Need Help, Something is Wrong!

[Cali' Explorer]

Ok, gotta give my input here. Having a best friend who's a mechanic, it is very clear when an engine uses Pennzoil. Pennzoil adds a bunch of stuff to their oil to make it "High Tech". The problem being, all the additives have a tendency to over time adhere to parts internal to the engine.

I guarantee you run Pennzoil in an brand new engine for 30 - 40k and then take the engine apart. It'll look like someone filled the engine with tar. Seen it more than I'd like to admit.

Changing the oil with more frequency does seem to reduce the amount of deposits it leaves behind (well, not so much deposits, the best definition would be black, caked on "Gunk", hehe).

Anyways, with all the engines he and I have rebuilt together, seeing engines that were run with Pennzoil versus not, I would put water in my engine before pennzoil (well, maybe not, but you get the idea).

Just my opinion, let the flame wars begin =).

(As a side note, why do you think so many oil change places use Pennzoil? Because its so much cheaper than all the other brands of oil. Food for though, you get what you pay for)

 

[Mbrooks420]

Wonder why I've never heard that before. Any chance that the oil just breaks down after people neglect to change the oil before it is totally beat. I've seen morons run oil for over 10k.

 

[Cali' Explorer]

Well, 3 cars were family members cars who were religious about changing oil every 3,000 miles. The problem being, they all took it to those Jiffy Lube places that used Pennzoil. All 3 were new cars. 1 had about 80k on it, one had about 120k on it and one had 140k on it (all rough obviously).

The worst one was actually the one with 120k on it, we had a hard time getting the engine apart it was so gummed up from the oil. This one we were rebuilding because of a mad lifter/valve tick. Reason? Oil passages to the top end were completely clogged. We attempted to clean out as much gunkas we could by hand but a fair amount of it was so caked on we couldn't get it out. We found up to 3/4" of it in some areas. We pulled the pan off after 5,000 miles to check the condition of the engine and everythig (make sure it wasn't building up again, we had them switch to Castrol). Upon pulling it, the engine was totally clean, even the old caked on gunk was gone.

As I said, this is just my experience and take it for what its worth. But in my opinion, I will never run Pennzoil nor recommend it to anyone unless there it is an emergency and there is no other option. I say to each his own, and if you don't like my opinions and reasoning, there ain't much I can do about that =).

 

[Cali' Explorer]

Out of curiousity Dan, any word from Ford yet on your X? This shouldn't go turning into a Flame war about Pennzoil, hehe.

One thing you may want to do as well is check out the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administrations site. Use the following link to see if there are any TSB's that talk about your same problem. It doesn't always turn up a problem, but I have found going to the dealer armed with all the information and knowledge is very helpful.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/tsb/tsbsearch.cfm