Today I found a place in my city that sells Brad Penn oil. I bought 4 quarts and when I got home I realized that it says "motorcycle oil" on the bottles.
Excuse my ignorance but is this the correct oil for my 914? Is this the oil that Jake Raby advises to use?
Thanks,
Mike

Never mind...called the guy back and he gave me the wrong oil!!!

If it ain't green oil, ITS WRONG!!

Buying the wrong Brad Penn oil has been an increaing issue over the past 3 months or so.. This is especially true with those that are "price hounds" looking for the cheapest vendor for the oil.

TWO DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF BRAD PENN EXIST!!!

This is such a concern that I put together a letter to mail to all of our engine purchasers that are madndated to run Brad Penn or our "Snake Oil". This letter is 10 pages long and shows the differences in Brad Penn oils to include the labeling of the different flavors and the color of the oil on the dipstick and etc.. The color is the difference.

See below:

http://www.aircooledtechnology.com/Oil_Concern.pdf

The real answer is here.. Final testing in 14 different aircooled engines is underway.. They range from full street to Land Speed Race to Drag Race and Road Race with 4 different oil products :-)
Click to view attachment

Thanks...I've got the good stuff now!!
Jake...I re-read your "letter" and I'm not sure how you can go wrong.
It says "GREEN OIL" right on the container.
Mike

How people go wrong is just buying the "Brad Penn" name and not knowing that the oil is supposed to be green or that there is a difference.

Hi Jake. This letter needs to go into the saved forever forum under a name of Proper Oil.

?? I've been told 'never' to change oil viscosity. Is it ok to change from summer oil to winter oil i.e. 20-50 to 10-40 ?

Jake,

Thanks for the well written letter and major Oil education, what type oil would be best suited to a 1980 911SC 3.0. I would imagine the same zinc and sulphur elements are no longer in the oils for the bigger sixes. I remember reading about the oil issue but now I understand what you are talking about?

Thanks,

Vysoc

This has been greatly informative , as I had no idea that there was a different Brad Penn oil. This particular info narrows it down to the very EXACT information that most people need ( not very informed ) such as I , now with the correct information , if I choose to vary from it , I only have myself to blame for my engine failures. Having used the castrol GTX 50 weight in my past air-cooled vehicles ( motorcycles, VW bugs ) that was supposed to be the stuff , since coming to these forums concerning air - cooled engines , I have read about using the Brad Penn oil religiously , but no one ever said exactly which Brad Penn to use , only saying use Brad Penn oil.
Damn , this is good ------- a very big Thank You to Jake Raby !!!!!!!


Jack / Jaxdream

The "other" Brad Penn has been around for a while but it is not well known enough to be marketed at a level that caused confusion until recently.. Fact is some re-sellers were taking advantage of people not knowing the difference and those people were price hunting, not buying from people who even knew the difference or cared about the difference in the two oils.

I noted this when I had a turn key engine come back for a repair and the oil in it wasn't green.. I chewed the customer out and he maintained that it was Brad Penn oil, he even had the bottle which had the wrong label on it! He didn't know the difference and he was price hunting and that lead to an issue that helped compromise his engine..

We then found two 55 gallon drums of the wrong oil at a shop that uses our engines in replicars, they had been filling the engines with the wrong oil for over 3 months because they were sent the wrong oil!

BTW- The Castrol GTX is a classic example of an oil that went from very good to horribly bad with reformulation. In the late 90s when the whole VW industry started having worn cams and lifters no one knew why, except Castrol...

Formulations can change and NO ONE has to inform the buyers... Those constantly changing variables are what finally drove me to say the hell with it and have our own oil.

I was just about to change my oil, strainer gaskets, etc for the first time later this week so this looks like very useful information!

Currently I have straight 40W Valvoline Racing Oil which I purchased 3-4 months back at Advance Auto Parts... is using this a bad idea? The modified 1.7L (1911cc's) in my 914 is still kickin' but the previous owner stated that with any weight of oil lower than straight 40W or 50W will burn right out of the engine given the low oil pressure on 1 cylinder... Soo should I use the Valvoline I already have or set it aside and purchase the GREEN Brad Penn Racing Oil?

I anticipate rebuilding this engine in its current configuration but it won't be in the cards until at least late December or early January... what should I do oil-wise in the meantime so I'm able to put around town in this air cooled machine safely?!

Additionally... if I should anticpate using ONLY this oil in the future, what is the best website to purchase it from? or perhaps retailer in the Cincinnati area?

BUMP! Perhaps you can chime in Jake?