"More Zinc = More Wear?" with Lake Speed Jr

[buster]

Valvoline has their own engine lab that can run every test to certify API oils.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I would politely disagree...

He's not "good for the average person" because he does not do a good job of explaining the nuances buried in his ramblings. As I said before, many of his titles are clickbait that would lead the uninformed to a faulty conclusion. Much of his experience and professional thrust is based on racing, etc. Not all racing knowledge translates well, if at all, into the typical Camry or F150. Hence, his video info, often convoluted and disjointed, is ever more difficult for anyone to understand, let alone for a noob.

I would agree that he does provide good info. Unfortunately it's buried in LONG videos that wander aimlessly at times, and do a crappy job of defining where and when the info is relevant, and where/when it's not. All this leaving the "average person" to make some really poor conclusions relative to the vehicles in their driveway.

If it were "good for the average person" it would be primarily focused on typical "normal" applications, and be well-edited for content, and done in 5 min or less.
THAT's the mark of a good YT presentation.

Video length is primarily determined by the earnings structure setup by YouTube.

 

[Invisible]

Thank you @Foxtrot08 for that excellent and very detailed explanation.

Some Castrol products have disappeared off the retail shelves, and I was wondering why. I mean, they're owned by BP, not exactly a small company. Though I wonder about the quality of their PCEO and ATF products. In that regard, they seem to be a lot like you described Valvoline: relying on their supplier.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

"...
As for Motul, the only place I’ve ever seen them is trade shows. I’ve never really engaged with them, or dug into who’s supplying them or where from. As outside of a few online questions, I’ve never had to. I don’t consider them a player in the market outside of some online / retail sales. They’re a European brand that’s probably trying in the US market. But Total already has tried and failed 3 times in my career. Euro brands tend to not make it here simply because of the cost / distribution disadvantages.

It’s going to be interesting with Idemitsu making such a strong play in the U.S. right now. Or are they going to face the same issue as Total / Motul and even to a point, Castrol, which is facing a steep fall off in the U.S."

It's interesting that LiquiMoly has been in the US market for so long. It makes me wonder if it's because of how cheap their product is to produce or because they're so small they're able to accept much thinner profit margins.

 

[chris719]

To make a distinction, his videos may be well polished in terms of production quality, but his CONTENT is muddled and scattered in presentation.
This isn't a question of good quality cameras and decent audio.
His videos are akin to a poorly written article; they are haphazard and disorganized. His points are often lost in his ramblings, and he does a poor job of making the assumptions and conditions well known, nor does he summarize things well.

I don't object to a long video. I object to a long video that only has perhaps 20% of real discernable content, with the rest being his repetitive ramblings and tossing jargon about.

Gaming YT algorithm. It forces people to take 20 minutes to give 2 minutes of information to get eyeballs.

 

[Glenda W.]

Valvoline has their own engine lab that can run every test to certify API oils.

I thought I had read that Valvoline has quite the testing lab. Also thought they mentioned others would pay to use it. I’m not sure where I read this as it was a few years ago.

 

[nascarnation]

Mobil makes the engine lube for all NASCAR teams.

So those Valvoline decals on the Hendrick cars are just for show?
Penske Pennzoil is just advertising but not actual product?
Quaker State on Trackhouse?

I thought Nascar verified that the teams were using the actual products?

 

[nascarnation]

As of Talladega this year, many teams are still using Driven XP. I would say it's still the majority.



Joe Gibbs Racing oil became Driven racing oil in 2011 or 2012. LSJ left in 2019, the reason I'm not at liberty to disclose.

Mobil has plenty of money to throw around, likes to throw it around, and the teams like accepting it. As to whether they're actually using it.... I'll let your imagination go wild on that one.

Indycar which I'm more familiar with on the tech side verifies that sponsored products are actually used, although it's not at the molecular analysis level. Is Nascar similar?

 

[Invisible]

So those Valvoline decals on the Hendrick cars are just for show?
Penske Pennzoil is just advertising but not actual product?
Quaker State on Trackhouse?

I thought Nascar verified that the teams were using the actual products?

The decals on the cars are paid advertisements. That's all they are. I mean, what over the counter STP product could a NASCAR vehicle possibly use, for example?

 

[RazorsEdge]

So those Valvoline decals on the Hendrick cars are just for show?
Penske Pennzoil is just advertising but not actual product?
Quaker State on Trackhouse?

I thought Nascar verified that the teams were using the actual products?

Years ago when we were dirt track racing,we had many different types of stickers on the cars. That by no means anything as to what is actually being used for parts,oil or anything else.

 

[buster]

A few years ago Mobil said that over 50% of NASCAR teams were running Mobil 1. Rusty Wallace was using a special 0w5 qualifying oil back in 2003.

Triple Action was born out of Redbull Racing.

"Used by more than 50 percent of the teams in NASCAR's top three circuits...."

Mobil 1 To Continue As 'Official Motor Oil of NASCAR'

The newly signed agreement will extend the successful partnership to 20 years.

www.aftermarketnews.com

Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil is used by more than 50 percent of teams competing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The use of these oils across all three series provides a testing ground for ExxonMobil engineers, who create products for race fans and general consumers, which are proven to perform under some of the most challenging of conditions.

 

[buster]

The idea that these race teams are secretly pouring in Driven Oil in the middle of the night sounds mythical to me. There have been numerous people that go to these races and have seen them pouring in Mobil 1 off the shelf. I'm sure all these companies can make great high end lubricants.

 

[Foxtrot08]

I thought I had read that Valvoline has quite the testing lab. Also thought they mentioned others would pay to use it. I’m not sure where I read this as it was a few years ago.

Having a lab, depending on what you can / cannot do, is not *that* big of a deal. We have like a $1.5m lab that can do the vast majority of stuff. It’s just not certified for printable results. Which is what we are working on. We have it for internal R&D - specifically with fuel.


Having engine test stand labs is a pretty big deal. But I’d rather just leave that to Afton / Lubrizol / Infineum / etc.

 

[Foxtrot08]

Thank you @Foxtrot08 for that excellent and very detailed explanation.

Some Castrol products have disappeared off the retail shelves, and I was wondering why. I mean, they're owned by BP, not exactly a small company. Though I wonder about the quality of their PCEO and ATF products. In that regard, they seem to be a lot like you described Valvoline: relying on their supplier.

Bluntly, majors tend to trip over themselves and re-organize all the time. As well, lubricants is the step child for them, where they put executives out to retire.

Shell, Mobil, Castrol just haven’t been out there killing it. Shell has a 5 year plan that reorganizes every 3 years. Mobil just either lets Brenntag handle it or has an arrogance to them. Castrol just doesn’t want to support their distributors. Like what are they doing with Safety Kleen now? That’s pretty desperate. P66 is lost somewhere in retirement world. Citgo is a mini-major that, June 29th will probably be under new management.


Right now Chevron is probably the most well run / organized Major in the market in my opinion. And I don’t fly that flag for the record. At all. But Chevron doesn’t like playing second fiddle to Shell with Reladyne. So I expect some moves at the distribution level for them.


I understand my perspective is different. Here people are DIY’ers and such. Which is fine. But that’s a very small portion of the market, that is very cut throat pricing wise/profit wise. The majority of volume goes through the distributor channels. Whether it’s direct national account or on the distributor paper. I mean you figure just my volume on PCEO is probably around ~8-9 million gallons a year still. And that’s substantially down since peak synthetic blend days.

 

[Invisible]

Bluntly, majors tend to trip over themselves and re-organize all the time. As well, lubricants is the step child for them, where they put executives out to retire.

Shell, Mobil, Castrol just haven’t been out there killing it. Shell has a 5 year plan that reorganizes every 3 years. Mobil just either lets Brenntag handle it or has an arrogance to them. Castrol just doesn’t want to support their distributors. Like what are they doing with Safety Kleen now? That’s pretty desperate. P66 is lost somewhere in retirement world. Citgo is a mini-major that, June 29th will probably be under new management.


Right now Chevron is probably the most well run / organized Major in the market in my opinion. And I don’t fly that flag for the record. At all. But Chevron doesn’t like playing second fiddle to Shell with Reladyne. So I expect some moves at the distribution level for them.


I understand my perspective is different. Here people are DIY’ers and such. Which is fine. But that’s a very small portion of the market, that is very cut throat pricing wise/profit wise. The majority of volume goes through the distributor channels. Whether it’s direct national account or on the distributor paper. I mean you figure just my volume on PCEO is probably around ~8-9 million gallons a year still. And that’s substantially down since peak synthetic blend days.

That's a lot of info to digest, however, I am very grateful for it. Thank you!.

One thing I find weird about Mobil is that if I want to buy a bucket of Delvac 1 668 ATF or Delvac 80W-140 gear oil I have a hard time finding. It's either overpriced, or I have to order it and wait for a month. That's just weird and ridiculous. Is that because of how their distributors work?

 

[Foxtrot08]

To put some volume in perspective / volume reduction in the last 20 years.

When I started full time with my company. We were buying 12-15 transport loads of our own house brand synthetic blends a week. So 4.2-4.5 million gallons a year just of our house brand, just of 5w20, 5w30, 10w30.

That doesn’t include motorcraft, Honda, at that time mopar, flag ship branded products, etc.

PCEO volume is down in a huge way. Because of extended drains, etc. which is just the facts of the business.

 

[Jetronic]

To make a distinction, his videos may be well polished in terms of production quality, but his CONTENT is muddled and scattered in presentation.
This isn't a question of good quality cameras and decent audio.
His videos are akin to a poorly written article; they are haphazard and disorganized. His points are often lost in his ramblings, and he does a poor job of making the assumptions and conditions well known, nor does he summarize things well.

I don't object to a long video. I object to a long video that only has perhaps 20% of real discernable content, with the rest being his repetitive ramblings and tossing jargon about.

I know what you mean, but some points need repeating vefore sinking in.

I wish more videos would get to the point early on, then explain the mechanics behind it for those interested, and at the end maybe reiterate the main items.

 

[Foxtrot08]

That's a lot of info to digest, however, I am very grateful for it. Thank you!.

One thing I find weird about Mobil is that if I want to buy a bucket of Delvac 1 668 ATF or Delvac 80W-140 gear oil I have a hard time finding. It's either overpriced, or I have to order it and wait for a month. That's just weird and ridiculous. Is that because of how their distributors work?

Yup.

I’m the single largest distributor of TES668 in the country. That’s not an oem like Mobil or such.

I was also the first one in the country to order a full transport load (6500 gallons) of it.

Mobil’s distribution network is shrinking. Fast.

 

[Invisible]

Yup.

I’m the single largest distributor of TES668 in the country. That’s not an oem like Mobil or such.

I was also the first one in the country to order a full transport load (6500 gallons) of it.

Mobil’s distribution network is shrinking. Fast.

That TES668 is some amazing ATF. You can run it in any step shift automatic transmission, except if it calls for Type-F (lol).

[Edit]

Currently running it in 3 transmissions in personal vehicles.

 

[kschachn]

Yup.

I’m the single largest distributor of TES668 in the country. That’s not an oem like Mobil or such.

I was also the first one in the country to order a full transport load (6500 gallons) of it.

Mobil’s distribution network is shrinking. Fast.

Do you have a link to purchase your products?