Pennzoil Ultra Platinum vs Ultra

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How different are the two formulas? My local Walmart is beginning to stock the PUP in 5w30.
 
There are a bunch of threads here that discuss the new Ultra. The consensus seems to be "who knows?", but a few things are sort-of clear:

Ultra is at the top of Pennzoil's product line, so that should suggest it's their best lubricant.

Both are made with Gas-to-Liquid base stocks, although the quality and proportion in each is unknown.

In many grades, Ultra actually has slightly higher Noack volatility than Platiunum, which seems surprising. Ultra's volatility is also up substantially from the old formula.

On paper, the new Platinum looks better than the old formula while the new Ultra looks worse.

Neither is advertised as an extended drain oil, and Ultra makes no claims to be better than Platinum in this regard. Pennzoil says Ultra is better at keeping pistons clean, fwiw.

So I guess it comes down to price. At the same price I guess I'd buy Ultra. If Ultra were at a price premium, I'd probably stick to Platinum. And I wouldn't assume that the new Ultra is the same as the Ultra you have been using.
 
Danh nailed it.
The new Ultra seems to be the oil penzzoil wants to make the most money off. it costs more than PP and seems to be more or less , less superior.

Lots of old UOA and VOA seems to show slightly more additive packs for Ultra, doesnt neccesary makes it "better" because of the Noack volatitlity.

I'd go with PP over it.
 
The 5w20 Ultra I just put in the subaru has it running better than ANY top oil i've run in it, Including M1, QSUD and Idemitsu Subaru - we'll see over time how the VVT housing looks that was varnished up with M1 and qsud.
The last OCI of VSP 0w20 cleaned up the previous mess and the sticky TCT went away.
 
FROM PENNZOIL.COM

Pennzoil Ultra Platinum™ Full Synthetic motor oil with PurePlus™ Technology delivers COMPLETE PROTECTION including:

1. Cleaner Pistons: Keeps pistons up to 65% cleaner than the toughest industry standards1. Additionally, keep pistons up to 25% cleaner that Mobil 1, up to 35% cleaner than Valvoline® SynPower®, and up to 40% cleaner than Castrol® EDGE with SYNTEC®2

Pennzoil Platinum® Full Synthetic motor oil with PurePlus™ Technology delivers COMPLETE PROTECTION including:

1. Cleaner Pistons: Keeps pistons up to 40% cleaner than the toughest industry standards1. Additionally, keep pistons up to 8% cleaner that Mobil 1, up to 17% cleaner than Valvoline® SynPower®, and up to 20% cleaner than Castrol® EDGE with SYNTEC®2

And we do some math…….

PUP keeps pistons up to 25% cleaner than PP

20% better than PP at keeping pistons clean vs Castrol Edge w/ Syntec

18% better than PP at keeping pistons clean vs Valvoline SynPower

17% better than PP at keeping pistons clean vs Mobil 1
 
All I know is that I have ten jugs in my garage thanks to the shell gas card deal. $6 per five quarts and I don't care if it is the best or not since I can never seem to go past 6k, that oil change bug makes me go crazy.
 
Originally Posted By: mv6845
How different are the two formulas? My local Walmart is beginning to stock the PUP in 5w30.

Vanilla Platinum and Ultra Platinum seem to have the identical base oil -- lowest-quality GTL that barely meets GM dexos1 (13% NOACK). Ultra Platinum seems to have a higher concentration of detergent pack than the Vanilla Platinum. Slightly higher NOACK of the Ultra Platinum is probably due to the evaporative nature of the solvent used in the detergent pack: slightly more detergent pack -- slightly more solvent -- slightly more NOACK. Since more detergents could increase the wear as they fight with the AW/EP/FM additives over the metal surfaces more, I would probably go with the Vanilla Platinum than the Ultra Platinum.

The old Ultra (non-Platinum) was made from a higher-quality base oil (PAO and/or higher-quality GTL) than the new Ultra Platinum. In other words, the old Ultra was a premium synthetic but the new Ultra Platinum is a mainstream synthetic, not really much different than the Vanilla Platinum.
 
Other than the GTL hype, I'm still struggling to see what's so special about this new oil family. It doesn't seem to blow M1 EP out of the water, IMO.

Since we now have a non-turbo Dexos1 vehicle in the fleet, we've stuck with the latter for it until this new formula develops a clearer field history.
 
Originally Posted By: Gokhan
Originally Posted By: mv6845
How different are the two formulas? My local Walmart is beginning to stock the PUP in 5w30.

Vanilla Platinum and Ultra Platinum seem to have the identical base oil -- lowest-quality GTL that barely meets GM dexos1 (13% NOACK). Ultra Platinum seems to have a higher concentration of detergent pack than the Vanilla Platinum. Slightly higher NOACK of the Ultra Platinum is probably due to the evaporative nature of the solvent used in the detergent pack: slightly more detergent pack -- slightly more solvent -- slightly more NOACK. Since more detergents could increase the wear as they fight with the AW/EP/FM additives over the metal surfaces more, I would probably go with the Vanilla Platinum than the Ultra Platinum.

The old Ultra (non-Platinum) was made from a higher-quality base oil (PAO and/or higher-quality GTL) than the new Ultra Platinum. In other words, the old Ultra was a premium synthetic but the new Ultra Platinum is a mainstream synthetic, not really much different than the Vanilla Platinum.


You should just have in your signature, "Pennzoil Basher". Seriously, all of your posts are just speculation, and whatever kool-aid you decided to drink that day. Until we see some testing on the new GTL Pure Plus, nothing you say holds any water to most BITOGer's.

Pennzoil is not going to put out an inferior product! You really think they would spend billions on a technology and put it out and it be junk? Do you think it is going to wear out an engine and largely increase wear metals? It will be tested and proven soon enough....

Your posts are full of the words "seem to" "could have" etc. You also say it is an inferior quality base oil or inferior quality GTL.....I do believe you can't prove this, but again, I would like to see you try.
 
Originally Posted By: mv6845
How different are the two formulas? My local Walmart is beginning to stock the PUP in 5w30.


I had the same issue over the weekend and decided to go with the old PU. I figure since the old PU won't exist anymore and it's already proven to be the best oil in the solar system I figured I couldn't go wrong with it.

PUP isn't proven yet and I can wait on others to tell me if it's any good. I like numbers and the numbers are on the side of old PU atm.
 
Our Forester, with an entirely different enigne than yours, seems very smooth and quiet on Ultra, or at least as smooth and quiet as a Subie gets.
If the new Ultra is as good as the old, I'd say that it may be a small step up from Plat, an oil I've liked in every engine I've used it in and which delivered very clean UOAs, posted here, for the three drains from three engines that I UOAed.
I think you may get a little more by paying a little more.
Is it worth it?
Depends, really a matter of choice.
Either will deliver more performance than most engines will ever need in typical use.
 
What Gokhan said....

I would stick with the 10w30 versions of either.
They seem the only formulations that aren't "crude".
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Cooper
You should just have in your signature, "Pennzoil Basher". Seriously, all of your posts are just speculation, and whatever kool-aid you decided to drink that day. Until we see some testing on the new GTL Pure Plus, nothing you say holds any water to most BITOGer's.

Pennzoil is not going to put out an inferior product! You really think they would spend billions on a technology and put it out and it be junk? Do you think it is going to wear out an engine and largely increase wear metals? It will be tested and proven soon enough....

Your posts are full of the words "seem to" "could have" etc. You also say it is an inferior quality base oil or inferior quality GTL.....I do believe you can't prove this, but again, I would like to see you try.


While I'm sure Pennzoil makes a fine product, (I’m very happy with how PYB performs in my cars) how do you know just how many "billions" Sopus had spent on GTL? Show us the proof, just like you asked in your post.

GTL is nothing new and was used excessively by Germans in WW2 out of necessity. That's not to say that the oil companies don't invest in improving this technology, but assuming how much it costs them is pure guess work unless someone has the insider's knowledge, which is highly unlikely. Now the marketing muscle has been stretched by oil companies calling it "Technology" and people start assuming all sorts of wonderful things this new "technology" must be. After all companies don't throw the word "technology" around for no reason
lol.gif


Speking of assuming, lets assume that we do know how much an oil company had invested in GTL. How is that a guarantee that the product will be good? We all know that it costs the automakers an enormous amount of money to develop new car models, but they still have problems, sometimes big ones. So, the amount of money that a company spent developing something has little bearing on the quality and performance of the final product. Development costs show how efficient or not efficient a company is with allocating their resources and is a good measure for possible investment opportunities, nothing more.

Making assumptions that just because something cost "billions" (unverified at that) to develop must be good is plain old silly.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Originally Posted By: Cooper
You should just have in your signature, "Pennzoil Basher". Seriously, all of your posts are just speculation, and whatever kool-aid you decided to drink that day. Until we see some testing on the new GTL Pure Plus, nothing you say holds any water to most BITOGer's.

Pennzoil is not going to put out an inferior product! You really think they would spend billions on a technology and put it out and it be junk? Do you think it is going to wear out an engine and largely increase wear metals? It will be tested and proven soon enough....

Your posts are full of the words "seem to" "could have" etc. You also say it is an inferior quality base oil or inferior quality GTL.....I do believe you can't prove this, but again, I would like to see you try.


While I'm sure Pennzoil makes a fine product, (I’m very happy with how PYB performs in my cars) how do you know just how many "billions" Sopus had spent on GTL? Show us the proof, just like you asked in your post.

GTL is nothing new and was used excessively by Germans in WW2 out of necessity. That's not to say that the oil companies don't invest in improving this technology, but assuming how much it costs them is pure guess work unless someone has the insider's knowledge, which is highly unlikely. Now the marketing muscle has been stretched by oil companies calling it "Technology" and people start assuming all sorts of wonderful things this new "technology" must be. After all companies don't throw the word "technology" around for no reason
lol.gif


Speking of assuming, lets assume that we do know how much an oil company had invested in GTL. How is that a guarantee that the product will be good? We all know that it costs the automakers an enormous amount of money to develop new car models, but they still have problems, sometimes big ones. So, the amount of money that a company spent developing something has little bearing on the quality and performance of the final product. Development costs show how efficient or not efficient a company is with allocating their resources and is a good measure for possible investment opportunities, nothing more.

Making assumptions that just because something cost "billions" (unverified at that) to develop must be good is plain old silly.




Shell GTL plant cost was between $18-$19 Billion dollars....and that is not including development, engineering, testing, production, quality control, etc.....

HERE is the overview of the plant. How is it not verified? Very easy to find. Have a nice day!

As for testing, if you don't believe Pennzoil's testing that they have already conducted and have listed on their website.....

PQIA will have the PurePlus oils listed soon and tested. There will also be UOA's showing up soon on here. That is as close as you are going to get. We are all waiting for that. To assume it is inferior before those show up is ignorant at best. The smart money would be on assuming Pennzoil spent enough money to not put out a product that is a dud.... Their livelihood depends on it.

Bashing a product without proof is a lot more of an assumption than following the trend that Pennzoil makes a premium product and will continue to do so.
 
Originally Posted By: Cooper

Shell GTL plant cost was between $18-$19 Billion dollars....and that is not including development, engineering, testing, production, quality control, etc.....


True, the PLANT cost that much money, but lubricant base oils are only one product of the plant:

Originally Posted By: SOPUS
Building on its extensive experience marketing GTL products from Bintulu, Shell exports Pearl’s high value, differentiated premium products, including GTL gasoil, kerosene, naphtha, normal paraffin and base oils for lubricants, to markets around the globe.


It isn't like they invested billions in GTL lubricants (which was what you seemed to be implying and what KrisZ took issue with), they've incorporated a product that is produced at their GTL plant into their lubricants. Which of course only makes sense. A facility like that cannot pay for itself just making base oils, it needs to be making a high consumption product/products which SOPUS can make money off of.

I am quite sure SOPUS has invested a lot of money in the development and integration of their GTL base oils. But how much that actually is we don't really know.
 
Originally Posted By: Cooper
Pennzoil is not going to put out an inferior product! You really think they would spend billions on a technology and put it out and it be junk? Do you think it is going to wear out an engine and largely increase wear metals? It will be tested and proven soon enough....

I didn't say any of that. All I said was that their GTL base oil barely meets GM dexos1 (13% NOACK); so, it's the lowest grade of GTL base oil. You can make GTL base stocks with NOACK as little as 2% for the cold-cranking specs (CCS apparent viscosity) of the Pennzoil Pure Plus. They are obviously using the most economical base stocks that barely meets the needed specs (GM dexos1 and other premium US specs) rather than most premium base stocks.

The other thing I said was that the new Pennzoil Ultra Platinum uses the same base oil as the new Pennzoil Platinum. The old Pennzoil Ultra used much higher-quality base stocks than the old Pennzoil Platinum, and the old Pennzoil Ultra base stocks were higher in quality than the new Pennzoil Pure Plus Platinum and Ultra Platinum base stocks.

It will be interesting how the TAN and wear metals will show up in UOAs with long OCIs for the new Pennzoil Pure Plus Platinum and Ultra Platinum. That will tell us more about the quality of the base oil.
 
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