Why so little respect for Brad Penn Penn Grade 1?

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It works great in race engines as well as high-performance street cars. It has a high dose of zinc as well as phosphorous. It's widely used in circle track as well as drag racing. It's also partial synthetic. It has many testimonials by well known engine builders so what gives?
 
Originally Posted By: Chris71
It works great in race engines as well as high-performance street cars. It has a high dose of zinc as well as phosphorous. It's widely used in circle track as well as drag racing. It's also partial synthetic. It has many testimonials by well known engine builders so what gives?


It's called "willful ignorance."
 
Penn Grade 1 is also made from pure Pennsylvania base-stocks and has 1,500 ppm of zinc and 1,410 ppm of phosphorous.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris71
Penn Grade 1 is also made from pure Pennsylvania base-stocks and has 1,500 ppm of zinc and 1,410 ppm of phosphorous.


And PAO in the multigrades.
 
Yes, althouth it is only about 10-20% synthetic in the multi-grades. We use both the 10w-30 and straight 40 wt. in our hot 440.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris71
Yes, althouth it is only about 10-20% synthetic in the multi-grades. We use both the 10w-30 and straight 40 wt. in our hot 440.


The 0w30 has about 50% PAO.
 
Wow, that's great that it contains so much PAO! I was talking to the Brad Penn sales rep at my local Napa today and he gave me a bunch of reading material on the oil.
 
Well, I can go down to the local Walmart and grab a 5L jug of M1 TDT oil for $30.00.......

Many engine builders also recommend diesel oils.

Maybe it's preference, maybe it's the "comfort" thing; people feel comfortable with a well-known and widely available product like many of the 15w40 and 5w40 diesel oils....... Or even Mobil's 5w50 and 15w50 oils.
 
All of those others aren't made from Pennsylvania crude basestocks though so I feel the Brad Penn starts out with a better base to start with compared to other petros. Not many have 1,500 ppm of zinc and 1,410 ppm of phosphorous either.
 
Part of it seems to be lack of distribution. I was interested in trying some of the Brad Penn products but was told they have no locations anywhere near me to purchase it. Admittedly, I live closer to the other side of the state, but at least I'm still in the same state. I know I can buy by mail order but you get killed on the shipping costs and I don't want to be forced to purchase a case at a time.

This past weekend, my wife and I were visiting the oil region of PA (Titusville, Oil City, Oil Creek State Park) and I assumed the Brad Penn products would be widely available there. I stopped at 8 auto parts stores and no one, repeat.. no one, had ever heard of Brad Penn oil. I even happened by an oil distributor business while turning around, and they knew of Brad Penn but didn't know of anyone selling it.

I did find a tiny gas station/convenience store that carried cases of their SM dino oil and did pick up a case but none of the Penn Grade 1 oil.

Funny thing is, American Refining had a few Brad Penn brochures in the tourist brochure dispensers.

They seem to be going out of their way to make it hard to obtain.
 
Originally Posted By: G-MAN

And PAO in the multigrades.


I noticed that on the MSDS sheets for the Penn Grade 1 racing oils that the 0w-30 was the only one that specified PAO. The other grades sounded like group III synthetic.

I talked to someone at American Refining about this and as soon as oil makeup was mentioned, he clammed up and ended the conversation a bit prematurely. I don't know if he thought I was a competitor trying to get the "secret formula" or something. I'm sure they don't get a lot of people that have even heard of oil groups. Personally, I would think it would be to their benefit to advertise the fact that they are using group IV synthetics but... whatever.
 
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We've had very good luck with the racing Penn Grade 1 oils. My dad works at a Napa and he orders it from the salesman and then it comes through the warehouse. I can buy the regular Brad Penn oil from our local County Market grocery store. On their site, there is a place where you can contact them in order to find the closest distributor.
 
Originally Posted By: Canawler
Part of it seems to be lack of distribution. I was interested in trying some of the Brad Penn products but was told they have no locations anywhere near me to purchase it. Admittedly, I live closer to the other side of the state, but at least I'm still in the same state. I know I can buy by mail order but you get killed on the shipping costs and I don't want to be forced to purchase a case at a time.

This past weekend, my wife and I were visiting the oil region of PA (Titusville, Oil City, Oil Creek State Park) and I assumed the Brad Penn products would be widely available there. I stopped at 8 auto parts stores and no one, repeat.. no one, had ever heard of Brad Penn oil. I even happened by an oil distributor business while turning around, and they knew of Brad Penn but didn't know of anyone selling it.

I did find a tiny gas station/convenience store that carried cases of their SM dino oil and did pick up a case but none of the Penn Grade 1 oil.

Funny thing is, American Refining had a few Brad Penn brochures in the tourist brochure dispensers.

They seem to be going out of their way to make it hard to obtain.


Agreed on the distribution idea.

I was interested in using their V2 motorcycle oil in our Harleys and even found a distributor in our area. Unfortunately, they didn't carry either the Brad Penn motorcycle oil or their 20W50 racing oils and weren't all that willing to order it for me. Instead, they tried to push a couple of leftover cases of Kendall (Conoco/Phillips) 20w50 motorcycle oil on me and even went so far as to print of the spec sheets for it so that I could compare them. That in itself was OK, but I really wanted to try the Brad Penn products. Too bad. They lost a sale there.
 
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I was tempted to try the 0W-30 but I'm not sure how well it would work for a daily driver, that's not necessarily a race car? My car rarely ever sees more than 5,000RPM's and I never race it... I just wonder how long it would hold up for 3,000+ mile intervals...
 
The rep told me that they should have a dealer in all 50 states. I don't know if I'd run the Penn Grade 1 in a daily driver with a catalytic converter.
 
Nothing against it at all. I just never see the stuff and as OVERK1LL said, I can go to WM and find many good oils. Same situation with Schaeffer's. Great oil just not readily available.
 
They gave me a box of it to try in my race car. I sent off a sample for a VOA and decided it was not going in my 1000hp eng.
Racers are pretty uneducated about OIL, as a whole. That has been my observation over the years. They tend to just follow others. I think the decent marketing by BP and that other item is why so many use the stuff.
It's still siting in my shop.

here take a look at this
braddpenvoa009711920w50qs5.jpg
 
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