Lil Foot
Well-known member
Lifetime Member
Equipment
1979 B7100DT Gear, Nissan Hanix N150-2 Excavator
The current thread on what oil to use reminded me of an old oil preference experience I had years ago. I present it as entertainment, not pertinent to tractors or today's oils. Sorry in advance for the long post.
Back in the early '70s my best friend & I each had Honda CB500 Fours, and we bought another for drag racing- all 3 where tuned & driven the same, street & strip, & had the same equipment. All were nearly new. He ran Pennzoil, I ran Valvoline, & the 3rd ran Castrol. His was always slowest, then mine, & the Castrol machine was always fastest.
After about a year of street & strip, the Pennzoil machine had just finished a quarter mile run & sounded funny, so we pulled the dipstick immediately and were shocked when most of the oil volcanoed out as foam…. looked like shaving cream!
An investigation was in order, so we tore it down. The inside of the engine was black, and every bearing surface showed burning, galling, & measurable wear. A little scared now, we tore the other two down as well.
The Valvoline engine was spotless, and showed absolutely no wear…. I mean none…..you'd be hard pressed to tell the engine had ever been run!
The Çastrol engine was clean, but all the bearing surfaces looked slightly dull or frosted, and it had the most wear….. a lot of wear, loose & noisy, most wear surfaces at or near rebuild specs.
Baffled, we contacted all three oil companies & got nowhere with Pennzoil & Castrol, but the Valvoline rep had some interesting info for us.
He claimed that Pennzoil was intended for low revving older car engines & had no anti-foaming additives, not suitable for our 10,500rpm engines.
He claimed Castrol had a micro abrasive in it that actually lapped high spots & interference from bearing surfaces to lessen friction in a new engine…. the problem was that it kept lapping away after break in, producing accelerated wear.
Of course, he had a big sales pitch for Valvoline being the best, & I agreed, at least in this case. His take certainly supported what we saw in the 3 engines.
My buddy sold the Pennzoil bike, & took the Castrol machine as his (now running Valvoline) and rode it until it was stolen. It was always killer fast. I was hit on my CB450 soon afterwards & got out of motorcycles for several years.
I'm sure it has no bearing on today's oils or engines, just an interesting story.
Back in the early '70s my best friend & I each had Honda CB500 Fours, and we bought another for drag racing- all 3 where tuned & driven the same, street & strip, & had the same equipment. All were nearly new. He ran Pennzoil, I ran Valvoline, & the 3rd ran Castrol. His was always slowest, then mine, & the Castrol machine was always fastest.
After about a year of street & strip, the Pennzoil machine had just finished a quarter mile run & sounded funny, so we pulled the dipstick immediately and were shocked when most of the oil volcanoed out as foam…. looked like shaving cream!
An investigation was in order, so we tore it down. The inside of the engine was black, and every bearing surface showed burning, galling, & measurable wear. A little scared now, we tore the other two down as well.
The Valvoline engine was spotless, and showed absolutely no wear…. I mean none…..you'd be hard pressed to tell the engine had ever been run!
The Çastrol engine was clean, but all the bearing surfaces looked slightly dull or frosted, and it had the most wear….. a lot of wear, loose & noisy, most wear surfaces at or near rebuild specs.
Baffled, we contacted all three oil companies & got nowhere with Pennzoil & Castrol, but the Valvoline rep had some interesting info for us.
He claimed that Pennzoil was intended for low revving older car engines & had no anti-foaming additives, not suitable for our 10,500rpm engines.
He claimed Castrol had a micro abrasive in it that actually lapped high spots & interference from bearing surfaces to lessen friction in a new engine…. the problem was that it kept lapping away after break in, producing accelerated wear.
Of course, he had a big sales pitch for Valvoline being the best, & I agreed, at least in this case. His take certainly supported what we saw in the 3 engines.
My buddy sold the Pennzoil bike, & took the Castrol machine as his (now running Valvoline) and rode it until it was stolen. It was always killer fast. I was hit on my CB450 soon afterwards & got out of motorcycles for several years.
I'm sure it has no bearing on today's oils or engines, just an interesting story.
