TheLion70x77
Well-Known Member
Depends on the base stocks used in the oil. The whole point of the new mPAO's and GTL base stocks is to avoid using polymer viscosity improves as much as possible to get a high viscosity index that remains for the life of the oil. There's a difference between a high VI oil that stays high VI and a high VI oil doped with bulk polymers that shears down to a low VI oil.I believe I've also read that the higher the VI the more VI improves are in the base oil, which means it can shear down faster than oil with less VI improvisers. One thing I've noticed about Valvoline Advances is the VI is a bit lower than other 5W-30 oils, but it's HTHS and Noack is lower than those other oils with a higher VI.
If I'm not mistaken, some of the blends on the market now have NO polymer viscosity improvers at all (Red Line, Driven's new mPAO formula and Ravenol's new USVO base oil formula). These oils have almost no permanent shear under extreme conditions. Most of the lower priced PAO's (Mobil 1 Extended Performance) and GTL's (Penzoil Platinum / Ultra Platinum) on the market are very low in polymers, so there's little shear. I have not see any instances of Penzoil shearing down badly. Even in Ecoboost applications it holds up very well and they shear oils like no body's business (know, I had one).
The oils that do contain a decent amount of polymers are off the shelf Group III's like M1 Advanced Synthetic for example. But their extended performance stands out a bit from the rest of their line in that it has a higher percentage of PAO's blended in and high levels of zinc compounds to allow for extended drain intervals (also making it suitable for performance applications because it has to be shear resistant to last 15k miles). I think their Annual protection also has a higher quality PAO base oil blend, but it's uber expensive, as in boutique oil priced. If I recall, the whole reason Dodge went to Penzoil's GTL oils was because they are highly shear resistant without having to pay boutique prices, you get roughly PAO performance at Group III price points.
I do know for a fact that Ravenol's USVO base oil has ZERO polymers. I posted some info on that a while back. However my particular GT started ticking at idle with their 5W-20 after about 1,500 miles so I switched back to MC. The 5W-20 that I used was NOT their USVO formula, it was their older formula as their USVO was not out yet. Never tried their 5W-30. But I'm looking for the best value (meaning the best balance between cost vs. performance) and am now willing to try 5W-30 which allows me to stay with off-the-shelf oils and achieve better protection. It's not just rod bearings, it also piston rings that are lubricated by the oil film, also thicker oils are easier for the control rings to scrape back off, so typically consumption is a bit lower with higher viscosity oils.
I'm not trying to start a this oil is better than that oil debate. If I can't find PUP 5W-30, I have no issue running Valvoline's new 5W-30 as it's also a very good formula (actually used their 5W-30 in my Ecoboost 2.3L Mustang because it was the first Dexos 1 Gen 2 / API SN Plus oil on the market) and has nearly identical viscosity specs to PUP 5W-30 at 100C so it will be a low drag 5W-30 (aka a thinner 5W-30 blend). But I don't have any information on Valvoline's base oil blend in their new formula and I know PUP 5W-30 holds up extremely well so I stuck with that, especially with a $10 rebate per a 5 quart jug going on right now (10 quarts for $33 in a high quality oil like PUP is hard to beat). There are a lot more examples of PUP being used in extreme cases than Valvoline's 5W-30, so I went with what I have more data on.
Getting back to oil blends, case in point is the impressive performance of PUP 0W-40 that is used by the Viper LeMans race team. They actually use off the shelf PUP 0W-40 in their ACR, it is literally the same oil you buy from Penzoil and that comes in Dodge's Hemi 392's, Hell Cats, Demons and Vipers. They do not use a special race blend. That's pretty impressive that an off-the-shelf formula can hold up under 24 hr endurance racing in a 647 hp V10.
Hennessy also uses PU and PUP in all of their cars. They recently broke the world record for a street legal performance car with a top speed at 270 mph. They require it for all of their built big power cars which range from Camaros / Mustangs / Chargers / Challengers to exotics like the Ford GT / Spiders etc. There's a reason these companies are using GTL base oils, because they perform on par with more expensive PAO blends but at a much lower cost.
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