Royal Purple Motor Oil Questions
As a skeptical engineer I have some important questions about Royal Purple Motor Oil. Before I go pouring something into my engine I want to be sure I am not creating an engine disaster in my fear of a catastrophic tossing of rod from a piston seizure.
I want to make sure my engine is going to be #1. safe and protected #2. performing at the highest possible level with high horsepower output and the best fuel economy available.
With that said a few questions come to mind about Royal Purple Oil.
The oil is purple! My understanding is the color is a dye that is added which provides no benefit to protect the engine and supposedly does not create other lubrication issues. I hope that is the case.
The oil does not stay purple in your engine and does not turn your engine purple.
If Royal Purple’s #1 priority is to provide the best performance and protection for my engine I would expect the purple dye to be left out.
So why is the purple dye in there? Marketing and the almighty dollar! I have nothing wrong with savvy marketing or with companies being successful from innovative marketing but my interest is my engine protection and performance. Let’s keep my engine safe and drop the purple dye.
Is this going to protect my everyday driver as well as by drag racer? If you search on Royal Purple Moly you will find a bunch of claims on the web and some documentation on their website that the oils have Moly.
Moly is a dry graphite like lubricant and can work great by itself and as an additive to liquid oils. The problem is for extended time in an engine it is prone to balling up and fouling filters (so I am told).
This may be why royal purple oil is popular in some racing circles but that does not mean you can extend drain intervals for everyday use (in fact you might want to shorten them). If you can’t run a synthetic for a little bit longer without losing protection then it is going to be hard to justify $6-$8 per quart (or whatever the price is at now… but up there).
Bottom line is this skeptical engineer needs to see some more information to make an educated decision on what is best. I get worried when I see the really high levels of Moly being added and purple dye being added as a gimmick. I admit that I am a bit of preventative maintenance freak but I don’t want the misapplication of a racing tactic to cause long term damage to my engine.
Let’s not through the baby out with the bath water here and remember we want engine protection and longevity first and then and only then the extra percent or two of horsepower.
You know Mobil 1 and Pennzoil and Royal Purple Oil all say they are the best… but where is the proof?
What do you think? Please post below if you have any good information or ideas to share.
Thanks,
Jesse
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