Valvoline Restore and Protect 5W-20 Volatility Results - Dec 2024
- Thread starter JAG
- Start date
482 F is so hot that I would be very concerned that the oils would autoignite. In my one test when I had it too hot, VRP 5W-20 did do that. In the Noack test, there must be something about it that makes that not happen (oil/air ratio either too lean or too rich). My main testing focus is resistance to deposit formation rather than mimicking the Noack procedure as closely as possible.
Good VRP jokes aside; I will say that over a 5k run in our Mazda CX-9, it was 3/4-1 qt down at end of OCI (5w30 used). At 84k miles, this motor hasn't ever used any oil. Wanted to put VRP back in but life got busy and my wife had WM do it. They used PP 5w30, but I am monitoring to see if it uses any on the new fill.
Why don't you do 30 grade QSUP and VRP?
I have not tested those oils because I tend to avoid 5W-30 (and 0W-30) oils due to their relatively high VM concentrations, which comes with higher volatility than mixing 5W-20 and 10W-30 from the same product line. VRP and QS UP unfortunately are not available in 10W-30. I bought VRP solely for testing but that can get expensive if I do that for a lot of oils that I don’t intend to use in my engines.
I have these in my stash if you would like to test them
Thanks barkingspider. I am interested in testing those oils. Let me finish the tests for the other two guys before we arrange you sending your oil samples. I want to keep this as fun, so I must avoid creating too big of a number of oils that I have promised to test. I’ll put in a reminder on my phone to get in touch with you. 
Thanks to Sequoiasoon sending VRP 0W-20 and 5W-30, I was able to test the volatility of VRP 0W-20, 5W-20, and 5W-30. I also included Quaker State 5W-40 Euro in the test. Test temperature was ~380 F. In the future, I will likely do volatility tests at ~420 F, since that reduces percent error, I can stop the test at 4 hours or less, and data seems to correlate better to the Noack test. Two odd things occurred in the test. QS 5W-40 had lower volatility than expected, compared to the other oils. I know that because when I estimated the Noack volatilities of the other oils, they were between 15.8% to 20.6%, which is clearly too high. The other odd thing is VRP 5W-30's volatility slightly spiking between hours 1 and 2, making it not completely clear whether it is more or less volatile than 5W-20 at ~380 F. It can be said to be approximately equally volatile.
No surprise that 0W-20 is significantly more volatile than 5W-20. At hour 5, it had lost a total of 21% more to evaporation than 5W-20 had. That is not a massive difference like exists between VRP 0W-20 and much less volatile oils, but it is significant.
No surprise that 0W-20 is significantly more volatile than 5W-20. At hour 5, it had lost a total of 21% more to evaporation than 5W-20 had. That is not a massive difference like exists between VRP 0W-20 and much less volatile oils, but it is significant.
JAG, thanks for all the hard work and for posting this. So other than using the oil grade recommendation in the owners manual, any other reason to not use VRP 5W-20 over VRP 0W-20?
I see that in addition to the 5W-20 having an apparent leg up in volatility, it also appears to have a slight bump in anti-wear additives from VOA results as noted below. My initial thoughts on that was that the 0W-20 has better base oils and thus required less anti-wear additives to reach similar performance levels for the two products. Am I missing something here?
VRP------------5W-20----0W-20
Calcium---------1033-------985
Magnesium------418-------156
Phosphorus------705-------673
Zinc--------------987--------888
Molybdenum----213-------156
Boron-----------134--------141
Cited: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/valvoline-restore-and-protect-5w20.381818/
I see that in addition to the 5W-20 having an apparent leg up in volatility, it also appears to have a slight bump in anti-wear additives from VOA results as noted below. My initial thoughts on that was that the 0W-20 has better base oils and thus required less anti-wear additives to reach similar performance levels for the two products. Am I missing something here?
VRP------------5W-20----0W-20
Calcium---------1033-------985
Magnesium------418-------156
Phosphorus------705-------673
Zinc--------------987--------888
Molybdenum----213-------156
Boron-----------134--------141
Cited: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/valvoline-restore-and-protect-5w20.381818/
You’re welcome, GemStater. I think the additive variations are due to lab error. The 5W-30 VOA in that thread also varied quite a bit from the 0W-20 and 5W-20. Valvoline says all of the VRP oils have 850 PPM of zinc and 770 PPM of phosphorus.
0W-20
5W-20
5W-30
I would choose 5W-20 over 0W-20 unless I lived in an extremely cold climate or the engine did mostly short trips and I was trying to get every last bit of fuel economy.
The SDSs of the VRP oils does not give any indication that 0W-20 uses better base oils. Group III of the non-GTL type are the only base oils shown. Perhaps there is a little bit of difference in something not shown, but even if there is, I don’t think it would be a reason to choose 0W-20 over 5W-20.
I forgot to mention something about the three VRP oils. My 5W-20 has a very stinky smell. I was surprised that 0W-20 and 5W-30 smell like regular motor oil. While our noses are not lab instruments, they can detect differences quite well. I used to guess that the source of the stinky smell in 5W-20 is what also helped do cleaning, but with that lacking in the other oils, now I throw that idea out.
0W-20
5W-20
5W-30
I would choose 5W-20 over 0W-20 unless I lived in an extremely cold climate or the engine did mostly short trips and I was trying to get every last bit of fuel economy.
The SDSs of the VRP oils does not give any indication that 0W-20 uses better base oils. Group III of the non-GTL type are the only base oils shown. Perhaps there is a little bit of difference in something not shown, but even if there is, I don’t think it would be a reason to choose 0W-20 over 5W-20.
I forgot to mention something about the three VRP oils. My 5W-20 has a very stinky smell. I was surprised that 0W-20 and 5W-30 smell like regular motor oil. While our noses are not lab instruments, they can detect differences quite well. I used to guess that the source of the stinky smell in 5W-20 is what also helped do cleaning, but with that lacking in the other oils, now I throw that idea out.
I use the 5w30 R&P in my Outback and it has a very distinct smell like gear oil. I’m on my fourth and final oci. Another non scientific observation is the engine starts out quiet and after 2k miles gets audibly louder. I’m guessing the oil isn’t very shear stable either.
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Wait a minute. So now we're ok on BITOG adding up VOA data like PF to compare motor oils?JAG, thanks for all the hard work and for posting this. So other than using the oil grade recommendation in the owners manual, any other reason to not use VRP 5W-20 over VRP 0W-20?
I see that in addition to the 5W-20 having an apparent leg up in volatility, it also appears to have a slight bump in anti-wear additives from VOA results as noted below. My initial thoughts on that was that the 0W-20 has better base oils and thus required less anti-wear additives to reach similar performance levels for the two products. Am I missing something here?
VRP------------5W-20----0W-20
Calcium---------1033-------985
Magnesium------418-------156
Phosphorus------705-------673
Zinc--------------987--------888
Molybdenum----213-------156
Boron-----------134--------141
Cited: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/valvoline-restore-and-protect-5w20.381818/
Interesting. Makes me wonder how consistent the batches have been. I agree that 5W-30 VRP seems to not have great shear stability. Same can be said for many non-Euro synthetic 5W-30 oils. The final processing step of chopping up the VIIs occurs in the engine.
Interesting. Hopefully it is not like Quaker State Ultimate Protection, where it is on the QS website but according to a Shell customer support person, it is not even being made.