Castrol RS 10w-60 - what went wrong here?

[Quattro Pete]

I found these pics on a Polish auto forum I frequent. The engine is a Nissan 2 liter 4 cylinder SR20DE. It was on a steady diet of Castrol RS 10w-60 which if I'm not mistaken was (no longer sold) a group III synthetic. 4-5K mile OCI. Driven rather hard. After 11K miles (that's the engine's total mileage), it looks like this: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This is what it should have looked like: I just can't believe that oil alone could be to blame for this after just 11K miles. What in the world???

 

[Whimsey]

Either they didn't change it as they said they did or it could be a counterfeit oil. Such as a non-detergent oil in a bottle with a fake Castrol label. During the years of communism people became quite creative to make money . As much as I don't think that oil is really appropriate for that Nissan engine I doubt it would have caused that crud. Somethings fishy there. Whimsey

 

[Quattro Pete]

I don't see why the guy who posted this would lie about the true OCI. And even if he did lie, a synthetic oil in non-turbo car should not do this to a brand new engine after only 11K miles. Now, the counterfeit suspicion is a valid point. Although he claims he bought the oil from a reputable Castrol distributor, god only knows what was actually in those bottles. Makes shivers run through my spine thinking that I just put SLX LongTec in my engine. I'll do a UOA at 5K miles. I'm hoping if it's causing anything like this, it'll show as high insolubles content in the UOA.

 

[Ugly3]

There is something rotten in Denmark! Maybe the engine was running at 280 degrees and cooked the innards. Maybe he ran with 2 quarts in the sump. Maybe anything!

 

[Motorbike]

Hey look at the bright side . If those are the used parts cleaned up , it protected well

 

[Losiho]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Quattro Pete: It was on a steady diet of Castrol RS 10w-60 which if I'm not mistaken was (no longer sold) a group III synthetic.

---

It's still available down here, and AFAIK it's Group 4 along with Castrol 0w40.

 

[00 scrub]

Was the enginre brand new or rebuilt? It may be because of machining chips and particles. YOu have to really clean out your engine after getting it machined. I've heard people scraping up black gunk from the bottom of their oil pans 300 miles after installing new pistons and rods and headwork.

 

[Shannow]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Losiho:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Quattro Pete: It was on a steady diet of Castrol RS 10w-60 which if I'm not mistaken was (no longer sold) a group III synthetic.

---

It's still available down here, and AFAIK it's Group 4 along with Castrol 0w40.

---

Losiho, the 5W-30 has a pour point of -40 the 0W-40 has a pour point of -52 the 10W-60 has a pour point of -42 So I'd say it contains a GrIII

 

[tdi-rick]

Doug Hilary (where is he ?) said he used to use it in diesels on reefers, which is a pretty hard test for an oil, and it performed really well. The only independent test I've seen showed it sheared a fair bit in only a few dyno runs. Oil Product Viscosity Loss % Type Test# Torco MPZ 18% Synthetic #5 & 6 Shell Helix Ultra 14% Synthetic #8 Shell Helix Plus 12% Petroleum #1 Hi-Tec HTO 8% Synthetic #9 Castrol R 6% Synthetic #12 Rick.

 

[theguru]

I'd say this engine has been driven more than hard, the oil looks cooked.

 

[Alex D]

These pictures look EXACTLY !!! like the internals of motors I took apart in back home in germany in the early 80s that were run with the then reddish/pinkish version of European Castrol GTX 15W-40. that oil was horrible and there were huge sludge issues all over the place ... other oils never did this ... my family had three cars affected by this. Long OCIs with short trip use was the reason usually.

 

[G-MAN]

This is the "Black Death" that plagued Europe in the 80s and early 90s. FWIW, I simply don't believe he used Castrol 10w60 in that engine. If he did, he never changed the oil, and/or he's got some serious blowby issues. Formula RS 10w60 is an all PAO/ester based oil, BTW.

 

[Losiho]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Shannow: Losiho, the 5W-30 has a pour point of -40 the 0W-40 has a pour point of -52 the 10W-60 has a pour point of -42 So I'd say it contains a GrIII

---

Castrol tech line said it was PAO, along with Formula R 0w40. He told me Formula R 5w30 is the Group 3 oil. He also said SLX / GC has been discontinued, replaced by 0w40.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Seems lie a counterfit oil was used, N/D...yikes.

 

[sewerman]

also said SLX / GC has been discontinued, replaced by 0w40. No more GC 0w30???????? Is the 0w40 made in similar fashion??????

 

[Quattro Pete]

quote:

---

Originally posted by sewerman: also said SLX / GC has been discontinued, replaced by 0w40. No more GC 0w30???????? Is the 0w40 made in similar fashion??????

---

It may have been discontinued in Australia, but it's still sold in other parts of the world and I haven't heard that it's going to be discontinued anytime soon. AFAIK, the Castrol 0w-40 is a very different oil.

 

[Losiho]

Different oil, but it's a light 40w similar to Motul or M1 0w40. It's slightly thicker than GC (12.9 cSt v 12.2 for GC)

 

[Alan]

Maybe the oil was too thick for the application? It probably gave higher oil pressure but much lower overall oil volume being pumped through the engine hence less flow.

 

[vvk]

Obviously counterfeit oil. Pretty common in Eastern Europe/CIS.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Castrol 0w-40 is supposedly BP Visco 7000. ...as far as if this was counterfit oil that was used, a UOA should tell. It's hard to imagine an oil that would do that, except N/D 30.