Wolf's Head in police cars...

[fuel tanker man]

The Virginia State Police (in my area, at least) are having Wolf's Head motor oil put into their police cruisers for 3K changes.

Isn't Wolf's Head a cheap version of Quaker-State or Pennsoil?

I know the mechanic who does the maintenance on these cars any many of them (mostly Ford V8's) have over 120K miles on them and seem in good running order. So I guess the oil works.

It just seems like there would be some better choices out there for about the same money.

Maybe not...

Dan

 

[Johnny]

Wolf's Head is pretty close to the Formula Shell products.

 

[shortyb]

Castrol HD 5W-30 in all of our cars and utility service vehicles (Explorers and Expeditions). I'm about ready to do some analysis on the higher milage ones, over 100K with stretches of 24 hour use, and constant idling

Severe engine failures are extremely rare since cars are usually dead-lined and taken out of street service at 70K. I do know of one cruiser still kickin' at over 200K that does parking enforcement. That will be a good candidate if I can catch up with it.

 

[farrarfan1]

I posted this a while back so I kinda hate to repeat myself, but this topic caught my eye. I'm a Trooper in Indiana. Our dept uses a re-refined 5w30 (mfc by Safety Kleen) every 5,000 miles. It's not unusual for a car to go 120-130,000 miles before replacement.I just got a new 2004 CVPI in July. The 2001 it replaced had 107,000 miles on it, still ran good and only used 1/2 quart of oil between changes and this was always in the last 1,000 miles or so. I know the 4.6L engine is pretty much bullet proof but I think this shows that even with a dino that's probably not as good as most of the name brands most engines can last for a long time with reasonable change intervals.

 

[TC]

I'll assume -- and boy am I naive -- that they got a good deal on Wolf's Head, paying less than a Pennzoil or other name brand would run. But I've seen it at OSH/Orchard Supply Hardware on the West Coast, and it's got an SL rating, so there's no reason it couldn't perform OK in fleet service if changed at reasonable intervals.

But I think of one thing when I hear Wolf's Head: The line from the movie "Neighbors" with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. When Belushi's character gives his car to Ackroyd, he tells Ackroyd, "Use Wolf's Head 30 weight. It'll never let you down." I thought that was a fabricated name until I saw an old Wolf's Head porcelain sign in a bar a few years later. Long live those obsolete brands! I want the Sinclair green dinosaur to return!

 

[like a rock]

There was a old radio commerical that said wolf's head motor oil beats the heat. It was sang. This was at least 25 years ago and played on Pittsburgh PA. radio stations. Maybe it was refined in PA?

 

[Blue99]

The Wolf's Head refinery was located at Reno, in the Pennslyvannia oil production area. The popularity of the gasoline & motor oil products probably peaked in the 50's.

The brand is well known nowdays on the antique signage & memorabilia market circuits.

A data sheet Click here is listed on the Pennzoil-Quakerstate site.

From Johnny's comment, I'm assuming it is a group I base and does not provide the performance of the Pennzoil group II oils.

Seems to me that the lubricant sales rep is doing a great job of selling this product!