Has anyone tried the Brad Penn Green Oil yet? Anyone's opinion before I pour some into my engine. I purchased some today to do an oil change. I've heard some good reports on it, just wondering what everyone else has heard.

 

ttt

 

The high zinc levels may be bad for the cats. I think it's more of a racing oil than a DD oil.

 

High Zinc levels are GOOD for the engine and anti-ware.

 

I have a modified motor and recently went to the Amsoil Z-Rod with high ZDDP. Rather change a cat then rebuild the motor.

 

I haven't heard anything specific on this oil but took at look at it out of curiosity. Please recognize that I market AMSOIL so feel free to take my opinions with a grain of salt.

My biggest concern is that it is a partial synthetic. In general, the basestock in mineral oils will shear down faster than that of synthetics which were required for the LS1/LS6. That is the molecules in the oil break due to shear forces and become smaller, thus the viscosity drops.

Though this is a diesel oil test mainly regarding fuel dilution which is a real problem in modern diesel engines with particulate filters, it will illustrate the point:
40 Grade Diesel Oil Shear Stability (644k pdf file)

Note how much viscosity some of the oils lost from the initial viscosity to the sheared viscosity (1st to 2nd columns).

The Brad Penn oils have high levels of zinc and phosphorus, at 1500 ppm and 1400 ppm respectively, well above the API SN limit of 800 ppm phosphorus, but that doesn't necessarily translate into better performance.

One of the measures I look at in an oil is the High Temp High Shear which is a measure of the oil's viscosity at 300F under high shear - potentially representative of how the oil will perform in protecting your bearings. Not all oil companies report HTHS. Using factory reported values, here is how the Brad Penn 30 grade oils stack up:

Mobil 1 5w30: 3.1
Brad Penn 5w30: 3.185
AMSOIL Sig Series 5w30: 3.2
Mobil 1 High Mileage 5w30: 3.3
Mobil 1 High Mileage 10w30: 3.5
Brad Penn 10w30: 3.54
AMSOIL Z-ROD 10w30: 3.6

Not sure if you got the 5w30 or the 10w30 so I included both. The Brad Penn HTHS is slightly better than that of the base Mobil 1 and slightly below AMSOIL's best API SN oil the Signature Series - noting that neither the Mobil 1 or the AMSOIL benefit from extra ZDDP (both are API SN so have no more than 800 ppm phosphorus). The Mobil 1 High Mileage 5w30 which has 1100 ppm zinc and 1000 ppm phosphorus jumps the Brad Penn despite having well less ZDDP. AMSOIL does not have a high ZDDP 5w30.

In 10w30, the Brad Penn is similarly slightly better than the Mobil 1 High Mileage 10w30 and slightly behind that of the AMSOIL Z-ROD 10w30. FYI, the ZDDP levels of the Mobil 1 High Mileage 10w30 are 1100 ppm zinc and 1000 ppm phosphorus, and the AMSOIL Z-ROD 10w30 is 1440 ppm zinc and 1320 ppm phosphorus.

Nothing I see indicates to me that Brad Penn is anything but an average oil - but it is comparible to Mobil 1 5w30 (assuming you got the 5w30) so I'd use it as you already have it. I wouldn't use it long without oil analysis as I'd be concerned about viscosity shear down of the semi-synthetic basestock.

 

Why take the risk of putting an oil that is not time tested in an expensive machine? Put that Green oil in your lawnmower and use a good synthetic. I use either Mobil 1 or Valvolene Synthetic and add ZDDP to my oil to reduce wear. Since my car is a summer toy, I'm changing the oil once a year with about 4,000 miles on the oil. I also would rather replace catalatic converter than the engine.

 

I use the Brad Penn Grade 1 oil in my T-Bucket (Gen 1 SBC 350 with a flat tappet cam) and my wife's air-cooled VW-engined roadster. I use these primarily to keep cam lobe wear at bay due to higher levels of the anti-wear additives. My understanding is that the cats will be deteriorated if the engine is burning the high-ZDDP oil but if your not passing any oil by the rings or guides you'll probably not notice.

That all being said, I'll still stick with the Mobil 1 in the C5 - they are about comparatively priced.

 

But it's not really needed for roller lifters on a street driven machine.