Citgo Motor Oil Questions

[Rob Taggs]

I found a Citgo Wholesaler in Kansas City, Kansas called Heathwood Oil. Picked up a 12 pack case of Citgo Superguard 10w-30 to try out on my vehicles. I have read that this oil is from South America but, the bottles say Made In USA. Is it from South America and Distilled in the USA? From the specs I've read it seems to be a top notch dino oil. The only way I can get the synthetic is to buy it by the pallet load. If anyone lives close to this area they have a buttload of Castrol products of all types.

Thanks

 

[CMT]

Citgo gets a lot of its crude oil from Venezuela, but most likely their oils/fuels sold in the US are refined here. And when it comes to lubricants, it's where it's refined/packaged that matters.

 

[servantwong]

I am working for a company supplying distillation equipment to refinery, petrochemical industry.
Citgo has refineries in US.
I am sure they distill and process the oil locally in US.

 

[y_p_w]

Citgo is completely owned by Petróleos de Venezuela SA, the Venezualan state oil company.

I recall there were inklings that Citgo might be up for sale. However - the problem was supposedly that their refineries were geared towards processing the extremely heavy crude oil that typically comes from Venezuala.

 

[GrtArtiste]

Please tell us what vehicles you will be using the Citgo in? What engines-mileage, and what oils have you used previously? There are some other Citgo users (myself included) here who be interested in hearing how you like the product.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Quote:
I've read it seems to be a top notch dino oil.

================================================

What makes Citgo a top-notch oil besides reduced price? How good is the base oil package in it? The add-packs on the Virgin board are not impressive. I have the synthetic in my S-10. I'm trying to determine how long to leave it in.

 

[Rob Taggs]

I will be using Citgo Superguard 10w-30 on a 1996 Dodge Neon 2.0 liter engine with 137,000 miles. Also, will be putting it in 2003 Pontiac Aztec 3.4 liter engine with 44,000 miles. I'm thinking of using Mystic 15w-40 on my 1976 Buick Lesabre with a 350 4 barrel engine with 107,000 miles for the hot summer months. It just has been killing my wallet with all the experimenting with motor oil both synthetic and conventional. Want to go with a quality conventional oil. Hopefully I found my match. As for the previous oils I have used in the vehicles: 1996 Neon has Castrol Syntec 5w-30 in it. 2003 Aztec has Castrol Conventional 5w-30 in it. And finally the 1976 Lesabre has Havoline Conventional 10w-40.

 

[GrtArtiste]

Did you have a reason for choosing to use the 10w30 Citgo instead of the 5w30?

 

[Rob Taggs]

I just decided on a whim to try the Citgo 10w-30 over the 5w-30 Citgo. Its summer and nearly 100 degrees with the heat index here in Kansas. I will probably go with the 5w-30 after this batch of 10w-30. Funny thing was I asked the gal in Heathwood's office about the 0w-30 Syndurance Citgo. She said that they don't carry it because they don't get any demand for it. She also commented that it must be a Europeon thing I guess. I can get it but, have to purchase an entire pallet of it. That would be a few thousand bucks that I don't have.

 

[VelociRacer]

The bottles sold here (mid-west) are products of their Cicero, IL refinery. The Supergard UltraLife (High-Mileage 10w-30) oil has a killer add pack and flashpoint. Lots of Calcium and ZDDP (it is API-SL-rated but carries no cert, so they jacked up the ZDDP). Unfortunately, I cannot find it locally for a competitive price anymore since Meijer got out of Citgo business recently. BUT, good new is that Meijer's house brand High-Mileage (and dino oils, but not synthetics) are actually Citgo oil. It sells for 1.56/qt around here (Detroit). I am going to try it on my 125k 1999 Civic with a bit of thirst for oil. M1 5/10w30 just doesn't cut for me anymore, too much oil to add every 5k, about 2qt. No smoke or leaks on my D16Y8 motor.

PS. I've done 2x Auto-RX which freed up cyl#3 rings as seen by 20psi increase in compression. Done nothing for oil consumtion though. Neither did running 15w40 HDEo (Esso XD-3). So I;m goig back to 10w30 HM with good fashpoint and NOACK numbers.

Would like to get my hands on some Supergard 10w30 Synthetic (HT/HS 3.5 and flashpoin close to 500F), but that's just a pipe dream here in Detroit right now.

 

[Mr Nice]

VelociRacer,

Is the D16Y8 an EX or LX motor ?? With 125K miles on your Honda......just use TropArtic 10w30 Syn Blend for $1 and forget about Mobil 1.

Did your gas mileage go up after you used AutoRX in your Civic ??? Thanks

 

[GrtArtiste]

I have yet to see any Supergard Ultralife or Synthetic in my area. I think the regular dino will be fine for my usage, and at .59 per quart (most recent purchase, after rebate) it was hard to pass up. I can't find another SM/GF-4 dino at anything close to that price. Other BITGO folks talk about buying Chevron at .49, but that's another pipe dream in this neck of the woods.

 

[TallPaul]

I called Citgo yesterday to see who sells Ultralife in my area. They told me even their gas stations don't carry it. The guy said they had been gettin a lot of calls like mine (BITOG folks calling in?). Anyway, for Detroit area he said there is a distributor in Utica that should have the Ultralife: Beebe Oil Co - 586-739-0090.

Now I should warn you. When I was in Meijers a few months back grabbing a case of 80 cent Ultralife, I got a case where the bottles had no donut or starburst, but I saw some others on the shelf that had one or both, I think the starburst, but was still SL. So I wonder if the add levels were affected.

 

[VelociRacer]

quote:

---

Originally posted by LT4 Vette:
VelociRacer,

Is the D16Y8 an EX or LX motor ?? With 125K miles on your Honda......just use TropArtic 10w30 Syn Blend for $1 and forget about Mobil 1.

Did your gas mileage go up after you used AutoRX in your Civic ??? Thanks

---

D16Y8 can only be found in the EX (Si coupe in Canada, and the Acura 1.6EL). I am scouting Dollar Trees in the area for TropArtic Blend to try. It is on my list of oils to check out. Too many choices, not enough time/miles! And I drive 30,000 miles a year now

Mileage unchanged after Auto-RX, remember I went with Esso 15W40 XD-3 (HDEO) for the clean and rinse phases, so mileage gains may have been reduced by that. However, I believe the most important factor(s) on mileage is driving style/speed. I cruise at about 80mph and get 33mpg average. I got 42mpg in the first clean phase while driving 65mph average for a 5hr round trip to Cedarpoint, OH. That matches my record from 5 years ago!

In about 500miles I plan a mini-tuneup including air-filter (got real gummy 25k miles in about 10months), gas filter, spark plugs, etc. We'll see if mileage improves, but I am already happy with 35mpg (rev-happy, no A/C).

 

[VelociRacer]

I've been calling their tech line recently. Mike has been VERY helpful. One Citgo station was willing to order some UltraLife and Synthetic, but I doubt it will be competetively priced ($2-3 for UltraLife, and $4-5 for the Synth). I have to check back with that station in a couple days.

According to this PDS, Ultralife 10W-30 meets API SL requirements, but does not bare the API Cert Label, so they were able to jack up the ZDDP levels to what seems like SJ spec (good IMHO).

Just look at this great UOA

 

[GrtArtiste]

Originally posted by VelociRacer:
[QB] Unfortunately, I cannot find it locally for a competitive price anymore since Meijer got out of Citgo business recently. BUT, good new is that Meijer's house brand High-Mileage (and dino oils, but not synthetics) are actually Citgo oil. It sells for 1.56/qt around here (Detroit).

May I ask how you know that the Meijer oil is really Citgo? Reason I ask is I noticed the little graphic on the top of each side of the bottle (image of a quart being poured), but I took that to be the mark of the bottler, not specific to Citgo. I have the same graphic on some quarts of Mobil ATF that are about 4-5 years old.

 

[VelociRacer]

The bottle itself is not a good indicator on who makes the oil. I see that bottle design used by many other brands. However, it is the dot-matrix production stamp that givs it away.

For Citgo oil, look for a dot-matrix code below the back label that should look like this:

xxxxCxxxxF xxxx for Dino oil
xxxxCxxxxU xxxx for UltraLife

Where x is a number. "C" stands for Cicero, IL where the refinery and bottling took place. I have not seen a bottle of Citgo Synthetic, someone out here may do us a favour and post that?

 

[GrtArtiste]

I still have the box that last years GF3 came in. It shows 0827C0733J 1528

The first case of this year's GF4 is
0092B0625T-A 1594. The second and third cases bear the same prefix, with the last 4-digit codes being 1589 and 1612.
What does this tell me?, and thanks for the info!

and these type codes appear on the Meijer brand oil?

 

[Blue99]

Here is the printed code on the back of a bottle of Supergard Synthetic 10W-30:

27790-L-092-5-SL 04149

 

[VelociRacer]

I've only seen xxxxCxxxxF xxxx for Dino oil, whether it was in Citgo Supergard bottles, Meijer, or even Murray's. Interesting to see you have xxxxCxxxxJ xxxx and xxxxBxxxxT-A xxxx. I am going to try to decipher the letters with Citgo soon.

Blue99, thanks for posting the Citgo Synthetic stamp for us. Any1 else with more codes for that?