Lake speed Jr inside Valvoline R&D lab to investigate their restore and protect

I would think an engine testing lab should be a little raw. Like if I noticed all the bays at an auto repair shop were completely spotless it would make me a little worried.

Just depends. Some guys keep a really clean and organized shop, I follow "Keep your daydream" on YT and they just had a bunch of work done on their airstream in a new shop that was absolutely stunning. Yes it was new, but the guy literally washed the floor down with those professional/industrial floor washer things (like a zamboni) when he was done.

 
They actually did state they don't believe there is any other oil on the market that can do this. I assume they're referring to off the shelf oils and not HPL/Amsoil SS.
It's easy to be unaware of other oils that can clean dirty pistons if you don't perform the same test with your competitors' oils, which they make no mention of doing in the video or in their marketing.

The test they're performing is not an industry standard test. It's a modified version of Sequence IIIH that starts with dirty pistons, and for all we know they may have changed other test parameters in order to help with the cleaning phase. Nobody else does this test because Valvoline just made it up. Valvoline R&P performed better than any other oil in the test, but it was the only oil in the test. It could be that Mobil 1 would clean up the pistons just as well as the Valvoline R&P using the same test procedure.
 
I've been working in various labs for the past 20 years (cancer research labs). Some of the best therapies in the cancer research field have come from the "dirtier" labs; hence, cleanliness of a lab is not indicative of how good the product is...
I wasn't meaning to imply it had an impact on the quality of work, just conveying what tempers our expectations of appearance, which is experience or what we've been exposed to.
 
I would think an engine testing lab should be a little raw. Like if I noticed all the bays at an auto repair shop were completely spotless it would make me a little worried.
Don't go to a BMW or Mercedes dealership then, lol. Seriously, our local MB dealer, the shop is insanely clean, as was the bimmer shop in Oshawa that I took my M5 to.
 
I wasn't meaning to imply it had an impact on the quality of work, just conveying what tempers our expectations of appearance, which is experience or what we've been exposed to.
Everything seems to be based on "looks" these days and ignoring function. You'd think everyone is just looking at the centerfold and not reading the articles. 😄
 
My expectations of "lab" are tempered by what they look like in Hospitals, which are generally extremely clean. Also, inside nuclear plants are spotless.

Every picture we've seen of the @High Performance Lubricants facility has shown a spotless operation.

A google photo from Infineum's Italy lab. This is what all the hospital labs I've been in have looked like cleanliness-wise:


Also, from what I recall in the Engineering Explained video of the Mobil test facility, it was extremely clean.
Just one thought here on cleanliness of the labs, etc.

I am sure Jr had scheduled this video beforehand with the Lab guys. Me thinks a thorough cleaning job was done beforehand and clean uniforms were suggested or handed out before Jr.'s arrival.

When I was went out to HPL they didn't know what time I was arriving. There was no indication that they had done any special prep beforehand.
 
Most labs with engine testing capabilities are usually not that clean. Valvoline lab looks as clean as any other I've seen. I would never expect it to be hospital level clean.

XOM

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Valvoline

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This is the only spot I though that it looked a bit dingy (again, not an observation about the quality of the work performed):
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Screenshot 2024-05-30 161841.webp
 
Just one thought here on cleanliness of the labs, etc.

I am sure Jr had scheduled this video beforehand with the Lab guys. Me thinks a thorough cleaning job was done beforehand and clean uniforms were suggested or handed out before Jr.'s arrival.

When I was went out to HPL they didn't know what time I was arriving. There was no indication that they had done any special prep beforehand.
HPL also doesn’t have nearly the capability of Valvoline.. Engine lab with multiple test engines vs bench tests is nothing like it. Night and day difference. If HPL was running numerous engine tests for not only themselves but other companies I’d expect things would look a hell of a lot different.
 
It's easy to be unaware of other oils that can clean dirty pistons if you don't perform the same test with your competitors' oils, which they make no mention of doing in the video or in their marketing.

The test they're performing is not an industry standard test. It's a modified version of Sequence IIIH that starts with dirty pistons, and for all we know they may have changed other test parameters in order to help with the cleaning phase. Nobody else does this test because Valvoline just made it up. Valvoline R&P performed better than any other oil in the test, but it was the only oil in the test. It could be that Mobil 1 would clean up the pistons just as well as the Valvoline R&P using the same test procedure.
Listening closely at time 11:00 and beyond (and particularly at time 12:00) , it sounds like they may have first ran the ASTM D8111 Seq IIIH on other oils (so they may even be testing the competitor's oils) that were known to dirty up pistons/rings (verified after tear down on previous Seq IIIH testing to know what oils dirtied pistons/rings), but then just changed the oil to the Restore & Protect without an engine tear down and re-ran the same test and found that the pistons were being cleaned from being made dirty by the previous oil. I doubt they "changed other test parameters", just ran the same Seq IIIH test. Sounds like that's how they first discovered what was going on. After that, who knows what other testing they did, probably much more to verify results. The bottom line is they are confident in what they have found and claim in terms of cleaning ability, regardless if other oils are proven to do the same or not.
 
Listening closely at time 11:00 and beyond (and particularly at time 12:00) , it sounds like they may have first ran the ASTM D8111 Seq IIIH on oils that were known to dirty up pistons (verified after tear down on previous Seq IIIH testing to know what oils dirtied pistons/rings), but then just changed the oil to the Restore & Protect and re-ran the same test before tearing down the engine, and found that the pistons were being cleaned from being made dirty by the previous oil. I doubt they "changed other test parameters", just ran the same Seq IIIH test. Sounds like that's how they first discovered what was going on. After that, who knows what other testing they did, probably much more to verify results. The bottom line is they are confident in what they have found and claim in terms of cleaning ability, regardless if other oils are proven to do the same or not.
Correct.
 
If I had to guess HPL/Amsoil SS could clean up pistons in that test.
In about 1k miles I’ll be doing a c&p from a 10k run on Amsoil SS. I’ll be curious what we see.

Engine has only seen Mobil 1 and Valvoline EP since new. 5k intervals 100k on vehicle. Internals look spotless but oil consumption has been on the rise since 60k.
 
Everything seems to be based on "looks" these days and ignoring function. You'd think everyone is just looking at the centerfold and not reading the articles. 😄


Then others pretend something that looks like a piece of numberr2 is just fine and great…

When Stevie Wonder would know that is not good either…

You recall the Purolator defenders ?

I do…
 
The "Up To 100% Piston Deposit Removal" claim on their website says it is based on "Adapted Sequence IIIH Testing"
"Adapted" could simply mean they ran it like I described (based on what was said in the LSJ video), or they physically put dirty pistons in the engine before running the Seq IIIH test. The bottom line is they had to start the Seq IIIH test with dirty pistons to see the cleaning effect. If only starting the test with dirty pistons (without changing the actual test procedure - that was my point in the previous post) is the only thing that was "adapted/changed", then that's understandable in order to see the cleaning effect.
 
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They also have a flush machine that removes any prior oil's chemistry.

The funny thing is the only way most are going to ever know if it works is if their oil consumption goes down, or if they had varnish etc. you can see that it removed. Otherwise you won't really know how much it cleaned the pistons LOL.

If it works as advertised, then in theory your pistons should always stay factory clean at normal OCI.
 
It would great if someone did a test of R&P on an engine with noticeable deposits in the valve training and under the valve cover. Remove the valve cover for full clear visuals, and take photos before starting use of R&P, then do normal OCIs and remove the valve cover after every OCI for photos to track progress. I'm sure someone will do that simple test - there will probably be many YT videos showing this testing as time goes on.
 
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