Castrol 4T Dino

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I need to change the oil in my '09 Bonneville. My friend who recently sold his metric V-twin gave me half a case of 20W-50 Castrol 4T conventional oil. This OCI will probably be for 1500 miles tops. Due to limited riding time this will carry me in to late October or so when I will change back to Mobil 1 4T 10w-40 for the winter. I have seen some negative comments about The Castrol dino on this forum but have not been able to search out any VOAs or UOAs that show it is tremendously inferior oil. I have enough Mobil 1 stashed for one change and prefer to save it for the fall change as I actually ride more in the fall and winter than the summer. Can anyone steer me to info that gives any factual info about Castrol 4T dino that says it is inferior oil? I am retired and on limited income so free oil sounds pretty good if it is not going to cause harm. If it is bad oil I can get Delvac for a very reasonable price.
 
I can't find any info on this oil either. Just heard many bad reviews from many users. I have 3 quarts sitting in my garage and I am gonna try it out to see what it is like for myself. If it wasn't good for your bike Castrol would never have made it, that's the way I look at it. Good luck.....
 
I think one of the problems on these forums is a LOT of personal attitudes and opinion become "fact". I have been riding many years and I have NEVER, ever, heard of any one truly ruining or damaging an engine on Castrol oil.

I would love to see a certified, unquestionable,
>> verifiable
All the foregoing said: Is Castrol dino the BEST oil you can put in your bike, in terms of quality and quantity of components.... very unlikely. I "suspect" it is pretty average....which is to say it will probably work as well as any other "average" OEM dino oil in your engine, which means just fine! With a 1,500 mile OCI, I think you would have to abuse the Living Shxx out of that bike to get a lubrication problem with an off the shelf Castrol product.

For full disclosure: In the last few years, I have rarely used Castrol, but I HAVE a time or two....and my bikes (a Honda sportbike and a cruiser) did not seize up in a crunching, grinding, wrenching stop with black oil containing large chunks of metal running out of the engine case....they are still running FINE many thousands of miles later. I mostly use M-1 4T 10W-40 and Chevron Delo LE in 15W-40 (only because I got it at an OBSCENE price!!), but I do run Castrol 10W-30 bike dino (Act-Evo) oil during the really cold months and put less than 1,500 miles on it...with no problems I or the dealer can detect.

"Your results may vary........"
 
RC46 I totally agree with what you wrote. I am a noob rider and in need of my 600 mile service and I saw the Castrol 10W-40 dino on sale for $3.49 a quart, so I picked up 3 quarts. I plan to use it to see for myself how it performs. I plan on running it from 600-4000 miles then change it out for the Castrol full synthetic since I got those for a good price also. My bike is still under warranty so I should be fine. After the Castrol synthetic I plan to go with Motul or Amsoil or even the Yamalube full synthetic with esters.
 
sm00thpapa: If you have a new bike, you probably would see some minor/marginal benefit in making the second oil change a fair amount earlier than 4,000 miles. You will likely see that there will still be a LOT of "discoloration" and "micro-junk" in the oil at the second change. From what I have seen over several new vehicles and from "rumors", the early oil changes are worth doing a little sooner than not. I am sure you are probably aware that bikes where the oil also lubricates the transmission ARE definitely harder on oil than cars or bikes with a separate tranny reservoir.

There are so many GOOD bike oils and oils that work great in bikes now that it is almost confusing....kinda hard to go wrong with any "premium" oil in this day and age. 95% of it is just CHANGING it at reasonable intervals !

Enjoy your new bike !!
 
I was just going by the owners manual. I was thinking about changing it at 500 miles and then at 2,000 miles. I will be using a K&N oil filter. As you can see my bike is an 09 and I am military and was sent overseas and my bike sat for almost 2 years with the factory fill oil in it.
 
Well with Castrol dino my Yamaha XV250 suffered horrible sticky clutch when cold and you really had to muscle the thing to shift it until it warmed up.

Sure it works and wont blow up the bike, but when I can get Rotella for the same price, with the JASO MA rating, and the bike likes it better, and it has a higher API rating....why not?

Castrol is fine...but you pay more for the name than the oil. Its often overpriced.
 
Robenstein, Just curious, my owners manual says to stay away from diesel oils labeled with any C API category. All the Rotella's I have looked at have a C in the API. Maybe I will try it one day I don't know.
 
Some I have seen are forbidding certain C ratings, but not all. If I recall my yamaha manual didnt want me using any diesel rated CD. If I recall that is a 2 stroke rated diesel oil. Any diesel oil is going to have a C rating, the C in the API system indicates an oil good for compression firing motors, where are the S ratings are for spark firing motors.

However, if the oil you are using also has a dual rating for gasoline engines, you are still good since it meets the API grade for them. Most oils will. Rotella with be both Cj4 and SM rated. Its really more like a universal oil than a diesel...Wal Marts Supertech oil is dual rated and sold as Univeral Motor Oil. It has CJ4 and SM ratings.
 
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You could run just about anything on a 1,500 mile oil change. Wouldn't think twice about using that Castrol for a 1,500 mile oil change.

But yes, the conventional Castrol 20W-50 is known to have problems staying in grade (shears quickly).
 
Thanks for the comments. I didn't actually believe that the Castrol would be the death of my precious Bonneville but wanted to see if anyone knew something I didn't. As I said the Castrol was free and it will be a short change interval. I would prefer to stick with a good synthetic but with Mobil 1 being $9 or $10 a quart I will stick with HDEO, Rotella or Delvac. As I rarely go longer than 1500 miles on an OCI I bet my Triumph last longer than I do.
 
Just did my first oil change at 335 miles with Castrol 4T 10W-40 and used a K&N oil filter. I will change it again at 1000 miles with the Castrol 4T Racing RS Full Synthetic 10W-40 since I have 3 quarts on hand. I'll run that for 3K then switch to either Amsoil, Motul or Shell Rotella T6. I'll report back on my results and opinion of this Castrol oil.
 
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