Castrol GTX and Ford

[04SE]

My brother is on his second F150 and is using Castrol GTX 5w30 with awesome results. His first F150 was a 1998 2WD longbed w/ 4.6L. He bought it with 45K and drove it to 135K. He literally ran the absolute dog doodoo out of that truck but changed the oil every 3K-4K with Castrol GTX 5w30 and a Motorcraft filter. It never burned/leaked a drop with the abuse it saw, and it WAS abuse. He traded it in and got a 2002 F150 cab 1/2 4WD short bed w/ 4.6L. This truck had 30K when he got it and now it has 115K. Once again, he has driven the absolute dog doodoo out of it and it still runs like a top with Castrol GTX 5w30 in it and a Motorcraft filter. This truck calls for 5w20 but during his ownership has only seen 5w30. I do not recall what the '98 was spec'd for.

I don't know if it is the Castrol GTX or just the routine maintenance, or some of both, but both trucks liked the Castrol diet and never had one problem.

I am currently running a A-RX cleaning cycle in my Taurus but I plan on running Castrol GTX 5w20 or possibly 5w30 after the rinse. I have only ran Motorcraft 5w20 in this car since I have had it but I am leaning towards the Castrol GTX for the rest of this car's life. Motorcraft might be a few pennies cheaper but my car also seems to like to burn/consume a little bit of this semi-syn oil. I am hoping a full conventional will stop that.

Once the A-RX is complete and I have had a steady run of Castrol GTX I plan on getting a used oil analysis done.

 

[Jim Allen]

Well, Castrol gets mixed reactions from this board overall but it's pretty hard to knock based on performance, as evidenced by many good used oil analysis. It's a bit overpriced for that performance, however, and I wouldn't use it for that reason except it's often on sale for a realistic price. And it's familiar, which makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside (which is half the reason for our various brand loyalties for those who will admit it). Castrol is pretty closed with it's data and that tends to make BITOGers justifiably suspicious.

If you like Castrol, you might enjoy this tip. I have been using a "Castrol cocktail" of 5W30 GTX and Syntec in our Honda Accord (4 GTX + 1 Syn) at 6-7K annual oil changes and it has yielded good used oil analysis. Doing it that way gives me a known blend percentage (20 percent) that's cheaper than buying the Castrol Syntec blend (the blend percentage of which we don't know).

Relating to your brother's success with his modular Fords and GTX, I hope to have the same experience. My recently acquired '05 F-150HD's 5.4L will get the same treatment in 5W20 (5 + 2) though I would have no problems using MC 5W20, which is truly a good value (and a BITOG forum acknowledged "best buy"). I went out to get MC for the Ford's upcoming first OC (first on my watch, but it has only 7800 miles) but found a super sale of the Castrol that was a bit cheaper than the MC. I'll be drooling on my shoes by the time the '05 hits 135K based on my annual 6K of driving. It took 21 years to put that much on my '86 Ford!

 

[steve20]

I do the same synthetic mix except 2 qts Syntec 5-20 with 2 1/2 qts GTX 5-20. Car runs better than new with 74K on it. 4cy Accordian

 

[Johnny]

Originally Posted By: 04SE
My brother is on his second F150 and is using Castrol GTX 5w30 with awesome results. His first F150 was a 1998 2WD longbed w/ 4.6L. He bought it with 45K and drove it to 135K. He literally ran the absolute dog doodoo out of that truck but changed the oil every 3K-4K with Castrol GTX 5w30 and a Motorcraft filter. It never burned/leaked a drop with the abuse it saw, and it WAS abuse. He traded it in and got a 2002 F150 cab 1/2 4WD short bed w/ 4.6L. This truck had 30K when he got it and now it has 115K. Once again, he has driven the absolute dog doodoo out of it and it still runs like a top with Castrol GTX 5w30 in it and a Motorcraft filter. This truck calls for 5w20 but during his ownership has only seen 5w30. I do not recall what the '98 was spec'd for.

I don't know if it is the Castrol GTX or just the routine maintenance, or some of both, but both trucks liked the Castrol diet and never had one problem.

I am currently running a A-RX cleaning cycle in my Taurus but I plan on running Castrol GTX 5w20 or possibly 5w30 after the rinse. I have only ran Motorcraft 5w20 in this car since I have had it but I am leaning towards the Castrol GTX for the rest of this car's life. Motorcraft might be a few pennies cheaper but my car also seems to like to burn/consume a little bit of this semi-syn oil. I am hoping a full conventional will stop that.

Once the A-RX is complete and I have had a steady run of Castrol GTX I plan on getting a used oil analysis done.


I don't think it's the oil or the maintenance. I think the key to success here is that he got rid of all the doodoo.

 

[04SE]

Originally Posted By: Johnny

I don't think it's the oil or the maintenance. I think the key to success here is that he got rid of all the doodoo.

His truck has two gears, park and full speed. Nobody knows how they last with him driving.