Penrite oils, anyone else had drama's

[awurth]

Just a quick story and a question. Recently had a set of standard GTR turbo's steel wheeled and highmounted on my car and my mate changed the oil for me when I wasn't there (he used Penrite HPR 10/50). He had a 550Hp ball bearing Garret fail for no apparent reason, oil flow and pressure was good, with limited K's and no real on boost time cause it was still to be tuned fully, he had used the same oil in his car. He then borrowed a turbo off a local mechanic in the mean time to keep his car running. When I was in there this weekend he took the inlet pipe off the front of the turbo and noticed some excessive play and after pulling it out the bearings where shot but it wasn't blowing smoke, the turbo guy pulled it apart on Monday and the shaft was laquered and had allot of carbon build up. After talking to him he told him he was using penrite HPR and the turbo guy said to stick well clear of it as about 5 years ago he rebuilt allot of turbo's that had been using penrite oils, he said then it was due to a problem with the base oil they use and a lack of additives, but they are able to rebuild the turbo for him.

I ran my turbo's for 3 weeks till i noticed some smoke from the back, got the turbo's inspected and one had failed, scoring the thrust seal and shaft, dont know why this happened as oil pressure and flow is good. I had it fixed and put in what I thought was a good oil Penrite HPR 10/50, ran the turbos for approx 10'ks (4 trips for my wife to the shops and back) and noticed white smoke again. after pulling it all apart again it the other turbine has failed and after talking to the the Turbo guy again he found out what oil I used and gave me the same helpful information, Stick well clear of Penrite HPR. Apparently it crystalzes in the bearing housing of the turbo, laquers the shaft and causes carbon to build up ruins the bearings causing the seal to wear and let oil past, and all this very quickly.

Sorry about the length of my story but now for my question has anyone had this problem or heard of others with it. And he recommended using Castrol GTX3 with some morries oil additive.

[Gizmo73]

Sorry to hear about your troubles...sounds like an expensive exercise...

As to the oil - a search would pickup the required info...good ones are...(in order of goodness)

Motul or Royal Purple

Mobil-1

Castrol

Gravox....

[xr8eater]

i used penrite in my R34 one run down the track and it was coughing and farting streight away did an oil change all ran smothly from there on in i use shell helix if it's good enough for ferrari's it's good enough for a GTR as for penrite i will never touch the stuff again!

[Roy]

:confused:

I didnt blame the oil as there was plenty else going on which i can attribute the problem too, but a mechanic put this Penrite fluff in my car, and 12 hours later when at Phillip Island the engine spun a bottom end bearing:( The car had an ignition miss at high rpm and a dented sump, i thought these two things were the main cause fo the bearing failure:(

I thought Castrol Formula R was going into my engine as thats what i asked for, and for the next 6 months used, though i have just switched back to my old faithful Mobil 1:)

One thing, if your running plain bearing turbos on what was once a ball bearing turbo'd car, make sure you arent using the same oil lines. Ball bearing turbos have restrictors in their oil lines, somehitng you dont want anywhere near your plain bearing turbos.

But with GTRs beign plain bearing turbos (except R34), and you mentioning that they were high mounted then im gussing they hae new oil lines to suit so that wont have been the problem.

Bugger, good luck with it all

[ylwgtr2]

i wouldnt use penrite in my motor mower!

[lwells]

Gawd damn.

I think SteveL is a fan of Penrite products: wonder if he has had any problems...

LW.

[yogi000]

i've always used penrite oils, but the hpr 40 for my rb20det with a hks 2530 for the past 10000kms, still feels tight........got me worried

[Busky2k]

Mate HPR40 (25W70) is sooo damn thick it belongs in a bloody smoke blowing sigma. Better off with Castrol Magnatec or Motul Turbolight for the same money.

[CEF11E]

I have also heard horror storied about penrite hpr oils.

also hot fours did a test years ago about what the best oil and i think penrite came in LAST place competing with the others

Royal Purple came in first for engine protection

I have been using Motul turbolite 4100 for the last 30,000 kms and its the best value for money while still offering excellent performance. Even after seeing a drift day and high stress/tempuratures it performs very well.

and it smells nice too :wassup:

[EVL032]

i love motual

i used penrite and its the worst black in two weeks

it broke down when it got hot the car looses power

changed up with motul and fixed

problem gone!!!!!!!

done nearly 5k on oil and its still gold!!!!!!!!

[DAN00H]

I use REDLINE products, good quality stuff

[leech_]

yea another user of motul 4100 turbo light seems like a great oil used it for the past 5,000kms and will continue using it car seems to like it more than whateverthe compliance people put in it

[Squizz]

I ran some castrol on a recommendation (was using Motul) and I cooked it. Now back to Turbolight with no dramas at all.

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

redline is the best, but too expensive for 5,000km change imho. use redline in your gearbox, it's like $120 for 4 litres, but u wont have to change it again for a while.

i also wouldn't use 50 weight, i'd go 10w40.

[low747]

I've used hpr oil in a rb30 making decent power for years with no dramas? wtf??? i have not used MOTUL or anything else though.

[lwells]

redline is the best

Ha, says who? There is no doubt Redline is good, but who says its any better the Amsoil, Royal Purple, or any of the other eccletic brands (let alone something like Castrol Formula R)?

LW.

[Fitzpatrick Speed Works]

I have used penrite in my silvias and it seemed good but i ran the gtr on motul or fuschs.

As a side note the shell helix you buy off the shelf is not the same as used by ferraris and neither is the mobil 1, the stuff off the shelf isnt a proper esther based sythetic thus it isnt the same sh1t!!!!

[ferni]

I ran some castrol on a recommendation (was using Motul) and I cooked it.  Now back to Turbolight with no dramas at all.

how did you cook it? which castrol?

I use forumla R 10w60 same as a lot of other other well looked after GTR's

[Roy]

I can see this turning into another 30page thread on oils...sadly full of misinformation:)

I talk to workshops and they sprout crap/truth to me about this and that. I talk to a Mobil distributer and your right, the oil on the shelf isnt the same as used by McLaren or HRT etcThey use Mobil 1 but a motorpsort grade which is a differetn weight. The oil you need for a road car needs to offer a different type of protection over a quite dramatic / different range of operation.

Statement should read Mobil 1 off the shelf is the oil they use in cars like McLaren/Merecedes SLR, Porsche GT2/996 Twin Turbo etc etc. Another similar grade of Mobil1 is used by McLaren F1 cars etc etc. The fact that Porsche and Mercedes use it is good enough for me, plus it served me well for 100,000kms of thrashing around:)

One thing i should add, since i am not able to get the heavire grade of Mobil 1 anywhere in Victoria, ill be running the Castrol Formula R 10W60, just to make sure that at the slightly higher then std power and high track temps, everything is going to hold together

LOL......and that is just another story from yet another person who cannot state anything for fact:(

[Fitzpatrick Speed Works]

oils anint oils, sorry had to be done!!!