Not only continuous maintenance, your engine will also need proper motor oil to run smoothly and depending on various factors, this oil can be different from one vehicle and another. For those who wish to get maximum protection and performance, Pennzoil Platinum Vs Ultra Platinum will be great options to consider. Both of them are quite similar to each other but a little bit different as well and before deciding to pick one, go check which oil will fit your car better here.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
- What are Motor Oil Bases
- What are Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum
- Who can use Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum
- What are the Base and Features of Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum
- How are the Performance of Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum
- How are the Lasting Ability of Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum
- Pennzoil Platinum Vs Ultra Platinum
Contents
- 1 Motor Oil Base
- 2 About Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum
- 3 Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum Application
- 4 Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum Base and Features
- 5 Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum Performance
- 6 Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum Change Interval
- 7 Pennzoil Platinum vs Ultra Platinum
- 8 Conclusion
Motor Oil Base
Choosing the best motor oil for your engine is the same as important as getting the perfect set of new tires because everything we put in our vehicle that is required to make them work properly will affect their performance and replacing the oil may improve your driving experience. The problem is, not all oils are made to be the same and not all of them will fit your vehicle just right because the manufacturer will try to give the best formulation and our engine may have its own preference.
We are sure most people are already aware about which SAE is used by their vehicle because this is the basic shopping guide and they are written in your car’s manual to ease drivers deciding which oil should be used but, there is another consideration when buying new oil especially if you will be changing them at home. This is about their base because there are several types of them being used to make motor oil depending on the ideal use and economic value.
In the past, motor oil was derived from crude oils and as you can guess, they are passing very little filtration which is used to refine the product and in general they are usually a mix of different hydrocarbon chains with little uniformity. Nowadays this type of oil called group I is not used in modern cars anymore and more into less-demanding applications. The next group II is very similar to group I but they are refined and can have acceptable performance in the areas of volatility, wear prevention, oxidation stability, as well as flash point.
However, they are not as great when it is about pour point or cold and crank viscosity due to being less refined. The next is group III and this is where the line between mineral-based and what called synthetic becomes blurry because API defines this group as base stock contains greater than or equal to 90% saturates and less or equal to 0.03% sulfur as well as have viscosity index greater than or equal to 120. What’s confusing is it is allowed for companies to call this group as a synthetic oil.
| Pennzoil Platinum | Ultra Platinum | |
|---|---|---|
  |   |
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| Product Dimensions | 12.8 x 8.1 x 4.3 inches | 12.5 x 8.3 x 4.6 inches |
| Item Weight | 9.25 pounds | 9.1 pounds |
| Best Offer | click here | click here |
This is because they are further refined and the molecules have different characteristics as with the two previous groups, making them have the same or comparable quality as the truly synthetic. Group IV based oils are called true synthetic as it is not made from mineral oil but PAO which is chemically engineered to offer excellent stability, molecular uniformity and improved performance. Similarly, group V is also engineered but not from PAO instead typically from esters, polyglycols, and silicone that are very similar in performance as group IV.
About Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum
All of this information can get overwhelming because they may or may not benefit your searching yet, we believe knowing a little about the product we are going to purchase will improve our buying decision. If you want to shop quickly however, we can just push everything aside and follow what the manufacturer of our car is asking because they know better about which will work best for their product. If you want to try other oils to see the changes, we can start from popular names or well-known brands.
They are not a guarantee of great performance but a wider customer means that their products are also reliable enough to keep the market share. Talking about motor oil, one of the brands that come to our mind instantly is Pennzoil and for those who are interested in trying new base oil, we do recommend this brand to check out. They have been around for quite some time and also one of our favorite brands as most customers are satisfied with their qualities.
They do carry quite the options to match with the car owner’s preference and needs but those who are interested to try what group III+ is offering, Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum will be two of the most ideal options to consider. These oils are not recently coming out from the manufacturer but can be considered quite new as they have only been around for less than two decades and what’s so interesting about these oils is their choice of base which is using their patented technology.
Being close siblings, Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum are very similar to each other and they are using the same oil base as well. What sets them apart seems to be the additives or formulation because as the name suggests, you can guess that the Ultra Platinum is the more expensive option and probably better suit those who are driving performance cars or people who wish to have the maximum performance for their vehicle. Read also: Pennzoil Ultra Platinum Vs Royal Purple.
Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum Application
These oils are available in various different SAE ratings and you can choose from the 0W16, 0W20, 5W20, 5W30, 10W30, 10W60, and 5W40 for the Platinum line and 0W20, 0W40, 5W20, 5W30, and 10W30 for Ultra Platinum. Today, we are picking the common 5W30 as an example because this SAE is great for general applications as it has a good startup but also retains the viscosity as the temperature rises. Just like most oils, those with the same ratings usually have similar applications as well.
Being a gasoline engine motor oil, Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum are meeting or exceeding API SN Plus, SN-Resource Conserving and all previous categories, ILSAC GF-5, ACEA A1/B1, A5/B5 as well as approved by Chrysler MS 6395, 13340, Ford WSS-M2C946-A, M2C946-B1, Honda/ Acura HTO-06, and for the Platinum version, this oil is also approved for application in dexos1 Gen 2 from General Motors. Overall if your car’s manual called for the use of SAE 5W30 viscosity grade oil in all driving conditions, we can use either of these variants.
Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum Base and Features
As it has been mentioned above, what makes these oils interesting is their base because Pennzoil is using a revolutionary process at that time and marked the advance of motor oil technology which has been the same before by forming the base oil from natural gas. It has a crystal clear color and contains fewer impurities that we usually find in crude oil commonly used as base for many conventional and synthetic motor oils. They seem to have the same base but differ in formulation or additives.
In general Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum are promising the same qualities in engine cleanliness, fuel economy, conservation of horsepower, wear protection, as well as performance in extreme temperatures. What makes Ultra Platinum more expensive is specifically on the cleansing technology as it has more detergents to help your engine stay clean together with friction modifiers to make sure lower friction between moving parts but overall, the latter is more like a step up from its original variant which is why it is marketed as the extreme performance oil.
Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum Performance
Moving to the performance side, for the general application these oils are very much the same to each other. What most people are surprised or see a good improvement after changing to either Pennzoil Platinum or Ultra Platinum is the easy startup because it seems that the oils are not draining even when you just start the engine in the morning and there is no dry/clank issue as well. Another great improvement is the engine runs very smooth with these oils.
They seem to also make your engine clean especially for the Ultra Platinum but for overall performance, they are pretty much the same and what’s surprising, there seems to be drivers putting the Ultra variant in dexos Gen 2 and still performs nicely. The reason why it is not approved by GM is probably because it contains too much of one additive to be certified.
Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum Change Interval
The last point we want to talk about is their lasting ability or changing intervals and unlike oils that are made to prolong your interval, Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum are not into this specific quality. In most cases users seem to change the oil every 5-10k while occasionally pushing them above 10k. It is, however, still a very good reason for the price point and even so, these oils are still running good in most cases for application above 5k but those with turbo engines may want to stick around this number for best performance.
Pennzoil Platinum vs Ultra Platinum
Choosing new motor oil can be very complicated tasks as there is so much information we have to digest but, as long as the oil is meeting our car’s requirements, chances we will go fine but, knowing at least about the product can be a great investment to ease your shopping decision. Pennzoil Platinum and Ultra Platinum are amazing oil for the price and they are offering the same reliable performance but only the Platinum is accepted for dexos Gen 2 application while the Ultra has more additives to offer better cleansing ability.
Conclusion
You can pick any of these oils depending on which seem to fit your application the most. Our recommendation is if you will stick with more frequent oil changing, the Platinum is a cheaper option but if you plan to extend the oil life, Ultra Platinum should cleanse your engine for longer.