chevron vs pennzoil

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it seem like we mostly agree that among the conventional oils, our favorites seem to be chevron, pennzoil, and castrol gtx bringing up the rear. i'm talking about the 5-30, 10-30 variety here, not the hdmo's. if you had to choose between the chevron and the pennzoil, which one would you pick? keep in mind that while the pennzoil is typically more expensive, it's also easier to find. it seems like walmart is phasing out the chevron. that leaves service stations, which in that case, raises the chevrons price to more than the pennzoil. thanks, penzdude
 
Well, here is a little summary of those 3 oil's wear metals (in ppm/1000 miles) that I made from various UOA reports on this site. All are plain old dino.

Really, they are so close in performance, I'd buy on the basis of avialability and price. 10W30 seems to perform better than the 5W30, but there are also more 10W UOA reports listed too.

code:

5W30 Oil Chev Castrol Penn

Samples 1 6 4

Ave Miles 4,550 4,633 3,744

Alum .66 1.33 .53

Chrom .22 .25 .20

Iron 2.42 2.16 1.87

Copper .66 1.04 .60

Lead 0.0 1.51 .87

Tin 0.0 .11 .27



code:





10W30 Oil Chev Castrol Penn

Samples 8 6 9

Ave Miles 4,334 5,185 3,691

Alum .43 .64 .69

Chrom .03 .16 .30

Iron 1.18 1.67 2.53

Copper .81 1.00 3.46

Lead .63 .48 .69

Tin .13 .06 .06


I think the high copper reading for Pennzoil 10W30 is more a case of the cars (Hondas and GM) used in these particular UOA, rather than the oil's ability itself to handle copper.
 
Roger,
Interesting summary. On a per 1000 mi basis Chevron out performed Pennzoil across the board except tin. But the Castol held its own with Chevron.
As far as availability, its not a problem in Calif. Once a month they have it on sale at Kragen for .69 cents after rebate. Hard to beat that.
 
Thanks Roger, that's a pretty neat survey you put together.
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One thing, though. Is that problem Taurus/Sable V6 included with the Pennzoil? How about the dealership with the (supposed) dirty bulk tanks?

--- Bror Jace
 
Now that both Walmart and Advance stores in this region have changed their stock of 5w30 Havoline to the Chevron label, that's my oil of choice in my wife's '03 Cavalier. I can't see a reason to pay more money when I probably won't get any real increase in protection, plus its very easy to find in stock. My Ranger calls for 5w20 so I still use Castrol 9 months of the year and M1 0w20 December through February. These are 2 of the 'thickest' 20 weights made.
 
Bror, not sure. I'll just email you the whole file. Each UOA is identified by member and date of posting, so you can check it out.

The UOA postings on this site are is a gold mine of info. Frankly, I got the idea from TooSlick (wear by ppm/1000 miles) and Bill Miles at Maxima.org. I wanted to compare specific syn & dino oils I'm considering for my various cars. I screened out the "orange" UOA's ...witches brews, early engine break-in's, high mileage, 3 oz. maintenaces doses of Rx, and engines with recent repair, and the like...that didn't match up with my "apples" driving patterns. So you'll see it is a limited sample, but the "problem" reports should be screened out. Probably left a couple of key ones out by mistake. Enjoy.
 
Since Chevron is being sold under the Havoline label, it's been much easier to find. I've tried both Pennzoil and Chevron in my Saturn. The PZ seemed just fine, but the Chevron oils reduce NVH by noticeable levels. Outside of synthetics, it's the only dino oil that's ever had that nice side effect in this car!

I vote for Chevron/Havoline as the "winner" in the case of my work car. But it probably a coin toss for most vehicles on which one to use. They both post solid UOA's. Funny thing is, I'm using PZ 5w-20 in my new 04 Vue and have half more case of it awaiting duty in my shrine. Go figure.
 
Well-since you are not worried about pour points. I personally would go with Chevron. But thats only a preference. I'm not even sure that Chevron is clearly better.
smile.gif
 
I can buy Chevron oils by the case at Costco. They are as available as anything else and cost less.

The last Pennzoil product I ran was their 10w-30 High Mileage oil. On paper this looks like a nice dino oil but I didn't like the way my Nissan sounded on startup. {Mostly valvetrain/lifter noise, no slapping or anything}

The truck now has GC and it still sounds better after 3000 miles than the Pennz HM did after 500.

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