Pennzoil Platinum Or Auto-Rx

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I have a oil pressure gauge on my 1983 Chevrolet El Camino that has always been pegged to the right. The gauge basically goes like this 0-30-60.

It has always been pegged past 60, I have done 2 auto-rx treatments and now that I am on the Maintenance Dose I added Pennzoil Platinum and the gauge is WORKING.

This car has 367,000 miles and as long as I can remember this gauge has not been working right.

Did the auto-rx fix this or did the Pennzoil Platinum do this, I have heard that Pennzoil Platinum cleans and Johnny said I would like this oil and he is right.

So it is either auto-rx or Pennzoil Platinum or a combination of of the two working together, what do you guys think.
 
combination...

ARX caught junk, started to work it. Surfaces start to clean up. CHange oil, remove lots of junk. ARX goes in again, competes for more metallic surface, removes more junk.

THe cycle continues...

Finally put in PP, it ceepts removing stuff, and likely has super-good detergents/dispersants to help transport even more away. Any esters in that oil compete for metal surface, putting good hydrocarbons down.

THings are good in the engine.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
combination...

ARX caught junk, started to work it. Surfaces start to clean up. CHange oil, remove lots of junk. ARX goes in again, competes for more metallic surface, removes more junk.

THe cycle continues...

Finally put in PP, it ceepts removing stuff, and likely has super-good detergents/dispersants to help transport even more away. Any esters in that oil compete for metal surface, putting good hydrocarbons down.

THings are good in the engine.


So it is a combination of both and I will never know, and PP ceepts removing stuff.

Seriously, I am very happy with the auto-rx and Pennzoil Platinum. It seems like the PP works great with a Maintenance Dose of auto-rx.
 
I'm still not convinced oil alone does that much. But I will say this, I had a similar experience with oil and arx. You can decide what did what but from the time I bought my 9-5 (with 59k miles on it and lightly sludged) it took an extra second or so more than I was comfortable with for the oil light to go off on start up. I changed filters several times and none helped the issue. Finally over the course of all my arx-ing, it went away. Now the oil light only stays on for a split second on start-up. Too many variables for me to be sure about anything since I ran everything everyone ever recommended on here between my first clean/rinse treatments and the mant doses I began a year later. So who knows? Oil was usually but not always old SL Mobil 1 10W30 mixed with 15W50.
 
Originally Posted By: [RT
ProjUltraZ]JHZR2, does that mean it would be good to run Redline after rinse phase since it's high esters? i'm in maint phase now


It's a question of concentration... er... chemical potential really.

But that has always been the million dollar question with ARX.

Here you have an ester which has a tendency to "encapsulate" junk and bring it to the filter. The ester will clean metal, and so it must be fairly tenacious in its ability to compete for surface atoms of metal, as compared to the junk that is hanging there... Perhaps it is a matter of chemisorption vs. physisorption.

Then you have the request for no esters or synthetic oils. But why? Will the esters compete for surface? Is ARX not stronger than the other esters? I would venture to guess that it has to do with the ability of the ARX esters to self-assemble networks that encapsulate dirt. And we have to assume that the dosing of ARX is sufficient to clean what? 85% of the dirt in 85% of engines? OK, let's take that all in good faith.

So there are some super clean engines in that 85% and some pretty dirty engines in that 85%. One thing that is guaranteed is that in no engine, does ARX remove every last bit of dirt from the engine. Call it probability or whatever else, if it is coating the metal, encapsulating dirt, etc., at some point it will fall short. But there will be a layer on most parts.

What I think is this: You do the rinse with a non-synthetic oil, and the ARX remains. Nothing competes for surface area, ARx does its thing. It finds areas of dirt and junk, and assembles to encapsulate. ARX is in equilibrium with the surfaces, even during rinse - as much comes off the surfaces as what adsorbs on, so the net effect is coverage. But, what is in solution or came off may redistribute to places where there are other opportunities to self assemble and "encapsulate".

Putting syn or esters in too early may interfere with ARXs ability to self assemble and tenaciously grapple with dirt on metal. However, at the same time, having a good oil with no real quantity of ester, but that DOES have a strong detergent/dispersant package and good solubility for various junk can do well.

So the PP user sees decent results after a number of runs because the PP still has the ability to rmeove junk and "assist" ARX with getting junk off the surfaces. Based upon "maintenance dose", there is some amount that is sufficient at steady-state to replace the lost ARX from the surfaces and keep ARX in good concentration on the metal surfaces to act to encapsulate and remove dirt as it forms. Running good oil with good detergency/dispersancy, with ARX in maintenance, which helps to release the dirt so that it can be dispersed in the oil is a good thing. So then you have a cycle... ARX helping to release dirt, good oil to help carry it away or keep it dispersed. And even if there are esters in PP, their content is likely so low, or their variety such that they do not necessarily create an issue.

Now, the esters in redline may not act the same way. While they may like to associate with oil, they may not associate the same way with dirt, nor will they necessarily remain on the surfaces the same way. Further, an oil like redline may compete with ARX for various surfaces, and be in more of a match to go to the most energetically favorable state between the two molecules, that they may not be effected or "see" the dirt. Thus you may change the efficacy of the ARX from what was its intended duty.

Then again, a good ester-based oil, with a good detergent/dispersant pack may be a good option once ARX has fully done its job. It may impede ARXs ability to work down the line (i.e. ARX maintenance dose with a high ester content oil may not work well), but at the same time the esters in the oil may be doing the job of covering the surfaces instead.

Now this is all just my speculation... but I doubt it is far off. Id run the redline only long after doing ARX and then a few maintenance doses with a different oil. At that point, you just let the redline displace ARX and in some ways (but not all!) take over its job of covering surface metal. A good HDEO or something like PP may do the trick.

Or you might just want to use something like PP with a maintnenance dose, since that seems to work well.

Regardless, Id use something with a good, strong add pack for the rinse phases... A good HDEO might be a nice option, IMO.

Hope this helps.
 
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Hey cpo3,

Are we talking about the now quite famous El Camino, with 367K on the clock? I am voting for your vigilant cleaning efforts with ARX. How many totally loaded filters from cleaning and rinses were there? Is that oil pressure guage a mechanical one in the 1983 unit? Is may be some of the tubing was clogged, or even if it is an electrical one the sending unit may have been severely coated with gunk.

My guess is that you are getting oil change intervals with heavily clogged filters at this time, after the many cleaning and rinses. I have always been a YB and PP fan. But to be honest have never experienced any earth startling cleaning from either, on their own. I do think that PP is a great oil to run the maintenance dose in however. Unless changed, the PP is a group III oil, which allows to be labeled synthetic. In essence is is an ultra refined dino basically. Of coarse there are the adaptive molecules that can mend the oils viscocity characteristics if it gets sheared. And yes there is a marketing campaign that is ongoing that Pennzoil products clean up 46% of sludge compared to something, or what they used to do, in the first oil change.

But honestly you must ask yourself, if PP could have cleaned out all the sludge in your motor with simple oil changes? I can't see it. Auto-Rx recommends PP or other group III's for cleaning and rinsing for those that feel that they must run a synthetic in their motors. A bit pricey for my taste, for a couple short OCI's, cleaning and rinse. Is it any more effect cleaning and rinse to run a group III versus running a group II dino? My vote is no.

If you want to go to extended drains in a clean or cleaned up motor, then a group III with the maintenance dose is hard to beat.
 
thanks JHZR2, that makes sense. i'll wait one more interval before thinking of trying redline again. i like the maxlife w/ maint dose but was thinking of an oil w/ lower visc on startup oil for my 4 short trips per day and occasional WOT and 30 sec autox runs.
i may try the synblend, or try PP again
 
I just wanted to let everyone know that it was the auto-rx that deserves all of the credit in my opinion. I only posted about Pennzoil Platinum because that was the oil I was using on the Maintenance Dose.

I have also heard that Pennzoil Platinum has some cleaning abilities and I wanted to see the responses.
 
cpo3,

Now that the quage is working what does the oil pressure look like in this 367K unit. Particularly interested after warmed up at idle.

I think the leaking oil pan gasket was not a result of PP. I would think pure coincidental.
 
I would have to say that dorkiedode's oil pan leak was not the result of Pennzoil Platinum.

The oil pressure after warmed up at idle is 30 psi according to the oil pressure gauge. When I am driving at 50 m.p.h. it is at 55 psi.

I hope this post did not look like I was thinking Pennzoil Platinum deserved the credit, I wanted to see what others thought. There is no way that I would believe that any oil can clean up an engine. I bought this car with 25,000 miles and used Mobil 1 until 200,000 miles. I then swithched to Amsoil and ran that until 343,000 miles. If anyone has read my posts since I have been on this board and can remember what I wrote then you would know that I am 100% behind auto-rx. If I post about another product in relation to auto-rx it is just for discussion.

I was under the impression before I used auto-rx that my engine was clean since I used Mobil 1 and Amsoil, obviously I was wrong.

This engine did not start leaking oil until 300,000 miles, and at 250,000 miles it was letting out a puff of smoke at startup, I no longer have these issues and this engine feels better now than it ever did before.
 
I should also mention that I am running Pennzoil Platinum with a 4 ounce Maintenance Dose of auto-rx.
 
Originally Posted By: dorkiedoode
i'm not sure might have caused it but it started to leak after 2 weeks of fresh PP. i'm not blaming PP though..


Maybe you have some dirt or crud around the oil pan seal.

The only other thing to check is to make sure all of your oil pan bolts are nice and tight.
 
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