# Brad Penn UOA in a 2.0t



## thethirdjq (Apr 7, 2009)

Over the summer I ran Brad Penn 10w30 in my 2006 Audi A3 2.0t to see how it would hold up. I read great things about this oil being run in old porsche engines or engines with flat tappets. The 2006 2.0T has a significant issue with the cam follower and failure due to wear.
I changed out the oil early because I did not want to run to long on an oil that is not VOA approved and not fully synthetic. I am back to running german castrol 5w-40 for the winter months, but might consider going back to this once it gets warmer. Still not sure.
So here is the UOA courtesy of Blackstone. I finally got it sent in after putting the sample on a shelf and forgetting about it.
I would love to hear some input from you guys. Your input is valued. Especially saaber2. Let me know if you want me to email you a pdf. I would be happy to.


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## rickjaguar (Apr 23, 2009)

*Re: Brad Penn UOA in a 2.0t (thethirdjq)*

wow.. looks good!


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## rhouse181 (Apr 13, 2008)

That oil is semi-synthetic!? It held up great for 4k miles... And it looks like a loaded oil with high levels of anti wear additives and detergents. Viscosity and flashpoint both look good too. 
How much did you burn between changes?
Btw... German castrol is 0w30. You are running regular old syntec if it is 5w40.


_Modified by rhouse181 at 6:12 AM 1-15-2010_


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## thethirdjq (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: (rhouse181)*


_Quote, originally posted by *rhouse181* »_
Btw... German castrol is 0w30. You are running regular old syntec if it is 5w40.

_Modified by rhouse181 at 6:12 AM 1-15-2010_

Yep. my bad. i guess i should be running german castrol








Mechanic suggested it because of the high levels of zinc and phosphorous compared to other oils. 

I am not sure how much I burned off honestly, but it never ran low when i checked my oil. I didn't do the change. (I know I might get sh*t for that statement, but I rent a townhouse that won't let you work on your car - I just bought a house so that will change soon)
Brad Penn is the green oil and this oil turned brown pretty quick which scared me. I think it was because of how it outperformed the dealership castrol and probably/hopefully took care of a lot sludge or left behind castrol.


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## saaber2 (Jul 15, 2008)

*Re: Brad Penn UOA in a 2.0t (thethirdjq)*

Great job in thinking outside the box in this choice of oil. Assuming this is regular use, not 95% highway use, this oil held up amazingly well and the best I have seen so far (all my comments should be disregarded if this was an all-highway run). 
Wear metals: Iron and all wear metals are extremely low
Manganese of 1 is an indicator of fuel dilution and is common in almost every UOA for this engine.
Silicon is low (which is an indication of good air filtration, not an indicator of oil quality)
Zinc levels are excellent. These high ZDDP levels should provide excellent protection for the cam follower
The starting viscosity of this 10W30 is 10.8. After 4000 miles it was 10.26 which equals 5% shear.
That is the lowest shear we have on record for over 50 UOAs. I believe the next lowest shear is about 10% so this oil beat that by half! That is astounding.
Flashpoint retention is one of the highest, if not the highest, recorded so far.
So, assuming this was not freeway-only use, I would say this is the best UOA we have so far on this engine. I would say this oil is light years better than the syntec 5w40. We need to test this oil on other cars to make sure it is not just your engine that is giving such great results. Extremely promising. After seeing this UOA, I will be running one of the Brad Penn oils on my next fill, unless my current redline 5w30/10w40 mix comes out amazingly good. Very nice find!


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## saaber2 (Jul 15, 2008)

*Re: Brad Penn UOA in a 2.0t (saaber2)*

thethirdjq,
What was the % highway, % city for this run? Thanks!


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## vliou (Nov 22, 2009)

Freakin owned my GC. Wow.


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## AZV6 (May 3, 2006)

*Re: Brad Penn UOA in a 2.0t (thethirdjq)*

Nice results but I think I would like to see it at 5500 miles or more myself and see how it holds up.
Nice results though. Might have to look into this oil myself. I looked at it a long time ago.


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## thethirdjq (Apr 7, 2009)

Thanks guys for the comments. I was pretty nervous to run a partial synthetic in the car but very happy with the results. I still worry about running it in the cold but have just moved to georgia and might be able to get away with running it year around. 
I didn't run it long because of my nervousness and that fact that it was not showing green anymore.
I did take a few long trips from Virginia to Georgia (900-1000 mile roundtrip) but did not only run the car on the highway. I would usually run an Italian tune up for about 30 miles per trip. I would say the percentage of use/ time spent in vehicle was about 50/50 highway and city (with short daily commutes). But the mileage was more like 67% highway and %33 city.


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## thethirdjq (Apr 7, 2009)

Also, this oil is pretty cheap. A little difficult to find, but cheap.


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## Aluman (Jul 15, 2001)

*Re: (thethirdjq)*

What is impressive to me is you didn't have o add any oil!
I use Brad Penn in my older Porsche as it has been raved about and isn't too expensive, even my Porsche Mech carries it an all different weights.
We just got a 2010 A4, with all the discussions I've read about this FSi/TFSi motor in the last 4 years, may be worth trying this oil.
I agree with the others, nice to see someone try an oil that is not so much a boutique oil with probably the best UOA results http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## saaber2 (Jul 15, 2008)

*Re: Brad Penn UOA in a 2.0t (thethirdjq)*

Just put in Brad Penn 10w40 in my 2.0 FSI. That stuff is thick and almost a 50 weight. Plus it's green!!!







I don't know enough about the individual formulas of their 10w30 vs. 10w40 oil. I wonder if it will hold up as well as the 10w30 did in ur car. I'll do a UOA at about 2700 miles just to compare to some of the last redline runs when they had 2700 miles (I've been taking a sample midway into a 5000 mile oil run).


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## rhouse181 (Apr 13, 2008)

*Re: Brad Penn UOA in a 2.0t (saaber2)*


_Quote, originally posted by *saaber2* »_Just put in Brad Penn 10w40 in my 2.0 FSI. That stuff is thick and almost a 50 weight. Plus it's green!!!







I don't know enough about the individual formulas of their 10w30 vs. 10w40 oil. I wonder if it will hold up as well as the 10w30 did in ur car. I'll do a UOA at about 2700 miles just to compare to some of the last redline runs when they had 2700 miles (I've been taking a sample midway into a 5000 mile oil run).

oh man, taking the dive... Can't wait to see a UOA.


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