Australian range of Valvoline products

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Francis

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Hello all. I'm back to this great site after a few years so please forgive me if this has been asked recently.

I am looking for any interesting infomation or general thoughts on the Australian Valvoline oil products.

I'm going to go out and say that perhaps the general consensus is the typically Valvoline is considered a lesser quality or more run of the mill product when compared to Castrol, Nulon and Penrite?

However I'm often looking outside marketing views and believe perhaps there might be a few products that are under rated?

I've tried to find VOA or UOA on any Aussie Valvoline products with no luck.
 
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Valvoline has irked me in the past when they stripped all PDS's from their website and replaced it with dumbed down marketing PDF single pagers.

I have used durablend and XLD 10w-30 before, they seem OK, I couldn't tell the difference. Durablend 5w-30 developed a tick which disappeared when I changed it out straight away. Can't say for sure it was oil related, and the mechanic could not locate the source of the ticking.

I'd use their Durablend products no worries; their synpower range of non euro viscosities is severly lacking in parts stores.
 
I think Nulon are pretty [censored], noisy and wasn't smooth at all. I would choose Volvoline anytime but i think Castrol Edge could be cheaper than Valvoline during sale.

anyway, i'm using RP right now, very happy with the improve throttle response and FC gain.
 
I personally wasn't a big fan of Nulon either, but I thought it was just me as they seem to of really taken a huge cut of the market in the enthusiast area.

One thing that I have noticed looking back at SJ and SL era TDS's is that the Phos level of all Valvoline products are lower than most of their competition, which in turn would mean lower Zinc. The VI number was lower than most other also. I too have been frustrated by the lack of TDS's and the delay in getting hold of them.

It does seem (based on marketing) like it's a company more content with making standard products rather than exceptional ones that would compete with the likes of Nulon and Penrite.

There has been a few events or comments I have come across that have just kept me interested in the product.

A very well known Camshaft company technician once told me he only ever uses Valvoline XLD Premium in his engines and recommends people do the same in your typical 60's - 80's era V8 engines. He told me it's a straight forward, strong reliable engine oil that has never caused any issues for the thousands of Camshafts he has sold. He has used this in high perforamce stuff with and with out rollers.

Second to this, and I'm yet to find out more on this, a very well regarded No [censored] style engine builder I know told me that for many years during the 70's era Valvoline XLD was the top choice for tuff street engines. GTHO, XU1, ect. He even told me that it was used in a supercharged speed boat motor that ran on methanol. It was often the speed shop oil. He mentioned that only once oils like Corse Plus and Penrite HPR came out and where directly marketed toward the performance street / race seen that XLD took a back seat and just became a standard type oil. The latter popularity of synthetic's pushed the perception of XLD further down, but he still had no issues using it in tuff V8 engines driven hard.

I'm keen to hear more from anyone around that 60's to 80's street machine era that could tell me more about how XLD was used.

I'm also keen to hear if anyone has any recent stories of uses with XLD and it's latter developed oils like Engine Armour.
 
XLD and a tin of STP was standard protocol back in the mid 80s.

The pickings were very slim.

Castrol GTX 20W-50
Valvoline XLD 20W-50
Shell super SF 20W-40
Shell XMO 15W-30 (had a rep for wasting engines, would be pretty good IMO).
Mobil super Drop 20W-40(50)
Mobil 1 (pretty sure it was really low comparative viscosty, and later 15W-50, although that may have been early 90s)
BP Corse was around early mid 80s.
1987, and my service station had Agip Sint 2000 which was pretty cutting edge...my neighbour ran it 5,000 km in his turbo volvo (had bits of Francevicks race car on it), and then another 5k in his Dato 1200s.


Early 90s, we got Duckhams, and a few others.

In hindsight, we've got too many oils.

Oz got by pretty well on one name brand 20W-50s, now every brand has many shelves, and many viscosities on each shelf.

It can't and shouldn't be that complicated.
 
Id say not very. Most cars might now say to use a 5w30 here, but most dealers and workshops use 5w40 across the board.

IF it's not a 5w40 prob the biggest selling oil here for later model cars is a 10w40.

For many many years and still in many uses 20W 50 was king.
 
Originally Posted By: Francis
Id say not very. Most cars might now say to use a 5w30 here, but most dealers and workshops use 5w40 across the board.

IF it's not a 5w40 prob the biggest selling oil here for later model cars is a 10w40.

For many many years and still in many uses 20W 50 was king.


Your are right most new car dealers I know don't run a 5w30 in OZ they run a 10w40 or 15w40 unless its the high performance HSV requiring purely M1 5w30.

The temps in OZ don't drop below that low in winter below 5 degC and heavier grade oils can be substituted based on the climate factor of the OEM manual.

Penrite Oils has gone they other way and has a series called the plus 10. eg where a 10w30 oil is required they subsitute it with a 10w40. Work that one out.
 
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Australian's seem to have a cultural dedication to thicker oils. I worked with Orbital Engineering a couple of years ago on an engine project, and the engineers there didn't consider anything below 30-weight to qualify as engine oil. They were recommending 40-weights for the 2.0L 4-cylinder they were designing for a Chinese customer.
 
Hi,
Francis - Welcome back!! The 20W-50 viscosity was introduced to the World by Duckhams in 1959. I was especially designed for the BMC Austin 850/Morris Mini. To put it mildly he integrated engine-gearbox with shared sump was "very hard" on the lubricant. The following year Castrol introduced its 20W-50 and during the 1960s this viscosity became the "fix it" lubricant!

20W-50 could be used to mask oil consumption issues and for many here in OZ it was the ultimate in "all year round" use. Some modern engine families sure suffered in drivabilty though! Mr Average Motorist probably didn't know - or care!

In NZ during the 1950s monograde 20w-20, 30 and 40 were the prime viscosities but Mobil introduced Mobiloil Super 10W-30 around 1955 or so

10W-30 was a very popular viscosity along with 20W-50 in NZ during the 1960s but monogrades still ruled due to the age of NZ's "vehicle fleet"

In OZ in the 1970s monogrades 30 and 40 were very popular. The VW Beetle was a best seller during the 1950s-1960s! The mineral lubricants 10W-30, 10W-40, 20W-50 and Castrol's 15W-50 Formula R synthetic (ester based) had a large following too

One independent Porsche service provider used/uses a Valvoline 25W-50 lubricant in 928 V8 engines even though it has never ever been recommended by Porsche in any road engine application! The 32V version of these engines perform best on the FF (in 1992) of 5W-40 or 0W-40 - or any lubricant on the Porsche Approved Lubricant List

In the Queensland Tropics where I live I see people buying monograde 30 and 40 in great numbers along with all of the newer viscosity multigrades. The Dealers here closely follow the engine Manufacturer's recommended viscosities

People do seem to buy on price and not specification. M1 0W-40 and Castrol Edge 0W-40 sell between $A75 and $A95 per five litre pack. Cheaper lubricants are around $A25>

In heavy diesel engines here in OZ monogrades 30 and 40 had a following long after 15W-40 was introduced. Today 15W-40 HDEOs still rule in trucking applications (especially those using US engines) even in areas that have ambient temperatures as low as -15C and as high as 45C. Synthetic 5W-40 HDEOs have a following in cost conscious operations and in Euro engine applications such as MAN and MB

As Shannow suggests we have a very wide selection of excellent lubricants here in Australia - too wide a choice no doubt for Mr Average Motorist
 
Originally Posted By: Francis
Id say not very. Most cars might now say to use a 5w30 here, but most dealers and workshops use 5w40 across the board.

IF it's not a 5w40 prob the biggest selling oil here for later model cars is a 10w40.

For many many years and still in many uses 20W 50 was king.


Wondering on this well. Suppose I had bought my new Mustang at a Ford dealer in Australia rather than here in the US. I wonder if I would be told by most that using anything other than 5W-20 would lead to catastrophic failure?
 
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Hi Doug, exclent info and very interesting. I'd like to talk to you about all that. Being a history buff and in to engine oils it sounds like you would be the man to ask questions to.

What did ever happen to Duckhams. I remeber that brand as a kid in the 80's.
 
Originally Posted By: troyh
Originally Posted By: Francis
Id say not very. Most cars might now say to use a 5w30 here, but most dealers and workshops use 5w40 across the board.

IF it's not a 5w40 prob the biggest selling oil here for later model cars is a 10w40.

For many many years and still in many uses 20W 50 was king.


Wondering on this well. Suppose I had bought my new Mustang at a Ford dealer in Australia rather than here in the US. I wonder if I would be told by most that using anything other than 5W-20 would lead to catastrophic failure?


Mate you can bet you would be running a 5w 40 here. Even if you took it to Ford.

I know I'll get shot down for this on this site, but I just personaly like the feel and sound of an engine that has something like a 5W40 or 50w over 10w30.

Interesting even if you talk to the USA camshaft companies they will tell you not to go less than a 40W for most V8 style motors.
 
Originally Posted By: troyh
Wondering on this well. Suppose I had bought my new Mustang at a Ford dealer in Australia rather than here in the US. I wonder if I would be told by most that using anything other than 5W-20 would lead to catastrophic failure?


Well, my Infiniti isn't a Mustang, but I was wondering the same thing a time back. It specifies 5w-30 in North America, and I wondered what the Australians might specify. Apparently, it's 5w-30 as well.
 
I know this is a debated comment but regardless of that in general engineering, mechanical and enthusiast circles it's often regarded that the factory spec light weight oils are for EPA compliance and fuel
Consumption standards. Even the dealers tend go go one grade heavier in most examples. Going up the scale a little might rob you of compliance but gain you in long engine life through better durability and ware protection.

Don't shoot me down but I would say this is a wide shared view among many over in this part or the world.
 
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I'm moving away from fancy oils and just going HDEO. My BMW motorcycle needs a 20-50 and am not sure about GTX now it has gone SN. So last week I picked up a 5L of Valvoline XLD Classic - I reckon it'll do just fine. Couldn't find a UOA ot VOA on it, so will do my own next year.

Duckhams became part of BP, and disappeared. BP was using the name for their performance oil,and their first synthetic (Visco 5000) was marketed as Duckhams. Now BP pushes Castrol as their oil.
 
Hi,
Francis - Duckhams became part of BP several decades ago. It was joined by its great rival of the 1930-1960s - Castrol - several years ago! Sad that!!

You said this:
"Going up the scale a little might rob you of compliance but gain you in long engine life through better durability and ware protection."

There is no contructive evidence that I know of that supports this proposition as long as the Manufacturer's recommended viscosity range against ambient temperature range is complied with!
 
Originally Posted By: troyh
Originally Posted By: Francis
Id say not very. Most cars might now say to use a 5w30 here, but most dealers and workshops use 5w40 across the board.

IF it's not a 5w40 prob the biggest selling oil here for later model cars is a 10w40.

For many many years and still in many uses 20W 50 was king.


Wondering on this well. Suppose I had bought my new Mustang at a Ford dealer in Australia rather than here in the US. I wonder if I would be told by most that using anything other than 5W-20 would lead to catastrophic failure?


If thicker oils harmed the engine they would destroy themselves when cold and oil was 15-20x thicker than when hot... Heard of any engines blowing when short tripped in cold weather???
 
Originally Posted By: supercity
Just a heads up on a great deal, I found Safeway sell Valvoline 15w40 SM synthetic blen "Engine Armour" series, 4L for $22.95!

Supercrap has 5L for $54.88

http://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/online-s...103#Description

You're in Australia (Melbourne) right. So why are you linking to Supercheap's NZ site. The Australian SuperCheap site lists it as 32.88 for 5L.
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-...013#Description

BTW. I always thought we get ripped off with high prices here in Australia. But it seems New Zealand is much worse. Ouch!
 
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