Originally Posted By: Philth
Does Pennzoil Platinum, or other like synthetic, have ZDDP in it like the VWB does?
More so, if I drop my OCIs down to 3,750 (severe service intervals per owner's manual), is there ANY advantage to using synthetic at all in this application?
Between 3.5K and 4K OCI which is strongly recommended for DI engines subjected to severe service (mostly city driving, frequent short trips, idled often), you will likely not benefit to any appreciable degree by using synthetic oil. Therefore probably not very cost effective, especially if you pay more than $5 per qt for synthetic.
I personally rate certain motor oils for DI application, in this order, beginning from probably ideal down to possibly less optimal:
1. VWB, MS5K (low to mid SAPS)
2. QSAD Q State conventional, Motorcraft Syn Blend (mid SAPS)
3. QSUD Q State synthetic, PP, any WPP produced synthetic such as Peak synth and various store brand synth (on the low end of high SAPS)
M1 EP (the current SN GF-5 formulation) is a high SAPS oil, on the mid range of high SAPS.
It seems the original PP (A1/B1 and A5/B5) 5W30 was so good, it almost made you forget about the 10W30 grade. Never seen a poor UOA of that old PP 5W30. But the later version of the old PP 5W30, the one with Dexos1 label on the bottle, is only rated at ACEA A1/B1, Mainline Lubricant spec. ACEA A5/B5 is Upper Mainline Lubricant spec. But this could be marketing [censored] also, because M1 regular and M1 EP both are rated at both A1/B1 and A5/B5, and the 5W30 grade especially of M1 regular carries monthly complaints of it in BITOG, in both naturally aspirated FI and GDI FI applications. But if one takes the ACEA (I think it's Euro derived) specs seriously, QSUD 5W30 (the one with Dexos1 label on the bottle), although it's basically identical with PP 5W30 additive wise and both are acknowledged to be Group III synthetics, nevertheless QSUD 5W30 Dexos1 carries the weightier ACEA A5-02 spec which is predecessor to the A3/B3 spec that is intended for Autobahn operation. Again, it could be marketing [censored] concerning QSUD 5W30, because that's a Resource Conserving oil for CAFE purposes and for new vehicles, and for sure QSUD 5W30 has HTHS viscosity below 3.5 which is the minimum requirement for meeting ACEA A3/B3. Inconsistencies. Also, the new PP PurePlus (with GTL base oil) 5W30 is once again rated to meet/exceed both A1/B1 and A5/B5, whereas the new PP PurePlus 10W30 only meets/exceeds the easier specs SN and Resource Conserving GF-5. On the other hand, the Noack number of PP PurePlus 10W30 is incredibly much lower than the Noack number of PP PurePlus 5W30. 10W30 is going to have lower Noack than the 5W30 counterpart, but in this PP with PurePlus case, much much lower, as published by Pennzoil, and yet, Pennzoil says nothing of PP PurePlus 10W30 meeting any advanced ACEA spec. Inconsistencies.
In short, either 5W30 or 10W30 of the QSUD and PP synthetics is going to be a decent performer in your sump, but IMO not near optimal for a GDI engine.
Yes, PP and others also contain their own ZDDP. I learned through BITOG that the most useful byproduct of ZDDP undergoing chemical reactions is the phosphorus antiwear layer on metal surfaces subject to very high pressure, especially on iron.
Here I read of some Euro fully synthetic oil that does not contain the ZDDP family of compounds, but in general, motor oils almost always contain ZDDP at varying concentrations.
I mentioned Lubrizol, because over there ZDDP was discovered, I think either in the 1940s or the 50s, and IMO they know more about automotive lubrication than any other single corporate entity, well, not by much. When I use an Ashland product (Valvoline), the number one reason personally is because their oil additives are supplied by Lubrizol.
Infineum and Afton are two other major additive manufacturers that I am aware of, thanks to BITOG education. Both are also very high quality.
Both XOM and SOPUS oils carry Infineum's additives, generally speaking.
