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Kendall motor oil??

9

90Pioneer

NAXJA Forum User
Location
USA
What does everyone think of Kendall brand motor oil? Is it any good?

The only thing I know about it, is that it appears to be very hard to find.


Opinions?
 
Kendall isn't bad, but it is a pain to find. Save the running about and use Valvoline or Castrol. Both are quite good, and can be had anywhere.

Also, if you have any chain locals around with "house brand" oil, try to find out who refines it for them. Valvoline and Castrol do a lot of "house" oils - both with new and rerefined oils - and that can be a good way to save a few bucks. There is nothing at all wrong with rerefined oil - in fact, I prefer it and I wish I could find it out here...

5-90
 
Don't know about now but back in the muscle car days Kendall was the top of the line, stuff was super slippery, like comparing vasoline to KY jelly slippery the difference was that much you could feel it with your fingers. A friend of mine, bill, back in 68 he had a nicky built 427 chevelle, he dropped his 1/4 mile times one whole second from the best that car ever ran at englishtown nj one sat nite, changed the oil between runs from valvoline to kendal and he kept the same times consistantly thru the rest of the season. He had a few cases of valvoline left over from his sponsor and would use it on practice runs, everytime he'd give that 1 second back.
Kendall seemed to dissapear when I came back to the world in 72 but I see it in some of the speed shops around here when I've wandered around them from time to time. Don't know what it is like now though and the only racing oils I see are when I happen to be working at pocono at one of the nascar races, then it's all shell, castrol, mobil-1 with the odd amsoil and royal purple pretty much...
Back in the day it had a good rep...
 
Well, as long as an oil meets the current standards, it's not bad. You can't buy a bad oil today. There are many that go above and beyond what's required...Kendall isn't one of them.
 
We've used kendall at my shop for the last 15 years, never had any problems. Tests show it to be along the same lines a castrol, except it's dark green out of the bottle. The only complaint I've had about it from customers is, they can't find it in the store. Change your oil when needed and any name brand oil is fine, synthetic however I believe to be "hype" after disassembling several Mercedes engines that were run with it and followed the 10k mile oil changes. They were garbage compared to the same type engines serviced every 3k miles with non-synthetic.
 
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When away from home (where I can find it in cases locally), I take an approved container to Firestone and have had luck getting them to pump from the 55gal drum to it. Every Firestone I've seen uses Kendall exclusively for their oil changes.
 
bigwoody, I am a Mercedes Technician and too have taken apart many of the newer engines with the 10k service interval. Many of them having buildup and slight sludging. Also some having bad cylinder wall wear. Now the ones that i know have done in between oil chnages at 5000miles are in much better shape. I always reccomend about a 5k oil change interval with syntetic and about 3-5k with convenional oil depending on driving style.
 
I like it. Ran it in bikes a lot and never had a problem. But then in all honesty I have also run the cheapest oils you can buy and never had a problem. I've seen Kendall here in St Louis at Wal-Mart and AutoZone. Personally I use Delvac Super1500 or Mobile1 semi-truck oil. Think the Delvac was $6-8 a gal last time I bought it.

Sarge
 
i work at a firestone in St. Charles and kendall is all we use. im sure if you brought something to put it in we would sell it to you. we dont use the quart bottles, we have a big tank with like 5 guns coming from it. you would half to talk to someone up front to get a price.
jake
 
XJONABUDGET said:
bigwoody, I am a Mercedes Technician and too have taken apart many of the newer engines with the 10k service interval. Many of them having buildup and slight sludging. Also some having bad cylinder wall wear. Now the ones that i know have done in between oil chnages at 5000miles are in much better shape. I always reccomend about a 5k oil change interval with syntetic and about 3-5k with convenional oil depending on driving style.
Click to expand...
Then your customers cars will last a long time. The 10k mile oil change because you use synthetic is absolute "blue sky", it will prematurely wear engine parts over 50k to 100k miles. I've told my customers for years just change it every 3 to 5k and you never have to worry(it's cheap mantainence), some follow the 10k service enterval and wonder why at 75k miles their car uses oil.
 
yea i know, burning oil before 100k is absurd, especially in a Mercedes. I ahave also done many camshafts and lifters due to failure around 75-100k miles, all looked dirty inside due to lack of oil changes. Well i forgot what this thread was bout, but i dont really like Kendall. Have had lots of good lock with valvoline and mobile products.
 
Father in Law is from Arkon, OH and all he has ever used in Kendall has put over 350,000 miles on a Chrylser New Yorker. We run Kendall in all 5 Jeeps and the Subruban
 
I work at Goodyear part time as a second job (active duty military), and all we use is Kendall too! We do on occassion have customers bring their own oil, but unless they do, we only use Kendall oil, even for diesel engines!
 
It's good, but hard to find here. Rarely I'll find some in a random truck stop or service station
 
IIRC Kendal was a brand made by Kerr McGee. They have their own refineries in Oklahoma. I had buddies that worked there and used all their products for years. It always seemed to be top notch. It was definately made in the USA.
 
ZmOz said:
Well, as long as an oil meets the current standards, it's not bad. You can't buy a bad oil today. There are many that go above and beyond what's required...Kendall isn't one of them.
Click to expand...

I think you can still buy bad oil today, that sludges fast, etc?
 
ZmOz said:
Bottled puke.
Click to expand...

do you have factual information to back up your opinion?

or do you just like to talk shit?

My machinist told me kendall was the best oil I could run and gave me copies of a study done on the most popular oils available at the time.

I ran it in my 89 4.0L, with wix filters for OVER 400,000 miles.

the day I DROVE my poor old too rotted to save XJ to the scrapyard, cyl #6 was at 132psi the rest were between 140-150. not so much as a slight lifter tick.

still purred like a kitten too.

I did NOT change it every 3k miles (sometimes it went past 5k)
I did sometimes wheel it 1 or 2 quarts low, and when I was off camber it let me know it was low.
renix 4.0Ls do not have a rev limiter... and I took advantage of that, OFTEN.

I NEVER had the head off that motor. did the valve cover gasket 3 times, 2 rear main seals, 2 crank damper seals, 2 oil pan gaskets an oil filter adapter o-ring and a distributor o-ring. That's it.

FACT: Kendall STILL has the highest zinc content of any other oil, and that is a VERY good thing.
 
Personally, I'd believe anything RyanM has to say when it comes to oil. Dude knows his shit and proves it. No joke. So if he says "good" - its good.

Plus, CheapXJ seems to have a damn good testimonial too...I might have to give it a try when I get back.
 
Back in my sprint car days, we ran Kendall in the car. We sent for UOA's and it always came back good. That was about 6-7 years ago. I don't know about now, but then it was very expensive. We changed it after every race, and it looked like brand new. Big ol' bypass filters. I always wanted to take the used stuff and put it in my truck.:D Never did though.

Here lately, I've been leaning toward switching to AMSOIL.


Hale
 
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