No love for Pennzoil....

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Don't candy-coat it Mystic, tell us what you REALLY think of these no-OCI bumms sludging their engines and blaming Johnny's Pennzoil!
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Johnny, hang with it, Boss, dip the oar in when necessary, an educated defense of the product I've stashed so many dozens of quarts of occasionally needs brushing up..
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I realize this is anecdotal and mostly unscientific, but I started using Pennzoil back in '87 when I had a huge POS Ford Escort with the simply-awful 1.6 liter. I had been using Havoline because it was inexpensive (and I was poor), and the POS was burning oil like crazy...in desperation, I tried Pennzoil and it stopped using oil...almost completely. I didn't know squat about oil back then, all I knew was it burned Havoline and it didn't burn Pennzoil.

So I started using Pennzoil from that day forward and never (repeat: NEVER) had a car that ever burned any measureable amount of oil. Now I know a lot has changed in the last 20 years, and I know that Havoline is an excellent dino and well-loved on this forum. And maybe I was just lucky, but I swore by Pennzoil, and if I was going to use a straight dino, that's probably what I'd still use. And I've always been a little gun-shy about Havoline after that experience, even though I know it's almost certainly unfounded now. It just left a bad taste in my mouth (figuratively speaking, of course).

But now, since I'm so "knowledgeable" (cough, cough) about pcmo's, I'm using MC 5W-20 Syn Blend for the same or less $$ than Pennzoil. Will it prove to serve me as well as Pennzoil has? I hope so...hopefully even better?

And as for all the marketing/Slick 50 mumbo-jumbo, I couldn't give two flips less about it. I'm only concerned with how good the motor oil is...nothing else.
 
You have to admit that it's hard to take a product seriously when it's shrink wrapped with Slick-50. Pennzoil might be as good as any other oil but doing that kind of stuff sure clouds the picture. The fact that SOPUS has the product is a message about how the company operates.
 
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You have to admit that it's hard to take a product seriously when it's shrink wrapped with Slick-50. Pennzoil might be as good as any other oil but doing that kind of stuff sure clouds the picture. The fact that SOPUS has the product is a message about how the company operates.

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True, but like Johnny said, they did try to sell it off and could find no buyers. Of course, they could just let it disappear quietly into that good night. Unless, of course, they actually think the product does have some redeeming qualities to it?

I guess it's kind of like the whole Mobil GIII vs. GIV debate. Can product performance be separated from company behaviors/duplicity/marketing b.s.?
 
Is Pennzoil motor oil always shrink wrapped with Slick 50? Maybe someplace, but when I go to Wal-Mart and buy motor oil I see quarts of Pennzoil all by themselves. I also see quarts of Quaker State all by themselves. I guess I will have to look around the next time I go and see if I see Pennzoil and Quaker State motor oil shrink wrapped with Slick 50.

Even if sometimes Quaker State or Pennzoil motor oil are shrink wrapped with Slick 50, you certainly can buy Pennzoil or Quaker State without the Slick 50.

Kind of like Valvoline also selling various oil supplements. You can buy the Valvoline oil without the supplements. Now I have to admit I would be more tempted to buy the Valvoline supplements since they don't contain PTFE. I don't believe in PTFE for oil. Some people say that according to VOAs the Valvoline oils look kind of weak. But in UOAs Valvoline seems to do fine. I recently used Valvoline 5W-30 for an Auto-RX cleaning since I could buy 5 quarts of the Valvoline at Wal-Mart for about 10 dollars. The Valvoline worked just fine.

I personally think that Johnny is one of the most reputable and knowledgeable people here at this web site. He worked for Pennzoil. So I think he probably knows what he is talking about.

Most recently I have started to become interested in Motorcraft motor oil. It is my understanding that the 5W-20 and 5W-30 Motorcraft is actually semi-synthetic motor oil. The 10W-30 Motorcraft is apparently conventional which is fine since a person in the summer time could use the Motorcraft 10W-30 as the rinse oil if you were doing a Auto-RX cleaning. In fact you could use the semi-synthetic for the rinse cycle and just extend the cleaning.

It is truly amazing how many people continue to believe in the Pennzoil sludge myths. I met a guy recently who is involved in oil exploration in Colorado. He claimed that the oil in Colorado has a high percentage of wax. Then he started saying how Pennzoil motor oil has a lot of wax and he would not use it.

In the production of motor oil (conventional motor oil) they remove as much wax as possible. Crude oil can come from many different sources. It can come from the Middle East, the USA, off the coast of Norway, Mexico, South America, Africa, etc. Crude oil can differ in quality from one source to another. But the crude oil is REFINED into motor oil and other products. They don't just pump the crude oil out of the ground and put chemical additives into it and then sell it as motor oil.

Pennzoil seems to do quite well here at this web site in VOAs and UOAs. And if Pennzoil was terrible motor oil we would certainly hear about it because Pennzoil is the number 1 brand of motor oil. There would be a lot of destroyed engines if the Pennzoil was bad oil.

I know all of this probably goes against the urban myths everybody likes to believe in. But I think what I have said is logical and based on facts.
 
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The fact that SOPUS has the product is a message about how the company operates.


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Just exactly, what are the negatives that you associate with the Slick 50 brand?

My comment is this same routine gets repeated several times each year & those bad mouthing the Slick 50 brand have been unable to defend their positions.

Just as a reminder, in the 1996-98 era, both Quaker State & Valvoline were issued orders by the FTC to stop making advertising claims about the engine wear performance of their respective PTFE engine oil additives.

If anybody chooses to bad-mouth Pennzoil/SOPUS based on perceptions of Slick 50, at least be consistent and include Valvoline/Ashland for their TM-8 additive product.

And don't forget the other PTFE products currently on the market such as ExcelPlus/Lubrilon, Tuf-Oil, QMI, etc.
 
Before Pennzoil Long Life changed it formula a few years ago it was often recomended. That dies with the formula change. Then Chevron Supreme started to come on strong for a long time due to price and quality of the product. FOr a long time Chevrone Suprem was only $1.08 a quart and was GII+. It and it's brother Havoline still get recomended here a lot due to it's consitent performance in spite of it's price increase.
 
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It is truly amazing how many people continue to believe in the Pennzoil sludge myths.

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It seems to be one of those rumors that just won't die.

On another forum, I have just about been banned for trying to correct one of the other guys who insists on repeating the "Pennzoil Sludge Myth" every time he gets the opportunity. Of course he never has any actual facts "I bought this car at 80,000 miles, and the previous owner says he used Pennzoil, and when I pulled a valve cover it was full of sludge - I had to scoop it out with a spoon". Missing from this story is any record of maintenance - oil changes, PCV valves, thermostat, etc.

Just to shut the guy up I posted a pic of the spotless cylinder head of my (at the time) 310,000 mile Beretta, which had seen 100% Pennzoil since the day I brought it home from the dealer with 15 miles on it (I've also posted the pic on here, about 2 years ago). Of course, the guy probably thinks I faked the photo and he continues to spread the myth. I guess some people will never listen.
 
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I remember that pic! If that one won't put the myth to rest, than nothing will, not even mythbusters.

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I need to re-post it. I found the old thread, but the pic doesn't work anymore (the thread itself turned into 9 pages of import vs. domestic arguing). I'll email it to myself here at work so I can post it again.
 
Is Pennzoil motor oil always shrink wrapped with Slick 50? Maybe someplace....for a while they had a promotion where there were like 5 quarts of Penn wrapped up with Slick 50. Haven't seen it lately.

John
 
Listen, we all understand that Pennzoil is a good product, but when it's packaged with Slick-50 it is an association that someone thinks will sell more oil. It's not the "our motor oil is a complete formulation and we don't recommend the use of any additives", message that is more conforting to consumers. And we are talking about consumers on this form that get more involved in motor oil than most. People that like and use Pennzoil should not be bothered, after all it's just business, and that's exactly the message given off when you see the shrink wrap package. There is more business to be gained from those that don't know, then there is business to be lost from those that do know. If you don't believe me, make a search on this site for Mobil 1 oil and see if there is at least one person that states they will not be buying Mobil 1 in the future because it might not be the oil the advertising promotes it to be. EOM knows there is more money to be made from those that don't know....and so on.
 
No oil that meets the current specs is a bad oil. Most of them are using the same additive package anyway. LOL.
 
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Buster, hows the MC doing in your Honda?

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Good so far. I almost have 5k miles on it. Very little oil usage at all. Plan on changing it out 7k.
 
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Buster, hows the MC doing in your Honda?

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Good so far. I almost have 5k miles on it. Very little oil usage at all. Plan on changing it out 7k.

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Hey, the MC 5W-20 is doing well in my Honda V6 too. No usage after about 2k, OLM at 80%. Probably will change at about 6k.

I know no one asked, but I saw a similarity and just jumped right in. That's rude, isn't it?!

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