Bad Experience With Castrol GTX

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mstrjon32

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I would think that if you blew a coolant hose, lost most or all of your coolant and kept driving, long enough to warp your heads, they got ***** hot*. I'm under the impression that any oil is going to sludge up and become gunk when they start experiencing insane temperatures like that. I doubt that Mobil 1 would have even stood a chance. I don't think it was the 9,000 miles that did it.

Then again, I'm not nearly as experienced with this stuff as some of the other guys on here. So I'll let someone else chime in.

I am, however, a very satisfied GTX High Mileage 5W-30/10W-30 user.
 
I grew up with 20W50 GTX. I never saw sludge in any engine we owned. I would imagine that 9000 miles combined with massive over heating is what caused your problem! I doubt that Havoline would do any beeter with a 9000 mile OCI and overheat!

Machines depend on the dilagence of their masters to maintain them! If you neglect them they will fail you every time!

You need to be useing synthetics. This will help out alot when you forgett to change the oil and blow a rad hose and continue to drive it until the valves clater! An once of preventionis worth a pond of cure!! Heads cost too much!!

P.S. Do yourself a favor and get a bottle of Auto-Rx. It will clean out any sludge that formed from the overheat and 9000 mile OCI!
 
While I'm no Castrol fan, I have seen some sludgey, black death in the 70's formulations, and probably will never use Castrol.....I would be hard pressed to blame the GTX here.

HYPE ALERT => a good synthetic (pick your brand) probably would have done a bit better here in this extreme case.
 
Someone should explain to him how much his new engine would have cost if the GTX hadn't kept his engine block from cracking.
 
Your post is a testament for how good Castrol GTX really is! I like it and have used it off and on along with Chevron Supreme and Havoline. IMHO, there's no dino that would have stood a chance in the situation you are describing!
 
I don't think it is right to try and judge a motor oil in a situation like this. For one thing a conventional motor oil is not really intended to be used for 9000 miles. The fact that the oil lasted that long actually indicates that Castrol must be a pretty good oil. Also, any oil would not be able to long prevent engine damage after a coolant hose has blown and the engine overheated. The oil is certainly going to get cooked in an engine that has overheated. A synthetic oil like Mobil 1 or Amsoil would not be cooked quite as quickly.

I just think it is wrong to judge a motor oil in any situation where coolant has gotten into the engine of the engine has overheated. Any motor oil would fail-even synthetics would fail although probably not as quickly.

Now say that you were a mechanic and you are rebuilding lots of engines. You notice in regular service that one brand of conventional motor oils seems to sludge up more then other brands. Now you are justified in saying that you would avoid the brand that causes sludge.
 
quote:
Originally posted by John Bennett:
Here's one guy's anecdotal claim against Castrol GTX. I've been faithfully using it in all my cars for the last 12 years.......

......About 9,000 miles after my rebuild, I blew a coolant hose going down that highway and didn't notice...... the temperature gauge was pegged. Too late. I'd warped the aluminum head.....

......When I removed the head to have it resurfaced, I was shocked at the amount of gunk, sludge, and varnish Castrol had deposited in my oil passages after only 9,000 miles.
Click to expand...
Son, the way you drive, even German Castrol Syntec 0w-30 will disintegrate and disappear. I doubt even Motul 300V can survive your kind of abuse. Don't blame Castrol GTX. It is not the cause of your problems. In fact, I had similar catastrophic cooling system failures just like yours around 1997-1998. With GTX 10w-40 in the engine, no less. The engine got so hot, all the motor oil burned off and vanished. When the hoses were fixed, we just topped off the oil(5.5 quarts worth!!!!!!!) and continued using the car as a daily driver as if nothing happened! Those unfortunate vehicles are still being used by friends, and to date, they still have not had their heads off for inspection/service. If GTX causes gunk build-up, I do not think we could have done so much neglect.
 
9k mi. on conventional? No doubt...I had visible sludge from doing 9k on Castrol-procured BMW 5-30 synthetic!
 
"For one thing a conventional motor oil is not really intended to be used for 9000 miles. "

Many new cars recommend 10K (and greater) OCI's with dino oils. I'm faily sure the new oils are up to the task. There's too much at risk for the manufacturers to risk $6,000 engines R&R's. IMHO

DEWPFO
 
quote:
Originally posted by DEWFPO:
"For one thing a conventional motor oil is not really intended to be used for 9000 miles. "

Many new cars recommend 10K (and greater) OCI's with dino oils. I'm faily sure the new oils are up to the task. There's too much at risk for the manufacturers to risk $6,000 engines R&R's. IMHO

DEWPFO
Click to expand...
All of the above is true except for the part where the coolant hose blew. I'm sure that the car manufacturers do NOT forsee this to their claim of 7500 mile oil changes with conventional oil.

[ February 15, 2004, 07:14 PM: Message edited by: BIGJ552000 ]
 
The real lesson here I think is to check your cluster often. Even with all the idiot lights that my 1997 car has, I am at least glancing down once every minute or two to make sure nothing is up, I'm not speeding (too excessively, anyway), the RPM's aren't weird, the temperature is in spec, and of course to make sure nothing is throwing a warning lamp or an SES. In addition, I try and keep it in the back of my mind to keep an eye down there all the time, so I'll spot a warning light right away if it happens.

You don't want this to happen to you again.

Here's another question for you: If you blew a coolant hose, didn't coolant start splashing all over the engine block and create a ton of steam? I know this past summer I was out on a drive in my dad's 1977 Corvette, and it blew a coolant hose and as soon as that coolant hit the engine block smoke was billowing out of the hood like there was no tomorrow. Of course I pulled it right over, and we fixed it right there on the side of the highway. No big deal, no harm done.
 
Rember guys manufactures car very little about your engine. So long as it makes it out of powertrain warranty they are happy! Heck I have seen cars that have gone 36,000-120,000 with no oil change at all. Now these vechiles were mostly in the 55MPH and slower areas. They were horrable sludged up and needed to be rebuilt! The fact that they made it all is a testament to modern engineering! Most vechiles so abused end up failing between 36,000 and 50,000 miles. It never failed that you would see at least one of these a year at the dealership level! They would just keep toping off!

My point is that even these vechiles made it out of their warranty period with lack of maintence so we can assume that their OCI must have been ok right? Like wise an oil change interval of 7500 miles with a conventional 5W30 is not the ideal oil or interval for long life! I think that 5000 miles with a conventional oil is really pushing it unless you have UOA to back it up. We already know that 5W30 conventional oil should not be allowed to be sold! It will shear down to a 20Wt in 1500-2000 miles easy!

offtopic.gif

If ever someone on this site looses a belt or hose in the middle of no place do the following if a cell phone is not handy. Drive the car two miles and shut it off. Let the car cool until it is cool to the touch. Drive 2 miles and let cool to touch. Keep repeating until you are safe. You can do this almost indefinately without damageing anyting. It takes a long time to get any place but it is better to get some place late then never!
 
Here's one guy's anecdotal claim against Castrol GTX. I've been faithfully using it in all my cars for the last 12 years.

When I rebuilt the engine in my '93 Mazda pick-up at around 150,000 miles, I spent a solid week cleaning every oil passage in the head and block with a toothbrush. From the valve cover to the oil pan, that engine was *pristine* when I put it back in the truck.

I change car oil at 5,000 mile intervals. That way, when it rolls over 40K,45K,50K, etc., I know it's time to change the oil. Due to innattention on my part I somehow forgot to change the oil in my truck at the next 5K.

About 9,000 miles after my rebuild, I blew a coolant hose going down that highway and didn't notice the temperature increase until I heard valve clatter and looked down to see that the temperature gauge was pegged. Too late. I'd warped the aluminum head.

When I removed the head to have it resurfaced, I was shocked at the amount of gunk, sludge, and varnish Castrol had deposited in my oil passages after only 9,000 miles. Some of the smaller oil passages were over 20% blocked.

I now use either Havoline or Penzoil motor oil in my cars. Perhaps these would gunk and varnish just as badly as Castrol after 9,000 miles, but I hope not.
 
quote:
Originally posted by mstrjon32:


Here's another question for you: If you blew a coolant hose, didn't coolant start splashing all over the engine block and create a ton of steam?
Click to expand...
Ford's have this big, about 2.5"--3" diameter hose around the top of the engine. I have driven with this big hose ruptured. Ton of steam? If it blows at a red traffic signal, maybe. But not if it blows at 65 mph on the freeway. At freeway speeds, the steam is blown down and out. The cars behind may notice the white clouds, but the driver probably won't notice. I only felt that something was amiss when the alarm buzzers started shrieking......
 
If you SO insist on using a a dino for that kind of abusive interval.

Go buy a 1gallon jug of Delo400, Delvac1300 Super or something. Those oils are loaded with a tough package. Delo is also a group III at a very reasonable price
smile.gif


And even then, with the way your engine sounds, stick to 5,ooo mile changes with the better stuff.

Obviously, it sounds like you have no interest in Amsoil or Redline or what not.
 
quote:
Originally posted by outrun:
Go buy a 1gallon jug of Delo400, Delvac1300 Super or something. Those oils are loaded with a tough package. Delo is also a group III at a very reasonable price.
Click to expand...
WRONG!

Tell is not group III, but rather what's commonly refferred to as a group II+ oil. Delvac 1300 and Pennzoil Long-Life also are in this group of having a highly-refined group II basestock.
 
My only experience with Castrol 20W50 was in a Mercury Topaz while I was in Norfolk, VA. Bought the car new, hot summers, traffic tie ups on I-64 into and out of the base etc... thought Castrol was "the oil". Ended up warping the head. The car never was right after that.

Cheers, Doug
 
My guess John is you where not using the 20w-50 Castrol in this situation. I had this happen on my toyota with the 20w-50 Castrol GTX twice and no damage either time. I never go 9000 miles but up to 5000 miles this stuff if great. I would guess it had really thinned out at 9000 miles and if you had a 10w30 or 10w40 you where running 15w oil or less.
 
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