Penzoil mythology?

[Capa]

Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
Originally Posted By: mongo161
IMO...The stories about Pennzoil Conventional and Quaker State, from what I had heard way, way back in the day, was it was all attributed to PA Crude oil.

IMO...Many thought that PA crude was responsible since it contained too much paraffin, (wax), used for motor vehicles.

I noticed that all those "rumors", from the 60's, 70's and 80's, all disappeared when SOPUS bought out Pennzoil and Quaker State and moved operations to TX.


That. It was blamed on the "waxy" Pennsylvania crude. Its kind of an urban legend. I don't know if there ever was any truth to it. Maybe in 1952 or something.


There was truth to it because Sopus admitted it in their Q&A on this board. Of course, oil has evolved much and Pennzoil is a lot better now.

 

[farview]

Your Dad was right. I worked at an import shop for 30 years. Back in the late 70s and 80s imports required frequent valve adjustments, so we had lots of valve covers off. We noticed that Autos that we serviced had more sludge and varnish then cars that had oil changes at other places.We used Pennzoil. WE switched to Castrol products and seen a marked improvement.

I do not believe that is the case today. In the mid90s a Jiffy lube was built across the road which uses Pennzoil products and the vehicles that were serviced there did not appear to exhibit those problems. Just relaying what Many old techs have seen.

 

[endeavor to persevere]

Most mineral oils today are paraffin based, this is not candle wax. as some people like to think.

The word paraffin is a very common and basic term for base mineral oil. The MSDS sheets for many motor oils use the word paraffin to describe the main oil ingredient...as in "SOLVENT-DEWAXED HEAVY PARAFFINIC PETROLEUM," which is how Valvoline phrases it in their MSDS sheets.

Paraffin is the proper organic chemistry word for aliphatic hydrocarbons...more commonly known as oil. It is also the correct name for wax and candles. But there is as much difference between paraffin wax and paraffin oil as there is between a chestnut horse and a horse chestnut. They just aint the same thing. Don't matter whether you're talking about Pennzoil, Castrol, Valvoline or your wife's Christmas candles. If you like Pennzoil, use it worry free.

 

[teddyboy]

Originally Posted By: asand1
My dad has always told me Pennzoil conventional was junk and always carboned up. He cited years of repairing and rebuilding engines ran on it.
His reasoning was that it was paraffin based and did not do well under heat.

Any insight to some history that might confirm this?
When was the formula changed?


I worked in a garage parts counter in high school. Our mechanics professed similar things as gospel. As much as I liked and respected those guys, I ultimately decided that it was urban legend. After gaining some statistical training, I came to wonder if the brand recognition of PYP and Quaker State Ultimate Durability wasn't a big source of the negative opinions. People who knew little about cars recognized Pennzoil and Quaker State, bought those brands and didn't change with sufficient regularlity. Mechanics kept seeing sludged engines on those brands and blamed the oil, not recognizing the correlation between PYP, Quaker State Ultimate Durability brand recognition and choice by less attentive ounwers. IMO it wasn't the oil, but infrequent maintenance. The urban legend concocted the too much wax explanation to explain what they were seeing. (BTW, the guys I knew blamed it on too much wax combined with too much detergent). I never heard any of them cite any oil analysis, sicentific study or anything based on facts to support their opinion.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Ahhh, the Quaker State and Pennzoil tales of yore. If there ever was anything to them, and I think they are much exaggerated. In any case, neither oil is any longer based on crude pumped from Pennsylvania, the "Quaker State." Both long ago relocated to Texas, merged under Pennzoil, and were bought out by Shell...