is Valovoline VR-1 really hurting engines?

[hoffman900]

On facebook about 3 weeks back, someone did a write up of how VR1 absolutely was the cause of an engine failure. I can't for the life of me remember who wrote it, BUT they were a reputable name. Not some internet troll. I've done a couple searches for it, but I cant find the post. That's why I asked. It was a pretty well known name in the industry. I'm shocked noone on here has heard of the post. I'll continue to look and see if I can find it. I only use VR1, so I hope its nothing.

I’d have a hard time buying whatever they were selling...

[rp930]

On facebook about 3 weeks back, someone did a write up of how VR1 absolutely was the cause of an engine failure. I can't for the life of me remember who wrote it, BUT they were a reputable name. Not some internet troll. I've done a couple searches for it, but I cant find the post. That's why I asked. It was a pretty well known name in the industry. I'm shocked noone on here has heard of the post. I'll continue to look and see if I can find it. I only use VR1, so I hope its nothing.

I don’t find myself going to Facebook for technical information or anything else for that matter.

[juuhanaa]

Summary..

Scar testing is mostly irrelevant to engine oils.

It can't provide an anti-wear function in the real world.

Engines does wear and particles flow with the oil, so scar resistance is needed on a bearing surfaces to finish the race.

Yes ticking lifters using a valvoline 10-60, just floor it and you may get them to settle. (Renault and alfaromeo for example...)

[PackardV8]

On facebook about 3 weeks back, someone did a write up of how VR1 absolutely was the cause of an engine failure.

I don’t find myself going to Facebook for technical information or anything else for that matter.

It's an old guy thing, but I can find no reason to go there, the noise level is just unbearable.

[RDY4WAR]

There's nothing wrong with VR1 though there's nothing special about it either. It's 98% the same oil as it's API Valvoline siblings. It just has ~80% more ZDDP. It's otherwise the same base oils and add pack. As far as a racing oil goes, the volatility and friction coefficient are just meh.

The likely situation is what was described earlier. Possibly someone building an LS engine with lifters and clearances that don't like high viscosity, pouring in some VR1 20W-50 molasses, and then getting scorn and blaming the oil when chunks of metal go flying.

Another scenario is someone running VR1 in a methanol drag engine, letting it sit for weeks with high fuel dilution, and then getting surprised when the viscosity modifiers have come out of solution and formed gel-like blobs in the oil pan. A proper oil for a methanol engine will be straight base oil with no viscosity modifiers for that reason, but they want to blame VR1 for "turning to sludge" or however they misinterpret it.

Both scenarios are somewhat common (sadly) and neither a fault of the oil.

As for Facebook, I'm pretty active in various engine related groups on there. The amount of myths and misinformation thrown around is appalling, especially when it comes to oil. People bash oil posts on there, like it's a dumb question, yet the vast majority couldn't tell you the difference between engine oil and olive oil.

[hoffman900]

Engine oil is the most reliable and most QA/QC’ed
part of any race engine. 99.9% of the time the issue is not the oil alone.

[juuhanaa]

There's nothing wrong with VR1 though there's nothing special about it either. It's 98% the same oil as it's API Valvoline siblings. It just has ~80% more ZDDP. It's otherwise the same base oils and add pack. As far as a racing oil goes, the volatility and friction coefficient are just meh.

The likely situation is what was described earlier. Possibly someone building an LS engine with lifters and clearances that don't like high viscosity, pouring in some VR1 20W-50 molasses, and then getting scorn and blaming the oil when chunks of metal go flying.

Another scenario is someone running VR1 in a methanol drag engine, letting it sit for weeks with high fuel dilution, and then getting surprised when the viscosity modifiers have come out of solution and formed gel-like blobs in the oil pan. A proper oil for a methanol engine will be straight base oil with no viscosity modifiers for that reason, but they want to blame VR1 for "turning to sludge" or however they misinterpret it.

Both scenarios are somewhat common (sadly) and neither a fault of the oil.

As for Facebook, I'm pretty active in various engine related groups on there. The amount of myths and misinformation thrown around is appalling, especially when it comes to oil. People bash oil posts on there, like it's a dumb question, yet the vast majority couldn't tell you the difference between engine oil and olive oil.

Not exactly. Miniv8 and i was referring to 10-60, which is full synthetic and offers according to my personal experience better heat resistance (seen losses in oil pressure), compared to same viscosity grade castrol oil. Yes there is better oils on market, but valvoline 10-60 works for me. It might be tricky to bleed the lifters, but the process not necessarily eat the valve train.. so let say make some good "1/8 mile" pulls, listen again and it may run like a dream.

Now consider why crank journals are "polished" and why it is essential to do oil changes regularly. Yes there is particles flowing with the oil and it is essential to make race engines last on a endurance application, so it asks the oil for properties. This reason tests are done and the correct lubricants are chosen for the given application.

I remember story about air cooled race car running tarmac "rally cross" type of event. People were speaking how they did it, but they say hot oils were changed between every starts just to keep the car running!

[RDY4WAR]

Right. My point is that a lot of people, either by mistake or willful ignorance, blame the oil for issues or damage that was caused by something else.

"I tried brand X with the new build and it spun a bearing. I'll never use that oil again."

Statements like that are very common, and 99% of the time, it's not the oil's fault. It's an assembly error or user error that caused the issue. Correlation is not causation, but a lot of people struggle to understand that.

[Geoff2]

RDY4WAR,
Have you ever tested Penrite oils? Thoughts? Thanks.