make the oil's anti-scuff properties worse? I think not. Did it give relief to our long storage periods with old-school lead babbit bearings? I think yes. I think oil has been following the greater demands we have been putting on engines that we expect to give us extended oil change intervals and longer service life.

Now Jake has been banging at the edges of the envelope with his own demands on what I consider to be the weak link, the metallurgy he has been coming across. Down in my 67 hp universe, I am not w-o-r-r-i-e-d about my o-i-l in the s-l-i-g-h-t-e-s-t.