A Trip to High Performance Lubricants

Joined
Nov 29, 2004
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423
Location
Illinois
A while back while reading here I came across the thread discussing HPL and needing an oil change soon I decided to try them out since they're local. I sent an email asking if I could pick up a case of oil sometime.

I got an email from David Ward, the owner, inviting me to come pick it up at my convenience, and if I was interested, take a tour of their facility and lab. I wasn't going to turn that down, so I was able to stop by on short notice Friday and was met by David and David Silver.

They were worn out from bottling 23,000 quarts of hand sanitizer to help with the battle against COVID but they spent 3 hours of their Friday evening just showing me around.

I guess I kind of expected some basic mom and pop oil shop, whatever that means, but I certainly wasn't expecting the facility I saw when I walked in. Here was this sparkling warehouse filled floor to ceiling with totes and barrels of base stocks, additives, huge stainless blending tanks, state of the art bottling and labeling equipment. I made a comment that "you could eat off the floor in here."

We also visited their in-house lab where they do all their testing and research. There were so many instruments they named off that I had heard of before, but it was really cool to see how the tests actually work and such. David listed off the price of each piece of equipment in that room and it didn't take long to realize there was over a million bucks in there.

The Davids explained a lot of the give and take and compromises that have to made with lubricants and what they do to minimize those compromises. David explained his passion for racing which got him in this business to begin with, and with some wins under their belt with no paid sponsorships, they were able to kind of snowball that success into other industries that demand the highest quality lubricants.

It was also really interesting to see some graphs and charts showing their oils compared to other competing oils when it comes to foaming, oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. There was another machine which I forgot the name of that has a diamond inside it that records frequency and can help show what is in a given oil.

Admittedly by this point they were talking a bit over my heads but to say the least the comprehensive study and science, dedication to absolute cleanliness, and refusal to settle is what really stuck out to me. Having all their tanks inside is a big bonus too because they can control temperature and humidity and condensation which keeps moisture out during the blending process that inevitably occurs with outside tank setups.

All in all I couldn't have been more impressed with my visit. These guys are passionate and driven and are serious about their products and their customers. I always root for the underdog that's out there trying to carve out a niche for an ultra-premium product and HPL is doing just that.

As a disclaimer (because I know someone will accuse me of being a shill) I did not ask for a tour and I happily paid for the case of oil I took home and put 8 quarts of it into my Yukon Saturday afternoon.

Here are some pictures I took with their permission:



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Awesome!
Thanks for the pictures as well.


cheers3.gif
 
So how do you like the HPL that you got for the Yukon?

I see in your other post you have the 6.2 engine and selected their 5w-30 HD oil.

Is there a place I can purchase their products online, or stores that carry their products?
 
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Originally Posted by zfasts03


Is there a place I can purchase their products online, or stores that carry their products?


I've been looking around as well for their products to purchase.
 
Originally Posted by buster
Place looks immaculate.

You seriously could eat off the floors. If you ever go there, look at the top of the tanks or piping - no dust.
 
Amazing!!! I'm ready to give them a try. They sound very knowledgeable and seem to have a true passion for what they are doing! More than you can so for most oil blenders out there.

Did they mention whom they get most of their base stocks from? I'm sure they are blenders, so they're buying a big name base stock I'm sure...
 
Forgot some pics of my oil change. I mean I guess so far I like it after 100 miles. The engine was clean and quiet before with no issues so I can't really say I've noticed any kind of difference. After meeting these folks and seeing their facilities I have no doubts that I'm using as good an oil as there is available.

One thing that does stand out a little to me is that my AFM seems to hold V4 longer then I'm used to. But that could be fuel quality or the oil viscosity or the temperature or the speed I was going.

I sent in a VOA and plan to run this oil using 5K UOA until it's dead.

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Originally Posted by racin4ds
Amazing!!! I'm ready to give them a try. They sound very knowledgeable and seem to have a true passion for what they are doing! More than you can so for most oil blenders out there.

Did they mention whom they get most of their base stocks from? I'm sure they are blenders, so they're buying a big name base stock I'm sure...


There are only a handful of suppliers of both base stocks and additives. I don't want to speak out of turn here but David explained to me that their lubricants aren't just base stock and additive packages commercially available to anyone who wants to blend motor oil—it's the vast amount of research and testing they do in order to top treat their lubricants to create an end product that has minimal compromises.
 
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Great post, thanks!

Sprint cars (Gaerte engined no less) and custom oil blending.

Love it all

UD
 
First time I have seen 0W8 oil for cars. None of mine need that kind of oil though so not looking for it. Very nice facility for quality made US products.
 
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