A friend of mine owns and runs an "express lube" establishment, not too far from me.
I try to give him my business whenever I can.
When he opened up, he sold Havoline products, IIRC. Now his "house brand" is Sunoco. Havoline is a premium/extra cost brand, there.

So... does anyone know anything about Sunoco oil?
My worst fear is that it's paraffin based, like Pennzoil or Quaker State. (Maybe they're not, any more. Still won't use it.)
Is it crap oil? Am I damaging my engine, using this stuff?
There's apparently nothing useful on the web. It's a little bit disconcerting.

Thanks.

Sunoco is a very old brand. At one time, they were primarily using Penn sweet crude (higher paraffin crude) but that was way way back--I've not heard anything bad about them tho I believe nowadays, someone else refines their products for them, as they got out of the refinery business around 2012-2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunoco

http://www.sunoco.be/uk/passengercars.html#0

For the specs of the oil, click on the MSDS tabs.

[This message has been edited by CoolBlue87GT (edited 06-24-2016).]

http://www.bobistheoilguy.c...wflat&Number=1217798

quote A paraffin is just a common name for a saturated C-H chain (hydrocarbon chain). In chemistry they are known as an alkane. The term paraffinic base oil is derived from the term paraffin, meaning a saturated hydrocarbon based oil. Almost all motor oils contain, or, are mostly paraffin's (alkanes), including Group I, II, III, IV and many oils in Group V. The exception in motor oils are the ones based on esters (Group V) and other oils which are not paraffins in Group V, but a motor oil using only ester base oils is rare. Paraffin is sometimes confused with paraffin wax. A paraffin isn’t necessarily a wax. There are paraffin type compounds and then there are paraffin waxes. The shorter paraffins (alkanes) like methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6) are gaseous at room temperature. As the hydrocarbon chain gets longer ~ 10C, the C-H chained molecules become liquid at room temperature (oils), and when you have a long straight chain with ~20C atoms or more, the molecules will form a crystalline structure at room temperature known as a wax. PAO's are made from alkenes, which are not paraffins (alkane's). Alkenes = olefin = C-H molecule with at least one double C=C bond. Modern PAO's are hydrogenated to remove any remaining C=C double bonds (saturate the carbon atoms with hydrogen) to increase their thermal/oxidative stability, which in effect turns the chained alkenes in the PAO into alkanes, which are paraffin's. So, hydrogenated PAO's (Group IV) are paraffin's too.

Thanks all.
I have seem the Wikipedia link before. Unfortunately, it says nearly nothing about their motor oil. (Although I didn't specifically ask about that, I suppose.)

I also found some oil comparisons, by brand, a while back. Curiously, Sunoco was completely absent. Makes me wonder if Sunoco is merely a "rebadged" oil, produced by a different entity, or if it's just so crappy that it didn't even rate being included on the list. I would hope not, but ya' never know.

quote Originally posted by Formula88: http://www.bobistheoilguy.c...wflat&Number=1217798 [QUOTE]A paraffin is just a common name for a saturated C-H chain (hydrocarbon chain). In chemistry they are known as an alkane. The term paraffinic base oil is derived from the term paraffin, meaning a saturated hydrocarbon based oil. <snip>

All well and good. But...
I wonder where the Pennzoil / Quaker State reputation for creating sludge in an engine originated. I also wonder if there is any truth to that, or if it's just ancient history and/or urban legend.
The bottom line is that I don't want to buy oil that is going to sludge up my engine, and I don't want to cheap out on oil changes and have it break down and damage my engine over the long term. (The Sunoco oil went into my G6 commuter. It's not like it's "tracked" or anything. But it's not driven easily, either.)

I recognize that this is a volatile topic. (Still thinking about Stimpy's Wal Mart oil change thread.)

Still looking for answers.
I suppose I could just ask my friend who owns the express lube. I trust that he wouldn't BS me. Not like I'm afraid to spend more for better oil.

Edit -

quote Originally posted by CoolBlue87GT: http://www.sunoco.be/uk/passengercars.html#0 For the specs of the oil, click on the MSDS tabs.

Sorry. I'll have to read through that. Thanks!

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 06-24-2016).]

I sidestep the whole question and run nothing but Mobil 1 full synthetic in all my cars.

Yeah, I know, I'm throwing my money down the drain, but I worry less.

I know oil is a hotly debated topic on many motorcycle forums, but many people put a lot of trust in this forum: http://www.bobistheoilguy.c...threads.php?ubb=cfrm

quote Originally posted by williegoat: I know oil is a hotly debated topic on many motorcycle forums, but many people put a lot of trust in this forum: http://www.bobistheoilguy.c...threads.php?ubb=cfrm

Thanks for that. Formula 88 also linked to it, above. Looks like a lot of good info.
I'll check it out, too. Looks like I'll have to register, in order to run a search.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: I wonder where the Pennzoil / Quaker State reputation for creating sludge in an engine originated. I also wonder if there is any truth to that, or if it's just ancient history and/or urban legend. The bottom line is that I don't want to buy oil that is going to sludge up my engine,

How long ago did you hear of it? I remember hearing that about "Quaker Clog" over 30 years ago, and it wasn't new then.
The bottom line is if you change your oil regularly, just about any modern oil of the proper type and viscosity will suffice. If you're concerned about it, get an oil analysis done and see exactly how much paraffin wax is in your oil, not to mention any other potential problems with the engine that the analysis can detect.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

[This message has been edited by Formula88 (edited 06-24-2016).]