Are They All The Same Motor Oil? Let's Settle This! Four Levels of Pennzoil Motor Oil Compared

we've all heard it said before oil is cheap and engines are expensive but the real question is is pennzoil's cheap oil just as good as their expensive oil let's find out is it possible that all these motor oils are the exact same after all they probably came from the same factory in the first test we'll see which oil flows the best when it's extremely cold then we'll see which oil offers the best protection against engine wear we'll compare the oils to see which is best at resisting thermal breakdown and evaporation then we'll look at an oil lab test report for each of the oils to see how they compare fuel contaminated oil is very common in modern vehicles so we'll see how the best oil in the lineup performs when it becomes contaminated with fuel this is the first time i've tested pennzoil's api sp motor oil in the past i've tested their sn and sn plus motor oil listened off the oil to an oil testing lab the oral lab report will provide us a lot of great information on the oil's anti-wear additive package detergent and dispersant content as well as the oil's total base number i always shake oil containers before sending off oil samples for testing since part of the additive package may actually fall out of suspension and settle at the bottom of the container synthetic oil typically has better flow characteristics compared to conventional oil when it's really cold so that moving parts begin getting lubricated sooner i'll go ahead and place the oil in the freezer that's set to minus 40 degrees fahrenheit and we'll leave the oil in the freezer for 24 hours at a price of only 17 for five quarts the least expensive oil we'll be testing in the lineup is just the regular pennzoil all the motor oils we'll be testing are sae 5w30 i was hoping to find the pennzoil conventional motor oil but all i could find is a synthetic blend meter exceeds the requirements for ilsac gf6a api sp in all previous categories looks like this oil came out of texas the pennzoil platinum's on the left and the ultra platinum is on the right both of them are made of natural gas so the question is are they the same and is the ultra platinum worth the extra money the platinum has a dexo certification and actually the more expensive ultra platinum does not this one too comes out of houston texas it also has an api rating of sp in the first test let's compare the regular penzoil against the ultra platinum so the least expensive it gets the most expensive to see if they perform about the same motor oil definitely needs to be able to handle high engine temperature i'll first measure out 200 grams of oil in each of the oil containers and then we'll crank up the heat to around 365 degrees fahrenheit for two hours i'll rotate the oil containers every 10 minutes just in case one of the burners is hotter than the other and there seems to be more oil vapors coming out of the synthetic blend compared to the ultra platinum the test for this is the noack volatility test which is an astm test which exposes oil to a lot more heat than this test to simulate engine operating conditions around the upper piston ring area of an engine high quality oils resist evaporation and thermal breakdown so at the end of this test we'll find out how much evaporation occurred with each of the oils and the regular synthetic oil container started out weighing 394.61 grams and now it weighs 387.09 which is a loss of 7.52 grams the pennzoil ultra platinum oil container started out weighing 411 grams and now it weighs 406 a loss of 5 grams so the pennzoil ultra platinum performed a lot better than the synthetic blend at 33.5 percent less evaporation let's test the lubricity or the film strength of the regular pennzoil against the pennzoil ultra platinum next we'll begin by adding 40 milliliters of oil that's been exposed to heat into the test cups to avoid a dry startup i'll coat the test wheel as well as the test pins with motor oil once the test is finished we'll compare the size of the wear scars on each of the bearings to determine which oil provides the best film strength this test doesn't simulate engine operating conditions perfectly but it'll provide us with some great information between each test i use brake parts cleaner to clean the test equipment and then i use sandpaper to resurface the test wheel there definitely seems to be less friction with the penzor ultra the watt meter is showing less energy usage and the number is dropping quickly and the test is finished so let's compare the size of the wear scars for each of the oils the test pin for the synthetic blend is on the left and the pennzoil ultra platinum is on the right i use the microscope with my calipers to get an accurate measurement and the pennzoil ultra platinum has a seven percent smaller wear scar compared to the synthetic blend so the penzoil ultra platinum provides much better wear protection compared to the synthetic blend before we compare the full synthetic against the platinum let's see how the oils flow at -40 degrees fahrenheit the oils are arranged from least expensive prices on the left to the most expensive on the right and the most expensive oil the pennzoil ultra platinum is on the right and it's the first one out of the gate and the synthetic blend and full synthetic is just behind the ultra platinum and the platinum is in lane three in a very distant fourth place and the ultra platinum seems unfazed by the extreme cold and is flowing very quickly and the synthetic blend and the full synthetic are way out in front of the pins or platinum and it's the ultra platinum for the wind and the synthetic blend and the full synthetic are tied for second and the platinum finally crosses the finish line and the distant fourth what a race at a price of twenty dollars for five quarts or just three dollars more than the regular pennzoil is this full synthetic 40 better performance than conventional motor oil the full synthetic has the same api designation of sp just like the regular pennzoil the full synthetic comes out of houston taxes at a price of twenty four dollars or four dollars more than the full synthetic is this pens or platinum it has a very unique technology in that it's made from natural gas not crude the regular and the full synthetic pennzoil do not have the dexa certification the pennzoil platinum does compared to the full synthetic it gives itself one extra star for protection in extreme temperatures better fuel economy protects horsepower and cleaner pistons the pennzoil platinum also comes out of houston texas let's compare the evaporative loss of the full synthetic against the platinum and the full synthetic seems to be putting off a little bit more vapor compared to the platinum but it looks very close and the oil was rotated every ten minutes for two hours and the two hours is finally up with 200 grams of oil in the container the full synthetic started out at 429.83 grams and now weighs 423.33 a loss of 6.5 grams pennzoil platinum started out at 404.79 and now weighs 399.51 a loss of 5.28 grams before we test the film strength of the synthetic against the platinum let's first place the cooked oil inside the freezer let's go ahead and compare the film strength of the full synthetic against the platinum beginning with the full synthetic and the watt meter seems very close to the same as the synthetic blend at 540 watts if there's a lot of wear that's taking place sometimes i can hear the difference but this time the amount of sound seems to be about the same the last oil to test for wear resistance is pins or platinum and the penzor platinum seems to be performing about the same as the full synthetic around 540 watts to start the test however it does seem to be drawing more energy compared to the penzor ultra platinum time is up so let's take a closer look at each of the test pins under a microscope and the size of the wear scars are almost the same as 7.34 millimeters for the full synthetic and 7.33 for the platinum oil is relatively cheap and engines are expensive but the oil that has the best wear resistance is the ultra platinum it came out with the smallest wear scar of 7.1 millimeters full synthetic and platinum were practically tied at 7.33 and 7.34 respectively and the synthetic blend 7.57 millimeters for evaporative loss the ultra platinum barely edged out the platinum at 5 grams of evaporation compared to 5.28 not surprisingly the full synthetic did better than the synthetic blend at 6.5 grams of evaporation compared to 7.52 for the synthetic blend let's see how the heat exposure impacted the cold oil flow speed of the oil once again the pennzoil ultra platinum in lane 4 is out of the gate first and the synthetic blend and fully synthetic are in second and pennzoil platinum in lane 3 is finally on the go and the ultra platinum has a huge lead over the other three oils and pennzoil platinum is in fourth place but it's catching up with a synthetic blend in the full synthetic and the ultra platinum in lane 4 is first across the finish line and the other three oils just crossed the finish line at nearly the same time so three of the four brands performed almost the same but the penzor ultra platinum is consistently the best if you want to see the original oil analysis results i'll leave a link in the video description to all four reports all of the new motor oils had one or two parts per million of aluminum and the same for iron which is pretty typical and nothing to worry about there's no other harmful metals inside the new oils barium boron calcium and magnesium are detergents and dispersants if you add up the totals for each type of detergent dispersant the synthetic blend has 1 608 parts per million total the full synthetic has quite a bit more at 1 893 parts per million i'm pretty surprised that the platinum only has 1 1278 which is the least amount in the lineup the ultra platinum has by far the most at 2308 anti-wear additives are incredibly important for engine life and performance and the synthetic blend has a total of 1 393 parts per million full synthetic has more at 1 521 parts per million once again platinum has the least amount in the lineup at 1206 and the ultra platinum has the most in the lineup at 1 605. all the motor oils were within the normal range for viscosity however the pennzoil ultra platinum has the highest viscosity at 210 degrees fahrenheit and it flowed the fastest at -40 so it's a very well-designed oil the total base number is the oil's ability to neutralize acids and the pennzoil ultra platinum has the best tbn of 7.4 pennzoil synthetic finished in second at 6.6 synthetic blend 5.8 and platinum 5.2 turbocharged engines or engines with gasoline direct injection oftentimes have fuel contaminated oil especially during an extended oil change interval of 10 000 miles or more so let's take the best oil in the lineup the pennzoil ultra platinum and contaminate it with five percent gasoline let's see how it performs on the lubricity tester wow that's not a good sound and the gasoline contaminated oil really thinned out near the end of the test as the oil heated up quite a bit the test pin on the left is from the gasoline contaminated oil and the test pin with the contaminated pennzoil ultra platinum has the most damage yet at 7.7 millimeters so the clean synthetic blend actually performed better than the expensive contaminated ultra platinum oil when head gasket failure occurs oftentimes the engine becomes contaminated with antifreeze let's contaminate some oil with antifreeze unfortunately i've seen oil look like this before and it can cause a lot of damage if it's not cut quickly the antifreeze and oil can turn into a goo that fails to properly lubricate an engine at some point the oil pump may even struggle to pick up the goo-like substance preventing the engine from getting lubrication or cooling the pencil ultraplatinum is a very good oil and easily won this showdown with an average finish at first place the full synthetic actually has a better additive package and better cold temperature performance compared to the platinum however the platinum performed better than the full synthetic when it comes to evaporative loss one of the most important takeaways for me is that keeping healthy oil in the crankcase is extremely important fuel as well as antifreeze contamination can cause a lot of damage pennzo ultra platinum remains a very good oil as some of you recall a couple years ago we had an oil showdown and it came out in second place only getting beat by the amsoil signature series if you have a turbocharged engine or one that has gasoline direct injection i'm definitely not a fan of extended oil changes unfortunately the oil becomes contaminated with fuel pretty often in that type of engine and it can also cause a lot of wear on the engine all the videos on this channel including this one are viewers suggested so if you have a video idea i hope you'll take time to leave a comment thanks so much for watching please take care and look forward to next time

Channel: Project Farm

Views: 2,565,325

Keywords: project farm, motor oil review, are all motor oils the same, pennzoil synthetic blend vs pennzoil full synthetic, pennzoil platinum vs ultra platinum, pennzoil full synthetic vs pennzoil platinum, gasoline in oil, antifreeze in motor oil, anti-freeze in motor oil, coolant in moto oil

Id: D3qFfAEp9AU

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 19 2022