They Sure Don't Make Oil Like They Used To

[Dibbons]

Head to head test: 70 year old oil (still in original can) vs modern formula oil:

 

[Slap Stick]

Every car I have seen that used QS was sludged up completely.

 

[Big Bad Dad]

Thanks. That was very interesting. And, near the end, it explained why Quaker State oil has, or had, the reputation for sludging up an engine. Looks like the modern stuff may not still have the problem. (But it sure is hard to lose an old time reputation....)

 

[RM23M9A]

Thanks. That was very interesting. And, near the end, it explained why Quaker State oil has, or had, the reputation for sludging up an engine. Looks like the modern stuff may not still have the problem. (But it sure is hard to lose an old time reputation....)

Pennzoil used to be the worst, it had may STILL have Parafin (Candle Wax) in it.. I won't use it nor STP

 

[Dave6T4]

Years ago, I used to use Quaker State in my cars. It was fine if you used it exclusively, but if you used other oils, non-parrafin based with it, this a when it could sludge up. I use Castrol GTX 20 W 40 in my old cars now. I add a 500ml container of GM Engine Oil Supplement at each oil change.

 

[moparmarks]

My 97 Dakoda 5.2 has 327,000 miles on Quaker State and is clean as a whistle inside.

 

[Slap Stick]

Pennzoil used to be the worst, it had may STILL have Parafin (Candle Wax) in it.. I won't use it nor STP

Pennz and QS used to be the same company.
My son worked at a quick lube place that used Pennzoil. He could tell from taking off the oil cap (710 for some) if it was on a steady diet of Pennzoil.

 

[w.Hudson]

Years ago a buddy disassembled a small block Chevy and put most of the parts in the trunk of his Camaro. Another ole boy suggested that he put some oil on the crank to prevent it from rusting.
I watched him open a new bottle of Pennzoil and pour it on the crank. About 2 weeks later we opened the trunk to have a look. The crank looked like he NEVER
poured anything on it ! Not even a hint of oily residue. Fortunately it had not started to rust too bad. It just had a haze of rust in a few places.

I have a friend who is a faithful Quaker State user. He never has had any problems.

Also in 1988 I was invited to the Quaker State hospitality tent at an NHRA national event. Their goal was salvaging their reputation at that time.

Personally I use Rotella, Brad Penn, Amsoil and Royal Purple products. For the record I only used Royal Purple in a max effort Ford engine. The machinist insisted that I use nothing but Royal Purple. Shifted that 302 above 8000 rpm's and never had a problem.

 

[WileERobby]

Funny... back in the day in the garage we would sell/install cheap oil & filter products. No one ever resulted in an engine problem, as long as THE MAINTENANCE WAS DONE ROUTINELY.

 

[Slap Stick]

Years ago a buddy disassembled a small block Chevy and put most of the parts in the trunk of his Camaro. Another ole boy suggested that he put some oil on the crank to prevent it from rusting.
I watched him open a new bottle of Pennzoil and pour it on the crank. About 2 weeks later we opened the trunk to have a look. The crank looked like he NEVER
poured anything on it ! Not even a hint of oily residue. Fortunately it had not started to rust too bad. It just had a haze of rust in a few places.

I have a friend who is a faithful Quaker State user. He never has had any problems.

Also in 1988 I was invited to the Quaker State hospitality tent at an NHRA national event. Their goal was salvaging their reputation at that time.

Personally I use Rotella, Brad Penn, Amsoil and Royal Purple products. For the record I only used Royal Purple in a max effort Ford engine. The machinist insisted that I use nothing but Royal Purple. Shifted that 302 above 8000 rpm's and never had a problem.

We used Royal Purple in a dirt engine running E100. Using E100 you hqve to jet very rich so there is plenty of all contamination in the oil.
Did ya know RP is ethanol resistant?
You can drain the oil into a metal pan, flash off the ethanol and pour the oil right back into the engine.

 

[6PKRTSE]

I just use whatever is on sale, standard conventional 10w30 and Wix filter in all my old cars and truck. 5w20 in the newer Challenger.

 

[70chall440]

Back in the day (80's) a buddy had a 72 or 73 Camaro that we painted and put a stripe on; was pretty but the idea was to flip it. It had a 307 in it and we did an oil change going to Penzoil; looking like we were spraying bugs when we started it. As I recall we went back to QS to get it to stop smoking..

I run RP in all my vehicles along with WIX filters.

 

[odcics2]

Pennzoil is factory fill for everything Chrysler makes these days, including supercharged engines.
Guess its better quality.

 

[joe smith]

In the 70's I changed more than few Pennzoil oil burners to Castrol and they stopped burning oil....

 

[odcics2]

Things change in 50 years.

FCA has been using Pennzoil since 2009.
Wix makes the filters, but to higher specs, especially water retention.

 

[dual fours]

The only oil I used in my Charger from '77 to '87 was QS. It came in metal cans at first then changed to the cardboard can. The really funny thing was when I bought some cans that were the cardboard type, the casher put the cans in a bag and dropped the last one in on the other cans and punched one in, oil ran everywhere on the counter. Now I use Brad Penn.

 

[Cranky]

In the 70's I used Castrol 20-50 in my bike at the recommendation of the local Honda dealership. Figured if it was good for an engine seeing 6k+ rpm it should be good for my cars too. Well, kept seeing aluminum sediment when I pulled the filter from my 71 SL350 Honda and just figured it was because of the aluminum engine etc but when I found the same thing in the lifter valley of my V8 engines, I started to think differently especially when I tore down a 360 dodge engine. That thing was clean as a whistle but the bearings were showing the copper but the crank was still on size though. I'm thinking it had way too much detergent in it.....?

 

[Budnicks]

Thank goodness they don't...

I remember my stepdad Bob doing his own tests on oils
when I was a lil' dude
he tested the old Pennzoil & Quakerstate
with a container/glass beeker with a lil' oil in
& a torch for about 30 seconds
(here kid hold the torch or his beer)
compared it to his sponsor's oil (64/67 GTO S/S)
which was Valvoline back then

both the Penn. based oils were 'thick goo'
the Valvoline was still pretty much the same

it really showed me even at that young age, maybe 8 y/o-ish
how important oil is, from that point on
I only used my dads Valvoline oils in my mini-bike & go-carts

later I only used synthetic like Redline or Amsoil (good)
until I got a sponsorship from Torco Racing Oil,
for all my S/E 7.90 NHRA altered, blown gas, blown inj. methanol, inj. methanol
or any of my Pro-gas 8.50 (7.20's @ 188+) & T/S 6.60's @ 190's-210+ cars too
in everything rear, trans, engine, pumps, generators, compressors etc.,
even in all aspects of my tow rigs

(IMO Torco is hands-down the best oil made, no matter what some test say
I never/ever had any failures due to oil/lubrication, that I had previously,
even after making more than 2 times the power, I used to too, or under the
riggers/extremes of towing even)

your experiences may vary

 

[Slap Stick]

Things change in 50 years.

FCA has been using Pennzoil since 2009.
Wix makes the filters, but to higher specs, especially water retention.

Pennzoil is now owned by Shell.

 

[moparedtn]

I started using Mobil1 full synthetic in 1985 with the purchase of my little Shelby Turbo critter.
I figured if ol' Shel hisself demanded it (and apparently he did, because there was a placardright on the valve cover saying so) then who was I to second guess that?
ALL subsequent late-model cars I've owned ever since are on a strict diet of that oil.
To date, zero oil-related issues with any of them (many of which went a couple hundred thousand miles without issue) and further, anytime you popped a valve cover on any of them, they were next to spotless inside.

Now, on these older critters? Depends on the cam used, of course.
I run either the Gibbs stuff or the Brad Penn (now PennGrade 1), both of which have copious amounts of the needed zinc and phosphorus.
I will allow for the Valvoline VR-1 in a pinch, too.
I'm very fussy about oil and changing it, usually way before it's due - and I love Wix filters.