Penzoil Engine Oil

Deciding which oil to put in your car, whether it's the daily or the project, is one of the most important decisions you'll make. But it can get confusing quickly. Full synthetic versus conventional, 10W30 versus 5W30. What do these numbers even mean? And not to mention all the brands out there. Shell invited me out to get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making high-quality engine oil. So today, I wanted to break this down once and for all, and I just happen to live in the city where it all goes down.

The first decision is whether to run conventional or synthetic. And this one is easy. Synthetic oils like Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum are the go-to for most vehicles out there, both old and new. Just take a look at these timing chain covers from our taxi test fleet. The engines that ran synthetic had little to no varnish compared to those that ran conventional. But to truly understand this difference, we have to zoom in.

We made it to the testing lab. Conventional oil starts out as crude oil in the ground. Then after a refining process, we end up with a molecule chain that looks kind of like this guy right here. You can see some double bonds, unsaturates, and contaminants, which isn't ideal.

Now, this right here is what you want. This is a molecule chain found in a typical synthetic base oil. Notice the uniform structure, little to no unsaturates or contaminants. This results in an oil that's more stable and longer-lasting.

But the scientists at Pennzoil said we can do even better. So in every bottle of Platinum and Ultra Platinum is a proprietary synthetic base oil derived from natural gas called GTL. That stands for gas to liquid. On top of the benefits of being synthetic, GTL allows for better low-temperature performance, high-temperature oxidation resistance, less irritation, and can better interact with high-performance additives.

In the industry, these base oils are classified by group number, with conventional occupying the Group 1 to 2 range and synthetic in the Group 3 area. The higher the group number, the more beneficial for your engine, and GTL base oil sits on the higher end of the spectrum.

Now, let's talk viscosity. It's a measure of how thick or thin a fluid is. Here, we'd say this fluid is more viscous than this one. And choosing the right viscosity for your car is super important and super easy. Just check the owner's manual or your vehicle's app for the correct viscosity grade.

Because engines operate in both cold temperatures at startup and hot temperatures when on the move, we represent viscosity by two numbers called the viscosity grade. The first number is viscosity at startup, and the second number is viscosity at operating temperature.

And check it out. We can visualize this by putting 0W and 5W up against each other in a race to the finish line. We cool these samples to -30°C, and as you can see, the 0W flows much faster than the 5W.

As for the flow at operating temperature, putting 0W16, 0W20, and 0W30 up against each other, notice we're keeping the first number constant. We can see the ball travels much faster in the 16 weight because it's the thinnest of the group.

And last but not least, let's talk composition, which is probably my favorite part. In every bottle of Pennzoil is this beautiful golden liquid, which is the part we can see. But what we don't often see is all the ingredients that go into crafting the perfect formula.

The majority of the formulation is the proprietary base oil called GTL that we talked about earlier. Already a good starting point, but we can make it even better. Enter the additives, each with a unique and important purpose, like friction modifiers, which establish a film on internal engine components to reduce friction, heat, and metal-to-metal contact.

In here, we also have antioxidants, not those, which prevent acids from forming when molecules in the oil try to bond with fuel, oxygen, and water as the engine runs.

Right over here, we have dispersants and detergents. Dispersants keep soot and varnish suspended in the oil to prevent deposits from forming in the engine, whereas detergents help to clean any buildup that does start to form inside the engine.

And finally, viscosity modifiers. We use a proprietary polymer that helps to thicken the oil as it heats up to maintain a stable viscosity.

It's all about striking the perfect ratio with all of these additives along with GTL base oil for the best possible formulation. So hopefully now you'll truly understand what goes into a bottle of oil and your engine. In the next one, we'll do a deep dive into the heritage of Pennzoil and debunk some common misconceptions.

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