Soooooooo ... Reformulation, or just relabel?
Bob
On 5/11/2017 5:37 AM, Tom Felts wrote:
> 20/50 is and has been available all along in Western Pa. That was several
> weeks ago---it is 20/50 and is now marked "High Zinc" across the top just
> below the spout.
> tom
> ---- John Spaur <jmsdarch at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> =============
> So... to add to the mystery! I purchased a case back in 2012 (check the
> 6/13/2016 label date) and another case when the issue of VR1 becoming
> unavailable in California surfaced. The attached photo shows the older label
> on the right and the newer one on the left with the "High Zinc" label
> plastered over the original text. I haven't bought the new 20W-60 SJ oil Bob
> mentions, however, I could have sworn I saw VR1 20W-50 at O'Reilly's a month
> ago.
>
> WTF? Has anyone contacted the company to ask what's up?
>
> John
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Healeys [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Bob
> Spidell
> Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2017 4:08 PM
> To: Healeys <healeys at autox.team.net>
> Subject: [Healeys] Valvoline VR1 20W-50 Redux Redux
>
> I was at my favorite local parts house today and noticed, as reported by
> others that VR1 is back on the shelf after mysteriously disappearing a year
> or so ago. Good deal, I think, then I noticed the label is slightly
> different than the stock I bought a year or so ago; in particular, 'HIGH
> ZINC' is shown prominently on the front label (my stash doesn't). Also, the
> 'new' stuff is rated SAE SJ only, whereas my bottles say 'EXCEEDS API
> SERVICE SGCD And All Pending API Gasoline Categories Exceeds API Services
> SN/SM/SL' The cam makers generally say that SN and SM are not suitable for
> flat tappet engines (not enough zinc and phosphorous). SN/SM--dunno about
> SL--are supposedly OK for engines with catalytic converters, which implies
> less zinc.
>
> Anybody know for certain know what gives? My theories are:
>
> 1) Valvoline pulled their stock and simply relabeled their product SJ to
> make it clear it shouldn't be used in cars with cats
>
> 2) The old VR1 WAS acceptable for cars with cats, implying zinc content of
> no more than 800PPM or so, and they have reformulated the oil with more
> ZDDP, which required the relabeling. I hope this isn't the case, as I
> bought a boatload of it because it appeared to be an off-the-shelf oil with
> decent zinc and phosphorous content.
>
> The plot thickens (it's now 20W-60).
>
> Bob
>
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