Castrol GTX's varnish?

[Mokanic]

I worked in one shop for over eight years that used GTX exclusively. Even the customers that were consistant in keeping their oil changed would develop a light coating of brown varnish over time. I am not saying they developed mechanical problems;I am simply saying what I saw happen over time. I have never been a big GTX fan and have seen better results from lower priced conventional oils. I also noticed alot of apparent additive separation as ther would be some "material" left in the bottle after pouring.
Maybe you are a 500K success story using GTX. If so,keep using it. I just don't think the oil lives up to the advertisements. And that is my

 

[The Critic]

The varnish is harmless but for the issue to be exclusive to GTX (if such was the case) is interesting.

 

[06RANGER]

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If you think Castrol is using the exact same oil and formulations as it did 4 years ago...well......

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So the current generation GTX is lessly likely to cause varnish?

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

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If you think Castrol is using the exact same oil and formulations as it did 4 years ago...well......

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So the current generation GTX is lessly likely to cause varnish?

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As less likely as Pennzoil is likely to cause sludge. Fact is, how do you know any given car, using any given fuel, in any given situation WOULD NOT have had "varnish" whether using Havoline, Pennzoil, or even the "new" GroupIII Mobil 1, PP, or any other oil on the planet? How do you KNOW? Fact is, unless given a scientific set of parameters, identical vehicles, identical usage (impossible outside of a lab/test-track environment), and testing against a control (or several), none of it could be proven. And so here "we" all sit, trashing a sponsor. Which I'd be happy to do if there was SOME basis for truth on the theory besides a "feeling", or anecdotal incident, rumor, or personal experience..

Castrol and varnish, now?

Ok fine, but until I see some of the old heads around here pipe up to verify the Castrol/Varnish relationship, this one's solidly in the "Lube-Urban" myth catagory.

My

 

[Mokanic]

What classifies one as an old head?

 

[06RANGER]

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Ok fine, but until I see some of the old heads around here pipe up to verify the Castrol/Varnish relationship, this one's solidly in the "Lube-Urban" myth catagory.

My

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It's not an "Urban Legend" to the people who witnessed varnish of vehicles that they knew were fed a steady diet of GTX.

 

[Mokanic]

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Ok fine, but until I see some of the old heads around here pipe up to verify the Castrol/Varnish relationship, this one's solidly in the "Lube-Urban" myth catagory.

My

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It's not an "Urban Legend" to the people who witnessed varnish of vehicles that they knew were fed a steady diet of GTX.

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Exactly! I don't know if I qualify as an old head but I have seen new cars that were fed GTX at regular intervals that developed varnish on the valvetrain. Harmless? probably,but not really desirable when you change your oil regularly.

 

[farrarfan1]

Shoulda used Valvoline. I heard it's completely devoid of any additives so there's nothing in to stain your engine...

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

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It's not an "Urban Legend" to the people who witnessed varnish of vehicles that they knew were fed a steady diet of GTX.

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Ok, I'll grant you that. However, they didn't run the SAME vehicle under the SAME conditions with the SAME oci for the SAME total miles with a DIFFERENT oil to PROVE the Castrol "caused" the varnish.. PROOF, science, control, and analysis is the truth, not an informal anecdote..

 

[Bebop367]

My son has a 96 Nissan Maxium with 185,000 miles. All GTX 10w30 at approx. 3000 to 5000 mile OCI. Thru the oil fill this weekend there appears to be only VERY LIGHT brown discoloration. Same color as the oil. No varnish (film coating)or sludge that we can see. It made me wondor why I spend so much on M1. That car is run VERY hard too.

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

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What classifies one as an old head?

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Old heads are the engineers and non-engineers who are hideously well read and steeped in the science of this stuff and dismiss anecdote as opinion and know the difference between that, and FACT. The old heads that HAVE posted expressed skepticism. *I* am not an old head, not educated, and especially, no engineer. But fair is fair. All due respect to TR3, he didn't run the Miata on Castrol, he ran it on M1. Had he run the Mazda on Castrol, he might not have had sludge with that either. But who knows? Can't prove that which wasn't tested. Same with the TR. It was run on Castrol, but the TR didn't necessarily have the same ventilation through the crankcase as the non-varnished Miata, either.

Again, without controls and long term testing, the only thing to say about it is, "My car has varnish. I used Castrol." Fair enough. But there are so many other factors, how fair is that to Castrol? How fair is that to reality, for that matter..?

Believe what you want, but that one case or two, all of it anecdote, isn't fact, it's slander against a brand until you put up controlled, scientific proof..

 

[Mystic]

I never really used Castrol much so I can't say anything about sludge buildup or tarnish in an engine. I did use Valvoline for a while and Valvoline seemed to work well in my cars (especially MaxLife). If people keep talking here about Valvoline keeping an engine nice and clean I might switch to it. I can get 5 quart containers of Valvoline for 10 bucks or less at Wal-Mart. Valvoline will surely get the job done for 3 months/3000-4000-5000 miles. Especially with maybe a maintenance dose of Auto-RX added. And I could use Mobil 1 or some other synthetic in the winter months. I have heard a lot of mechanics say that they use Valvoline. Maybe there really is a reason why.

 

[06RANGER]

Just seems like with the popularity of GTX there would be more replies of "I've used GTX for xxx,k miles and never experienced varnish".

If someone posted, "I've used Havoline exclusively and now discovered varnish" this forum might explode from the replies.

 

[SargeGTO]

We use it in some cars out of the shop. Mainly 10-40 GTX. High Performance cars of both bow-tie and blue oval flavors. I've never seen any of the issues raised in this post/string. Never. Quite the opposite. These cars are very well maintained and tuned for the record and I have seen nothing but pristine engines on teardown/rebuild or further modifications when the owner has been utilizing Castrol GTX/Pennzoil or Valvoline for the record. I think quite alot of these types of statements "This oil caused varnish or sludge" are in reality issues caused by poor tunes/leaking seals,gaskets,rings/poor maintenance etc. and has nothing to do with the oil. IMHO.

 

[dave1251]

What makes you think that?

 

[SargeGTO]

Well you get some kid with a oil filter that is three years old, leaking head gasket come in and #@$%! all in his old oil. First thing he says is that brand of oil sucks. No. Your leaking head gasket and lack of proper OCI suck.