Hello Everyone,

So I have gone across multiple websites trying to find a reliable answer through forums about this question in oils and haven't really been told one way or the other.

Is Royal Purple oil safe to put in a 2006 C6 Corvette?

It has engine work done to her, and want to be sure before I drop this oil in. I am stationed overseas and getting the Mobil1 brand is not possible out here as it is not allowed to be shipped to me. So this is the next best option.

I have heard that it will eat away at the engine, dye the engine, it burns hotter then other oils and could cause engine damage, etc.

This may seem like a novice question but dont want to make a novice mistake if I can avoid it.

Thank you all for your time!

 

Yes.

 

It’s safe in the sense that it won’t ruin or even harm your engine in the short term. It also has some fans on the forum. But if you are considering it because of the advertizing which uses their wear rig demo, be advised that the overwhelming majority of knowledgeable lube people don’t think that test gives even the remotest indication of how it will perform as a motor oil. You then have to ask yourself, if the company bases their reputation on a test which very few knowledgeable people think is meaningful, what does that say about the technical excellence of the company?

 

Awesome, thank you for your replies! Especially that info about that test!

 

Can you get Redline overseas? That is my recommendation!

 

Where the heck do you live that you can't get Mobil 1??

 

Hey old man, thanks as usual for your input. Your element of persuasion in the above post is noted, sir. How is Royal Purple different than any other motor oil? Is it in fact a long chain hydrocarbon or some poly-ester compound? Is there a iso-/paraffin component to it? What is it that they market that should make me want to buy their boutique product? Is it zinc content?

And then lastly...why is it purple?

I appreciate your encyclopedia of knowledge for my list of questions my good man.

 

I don’t have any insider info on its composition, and their ads don’t say enough to draw meaningful conclusions. Their volume was not large enough to be considered competitors, and we weren’t impressed by the ads, so we never tested their product. It may be a good product. My negative reaction is solely from the fact that they build their claims around a test that most lube experts consider irrelevant to motor oil performance. I do not know how it would perform if subjected to relevant testing.

 

I have been using Royal Purple HPS oil in my wife's 69 Camaro for many years and I love it. At 30,000 miles on the crate engine, I dropped the pan and inspected two rod bearings. They still look new.

 

^^^ Many years ago, I did and had the engine analyzed after an engine builder looked at various parts of my engine (run very hard) after almost 70K miles on Pennzoil 10W-30. His original opinion of that oil brand and weight was it was junk and while I wouldn't base an opinion on one history of one engine, his comment was he'd never seen such a low amount of wear from the oil. Since he raced a particular brand of car and mine had the same internals (mostly) one of his main issues that he'd noted elsewhere (including his own racing cars) was the timing chain and guide. As he said, it did look "new" after 70K pretty hard street miles in climates that were the opposite of Arizona desert.

I'd rather trust in LDB's concept of real testing under lab conditions vs. my one-off test. I still recall the "magic elixirs" sold at auto shows showing the "see-if-you-can-hold-this-steel-rod-after-dipping-in-Product X" or the "push-down-on-this-lever-and-see-the-ball-bearing-still-turn." jmo

 

You didn’t say how long ago your “one-off” test was, but if before the early to mid 1970’s, there could be an explanation of some small interest to history buffs. What originally made Pennzoil (and Quaker State) special was Pennsylvania grade crude oil. It had unusually high isoparaffin content, which in turn meant very high viscosity index, which in turn meant you could make multi-grade 10W30 out of it without VI improver additive. Before the early to mid 1970’s, VI improver additives were somewhere between very poor and non-existent, so anyone who wanted the benefits of a multi grade oil either had to use Pennsylvania grade oil or use extremely lousy VI improver additives. Since Pennzoil and Quaker State had essentially all the Pennsylvania grade crude, it meant that they really were the best in the industry for multi grade oil prior to the early to mid 70’s. Two things happened around that time: the Pennsylvania grade crude pretty much ran out, and decent VI improver additives appeared. So everybody, including Pennzoil and Quaker State, started making multi grade oil from normal oil with VI improver additives rather than Pennsylvania grade crude (there’s still a dribble of Pennsylvania grade crude around, and a few small volume companies market oil made from it).

A second bit of trivia relates indirectly to Royal Purple’s color, which I never answered. Pennsylvania grade crude was either bright yellow (the fields Pennzoil used) or dark green (the fields Quaker State used), hence the corporate colors of those two brands. From the mid 70’s on, once most of the Pennsylvania crude had dried up, both Pennzoil and Quaker State’s oil came from normal crudes and would have been golden brown like all other lubes. Pennzoil let theirs be golden brown, probably figuring that since golden brown still has a bit of a yellowish tint, people might think it was the same stuff, just a darker shade of yellow. But you couldn’t possibly mistake golden brown for dark green, so to make people continue to think they were getting something special, Quaker State elected to dye theirs green until Shell bought them 10 or so years ago. During that time, they were among the world’s largest consumers of green dye. Royal Purple’s web site says they chose purple because it’s associated with very high quality. To the best of my knowledge, no base oils or additives are purple, and they don’t make any claim of their oils being naturally purple. So presumably, just like Quaker State dyed their oils green for several years, Royal Purple is dyed purple as a marketing gimmick. While I doubt that dying the oil does much, if any harm, it certainly doesn’t do any good either.

 

^I appreciate a few knowledge nuggets and trivia, sir. I remember somewhere long ago you posting about how Pennsylvania grade crude was the premium back in the day but I never knew about the color association nor that any company would put dye in their oil. You learn something new everyday I guess. Thank you.

 

NOT everyone uses Mobil1. Personally, I think it's overrated.

 

Grape flavor....yummmm.

 

I could give a chit what you use or think about Mobil 1. My question was for the OP who said he couldn't get Mobil 1 where he lives.

 

Thanks, LDB,

Having spent many years in Pennsylvania with both oil people and coal mining people, I actually did know something about the two oil companies and others (like Kendall which I believe was also a PA co., as well as Gulf which I don't think got their oil in PA). And yes, my oil use WAS before PZL, Pennzoil, no longer had Pennsylvania crude availability.

T'was a good oil back then...and a good stock to own.

 

I forgot about Kendall. You are right. As another bit of trivia, while not much Pennsylvania grade oil is around any more, Shell now owns Pennzoil, and they make Pennzoil Ultra via Shell’s synthesis process from natural gas. The chemistry of that process means it’s essentially pure isoparaffins, and as noted in the earlier post, high isoparaffin content is what gave yesteryear’s Pennsylvania grade oil its high quality. Now mind you, that’s not intended as a plug for Pennzoil Ultra. To keep some credibility, I stay away from recommending brands, and since I was retired when it came out, I don’t have any first hand knowledge of how it performs in engine testing anyway. But in principle, it should be at least as good as other full synthetics, and I mentioned it since it ties into the Pennsylvania crude and isoparaffin trivia.

 

I know that over the road truckers swears by Royal Purple, especially owner operators.

 

I like these threads that LDB can chime in. Always learn something.