quote:
Originally posted by Lawrence Richards:
Quick,
If you want a fabulous non synthetic racing oil go to Cen-Pe-Co Lubricants out of ohio. Cen-Pe-Co.com they are big in the tractor pulling arena. Not just the farm boys, but the big guns to. I also saw this is being run by Jim Head ,the dragster racer.
Hi Lawarence, Well I did contact Brad Penn and here is most of the response from one of the folks.
"Thank you for your inquiry on our Penn-Grade™ 1 Racing Oils. To give you a little bit of history, Kendall lubricants were refined at our Bradford refinery from 1881 to 1997. In 1997, the Kendall name was sold to Sunoco. Since then, the Kendall name has been sold to 76 and I believe now, Phillips/Conoco owns the rights to the name. At the same time, American Refining Group, Inc. (ARG), a privately held energy company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, purchased the old Kendall refinery in Bradford, Pennsylvania from Witco Corporation. We still had 40 million gallons of product going out our door and needed a new name for them. So, in an attempt to pay homage to the local folks in Bradford, Pennsylvania, a new name was given to the products produced at the Bradford refinery – BRAD PENN® Premium Pennsylvania Grade Lubricants. The Bradford refinery is the only refinery processing 100% Pennsylvania Grade crude oil. In fact, it is the oldest continuously operated lube oil refinery in the world. Lubricants refined from Pennsylvania Grade crude oil have been the choice of manufacturers and consumers throughout the world. Take Pennzoil® and Quaker State, for example. Their names imply the use of Pennsylvania base oils. However, they moved out of the area about 10 years ago thinking that the crude oil was pretty much used up. Little did they know, they simply drilled too far down. New technology in the industry has told us too come up about 400 ft. Geologist tell us now, that approximately 70% of those reserves are still in tact. Too bad for Pennzoil and Quaker State as our owner has bought up all of their properties in the area.
Now, to answer your question of “Do we make an identical oil to the ‘old’ Kendall GT-1?” The answer is yes and no. The same formulation chemist, John Cannella, who formulated the original Kendall GT-1 stayed with American Refining Group. The original Kendall GT-1 was 100% mineral based. What he did was soup up the additive package and put a slug of synthetic base oil in our formulation to optimize the performance features. So, our BRAD PENN® Penn-Grade™1 20W-50 Racing Oil is now a partial synthetic. But the key to the formulation and to the old Kendall GT-1 formulation is the use of ‘bright stock’. Bright Stock is a unique base oil cut unique to Pennsylvania Grade crude oil and our Bradford refinery. It has an extremely high affinity to seek out metal surfaces and attach itself. This “clingabilty” for lack of a better term, is the reason engine builders all over the country fell in love with the old Kendall GT-1 product that came out of our Bradford refinery. One it get there, it stays there. Since 80% of engine wear takes place at start-up, the clingability of our bright stock to metal surfaces protects those critical engine components than anything I’ve seen out in the market, while the slug of synthetic base oil allows the engine to run about 10 degrees cooler."
So here is what the facts are...
I'm still not sure what to do but as there is not a great deal of racing oil here or experience with methanol fueled combustion I will search out a race BB for more information. I was hoping one of the reported oil experts that are on here from time to time may help out but....
thanks
Paul
[ February 04, 2004, 08:40 PM: Message edited by: quick_16 ]