Castrol TXT

[SR5]

Back in the late 80's and early 90's the oil selection in my neck of the woods was quite limited. No synthetic oils, no motorcycle oils. Just mineral oils, either for a car (petrol) or a truck (diesel). From what I could tell the country pretty much ran on Castrol GTX 20W-50.

Then Castrol TXT appeared in the shops near me. It was a semi-synthetic (synthetic technology they called it) and a 10W-40 from memory. I ran it in my bikes, and it was great !! Good gear changes for 10,000 km (6k mi). The GTX was shagged at half that. This was before special motorcycle oils. A bike used petrol not diesel, so you ran a car oil in it, not a truck oil.

My question, what does anybody know about this Castrol TXT. It was the first oil that ever impressed me as being something out of the ordinary. I believe it was before all this fuss about Group 3 Vs Group 4 and what is a true synthetic oil. It ran well in both bike and car, didn't shear down in my shared sump bike, stayed clean looking for ages, and just generally seemed to be a great product that held together well. I would still use it today.

What was a semi-synthetic oil back then? A group 2 and group 4 mix ?

This is the oil that turned me into a Castrol fan. Nobody else was giving me anything close to this back then in Oz.
I would love to know more about it, most references I find are to a more modern product of different viscosity.

 

[Shannow]

Yep, not sure on the 10W40 bit, but remember the black bottles and the TXT.

Was working in a Shell servo (Manuka in ACT) at the time, and we had AGIP Sint 2000 10W50 on the shelves at $10.50 a tin (litre)...Shell had "Super SF", a 20W40.

Shell also had Shell XMO, a 15W30 "mineral with the performance of a synthetic"

15W, and 30 were all pretty foreign to Oz in 1987, and it died very very quickly...funnily enough about 7 years ago, a workmate unearthed a 5L container from his Mum's estate.

Here's some stuff from 1997, when I was in receipt of some Shell books.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3471384/1997_Shell_Product_Data_Book_-

The 15W30 was probably as close to a monograde as it got...I'd be all over it today.

 

[SR5]

Wow $10 per L for the Agip, back then that was BIG money.

That Shell XMO sounds perfect. If they brought it back as a A3/B4 15W-30 style monograde, and kept the price low, it would be a great oil. I suspect it would still bomb though. Back then if you offered me a 10W40 or a 15W30, I would think the 10W40 was obviously a better oil. As it "started sooner and finished later". Volatile and shear prone VIIs would have pulled the wool over my eyes.

I still have an old 500ml top-up bottle of the castrol TXT. A freebie that I kept for it's handy size. From about 1992. It says "Castrol TXT Synthetic Technology 10W/40" on the front. On the back it says it's API SG/CD; US military Mil-L-46152D, Mil-L-2104C; CCMC European Test Sequence G4, G5 and PD2; Mercedes-Benz all passenger cars; VW 500.00 and 505.00; General Motors 6094M; Ford SSM-2C-9011A and ESE-M2C-153E; Porsche approved (air and water cooled engines); Jaguar approved Rover group BLS 22 OLD-06 07 09; BMW special oils approved.

Most of this means very little to me, but I typed it out for any oil history people interested in old specs.

The TXT bottle is silver with a red cap. From memory the castrol GTX was a black bottle, while the castrol XL was a white bottle. I'm also curious how the GTX differed from the cheaper XL.

 

[dlundblad]

I actually have about half a quart left of this stuff.

It says its "for VW pump nozzle engines" and is API SF. I just dumped what I had in the OPE for next year.

 

[SR5]

Thanks dlundbland, can't believe you still have some.
Is it 10W40 like the stuff I used ?
Or is it 5W40 which was also called TXT in the 2000's, and I think later replaced by SLX.

I hear the TXT in the 2000's was VW 505.01 oil made for PD - Pump Injector engines.

We probably need an oil history forum here.

 

[Doug Hillary]

Hi,
SR5 - Down Under? where??

Castrol offered a diverse range of lubricants in the period you mentioned!

In the 1970s Castrol had;
Formula R synthetic 15W-50 (SE) Ester based (this later became TWS 10W-60)
GTX 20W-50 (SE/CC) Mineral (this viscosity was introduced in 1958-9 by Duckhams as Q2050)
Grand Prix 20W-40
RX Super 30/40 (SE/CD) Mineral
CW30 SC (SC/CB)Mineral
Castrolite 10W-40 Mineral (SE/CC) (from the 1950s as a 20-30)
XL 20W-50 Mineral (SE/CC)
CRF 10,20,30,40 Mineral (SE/CD)
AgriCastrol 20W-40 Mineral (SE/CC)
AgriCastrol MP multiuse 20W-40 Mineral (SE/CD)

Racing lubricants;
R30,R40 Both synthetic/castor based (I used these in [censored] racing engines (Speedway) in the 1950s)
M Castor based for two-strokes

There were some other diverse products in various categories

Castrol refined their range during the late 80s-90s and these included semi-synthetic diesel lubricants (15W-40) These matured into such products as Enduro LD and the others you still see on the shelves today here "down under" in OZ

In 1996 Castrol introduced the ill-fated Formula SLX 0W-30 a Castor based synthetic (SH/CF) from Germany. After its failure in service it became a Grp4 SL product and in later formulations became known on BITOG as "GC"

I was involved in the development of a number of these products

Castrol's driveline lubricants were then and still are excellent products - many with a German heritage

Shell's driveline lubricants also have a great heritage; XD90LS, Dentax W and XDS are but a few

Shell's petrol engine lubricants have always been top shelf products and their XMO 5W-40 was the first synthetic FF - Porsche used in in the 928GT/S4 around 1988/9. Their diesel engine lubricants have always been at or near the top of the tree

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: SR5
Thanks dlundbland, can't believe you still have some.
Is it 10W40 like the stuff I used ?
Or is it 5W40 which was also called TXT in the 2000's, and I think later replaced by SLX.

I hear the TXT in the 2000's was VW 505.01 oil made for PD - Pump Injector engines.

We probably need an oil history forum here.


Great idea. Til then we have Doug Hillary. He is as expert as expert gets. I've learned so much from his posts he is an invaluable asset to this forum.

Originally Posted By: Doug Hillary
Hi,
SR5 - Down Under? where??

Castrol offered a diverse range of lubricants in the period you mentioned!

In the 1970s Castrol had;
Formula R synthetic 15W-50 (SE) Ester based (this later became TWS 10W-60)
GTX 20W-50 (SE/CC) Mineral
Grand Prix 20W-40
RX Super 30/40 (SE/CD) Mineral
CW30 SC (SC/CB)Mineral
Castrolite 10W-40 Mineral (SE/CC) (from the 1950s as a 20-30)
XL 20W-50 Mineral (SE/CC)
CRF 10,20,30,40 Mineral (SE/CD)
AgriCastrol 20W-40 Mineral (SE/CC)
AgriCastrol MP multiuse 20W-40 Mineral (SE/CD)

Racing lubricants;
R30,R40 Both synthetic/castor based (I used these in [censored] racing engines (Speedway) in the 1950s)
M Castor based for two-strokes

There were some other diverse products in various categories

Castrol refined their range during the late 80s-90s and these included semi-synthetic diesel lubricants (15W-40) These matured into such products as Enduro LD and the others you still see on the shelves today here "down under" in OZ

In 1996 Castrol introduced the ill-fated Formula SLX 0W-30 a Castor based synthetic (SH/CF) from Germany. After its failure in service it became a Grp4 SL product and in later formulations became known on BITOG as "GC"

I was involved in the development of a number of these products

Castrol's driveline lubricants were then and still are excellent products - many with a German heritage

Shell's driveline lubricants also have a great heritage; XD90LS, Dentax W and XDS are but a few

Shell's petrol engine lubricants have always been top shelf products and their XMO 5W-40 was the first synthetic FF - Porsche used in in the 928GT/S4 around 1988/9. Their diesel engine lubricants have always been at or near the top of the tree



See what I mean.

Thanks for the lesson Doug. There should be a sub forum called "ask Doug". An actual expert enlightening us laymen.

 

[SR5]

Hi Doug,

The same state as you mate, but not close to you, it's a big place.

Thank you very much for your lengthy response, very much appreciated.

I've used Castrol oil most of my life, but with a lot of respect and time for Penrite, Shell and Valvoline too. I'm sure even more out there are good, I've just never used them.

Back in the 80's and 90's I'm sure there was a lot of good stuff around, it was just hard for me to find it, or find out about it. I had to be able to afford it to.

Castrol GTX 20W50 was always my go to oil, but I must admit Penrite HPR 30 performed better in my motorcycle with it's shared sump, so I moved this way. Sometimes when I was low on money I purchased the Castrol XL 20W50, but I never understood the difference between it and the GTX, apart from price. I assumed the more expensive GTX was better.

Then suddenly I could find the semi-synthetic Castrol TXT. It was easy to find and affordable compared to the imported exotic oils. I gave it a go, and never looked back. I ran the TXT in everything I owned.

One day they stopped selling the TXT, so rather than going back to mineral (GTX or Penrite), I went up to the Castrol Formula R 10W60. I loved this too, and ran it for the next ten years straight. Between the 10W60 and the 0W40, I felt I had every base covered with a high quality full synthetic oil. You could feel that German quality in them.

I'm glad to hear you had a hand in developing these products, full respect to you. For mineral oils, I tended to go Penrite, but as soon as Castrol had some sort of synthetic product on the shelf, I ran straight to it and was never disappointed. For something like two decades I ran nothing but TXT, Formula R or Edge.