GC found for the 1st time in Oak Ridge,TN!!! advice needed from GC gurus

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OK, with my Arx treatment rinse phase nearing its end, I had decided to use a mix of Pennzoil or Chevron 10/30 with their 15/40 oils, as my 1st "normal" oil after Arx rinse. So, calm and collected I went to the local Auto Zone here to buy Pennz.LL and just looked at the Castrol shelf out of habit...and what did I see? GC! about 20 bottles and none of the US-yellow label stuff!!!
I asked the AZ guy and he said this is the oil they will be getting from now on($4.99 per qt).

This is the stock no: MO 23386B784 1900

I had been searching for GC a while ago, before I knew that my car was burning/leaking oil a bit, and with Arx, I had pretty much given up on syn.oil, fearing of new leaks.

I couldn't decide what to do, so I didn't buy ANYthing and came home!
Back then when GC came out, I wanted to use GC, but after my oil leak(not big) with syn.Pennzoil started, I have used Arx with Chevron dino oil, and now the Arx treatment is almost over...and the oil level hasn't dropped a bit. However, I'm not happy with all the cold noises I've been getting with Chevr.supr. 10/30 at temps between 15-32F...

Advice me: Last time I switched from dino to syn at 85,000 miles with NO engine cleaning; now that I've cleaned with Arx, should I be brave and make the switch to GC?
will it start a leak/consumption again?
or should I surpress my GC-desire and use dino Pennz 10/30 15/40 mix??? but the GC bottles looked SO inviting..
GC (and other) Gurus out there, please help me make the hardest oil-decision I ever had to make...
(1997 Ford T-bird 4.6L sohc, 92k miles; as far as I know noone has used GC yet in this type of engine)

Sorry for the long post;
Thanks a mil in advance.
 
Oak Ridge, TN? Isn't that the place they did a lot of nuclearpower research? Seems like it should have been one of the first places they shipped German Castrol to! Is there still a lot of research there?
 
97tbird,

If you are really...you know, like R E A L L Y wanting to try GC, I think that, with the ARX treatment, you have a very good chance of success. If it works for you...fine...if not, switch back to dino...it's worth a shot.
 
Thanks a lot for the quick replies, Pscholte, Mystic.

Pscholte:

Yes, I do think I R-E-A-L-L-Y want to try GC.
Here are some signs:
1) I can't stop thinking of GC
2) I'm not hungry since I came back from AutoZone
3) My wife keeps putting her hands over the ears when she hears "German Castr..."
4) I've been reading about 200+ past posts about GC

what do you think? does it seem like I really want to use it?:)

Good to see a post from you again, btw. hope all is OK with you.
Are you still impressed/in love with GC? it would help me a lot to know. 2 more questions:
--according to that batch number I posted, is this a newer batch?
--I won't be changing oil myself: how can I tell if they really put in my GC? Can you see the green color on the dipstck when you wipe it?\

Thanks----------------------------------------

Mystic:
Yep, Oak Ridge is the home of the nuke bomb, the city was built solely for that reason.
The plants are still active, and I think they still do a lot of research, but don't really produce anything.
 
quote:

--I won't be changing oil myself: how can I tell if they really put in my GC? Can you see the green color on the dipstck when you wipe it?\

Only if the light hits the dipstick at just the right angle....and even then, your eyes better be fine tuned.

I'd ask for the empty bottles back.
 
quote:

Originally posted by 97tbird:
Thanks a lot for the quick replies, Pscholte, Mystic.

Pscholte:

Yes, I do think I R-E-A-L-L-Y want to try GC.
Here are some signs:
1) I can't stop thinking of GC
2) I'm not hungry since I came back from AutoZone
3) My wife keeps putting her hands over the ears when she hears "German Castr..."
4) I've been reading about 200+ past posts about GC

what do you think? does it seem like I really want to use it?:)

Good to see a post from you again, btw. hope all is OK with you.
Are you still impressed/in love with GC? it would help me a lot to know. 2 more questions:
--according to that batch number I posted, is this a newer batch?
--I won't be changing oil myself: how can I tell if they really put in my GC? Can you see the green color on the dipstck when you wipe it?\

Thanks----------------------------------------

Mystic:
Yep, Oak Ridge is the home of the nuke bomb, the city was built solely for that reason.
The plants are still active, and I think they still do a lot of research, but don't really produce anything.


Yep, you got it bad...remain calm...you are in good hands...DC (Dr Castrol) will hlep you through this: just go back to Autozone, get however many quarts you need and proceed to your "changer of choice." In answer to your questions: that is not a new batch number...in fact it is one of the early ones; if you can discreetly watch them change the oil, do so...if not follow VeeDubs advice.

Get keen on the Green!
cheers.gif


Paul

[ January 31, 2004, 07:37 PM: Message edited by: pscholte ]
 
Pscholte,
Thanks for the soothing advice.
So, the batch is an old one? is this bad?
or does it matter at all? I remember that early batches had high ppm for Iron...if i do an uoa I should not be surprised at the Fe?

or should I do a uoa with this oil at all? it's the very 1st after Arx rinse; I wonder if the residues from Chevron dino/Arx will screw up te uoa
...should I do the uoa in the 2nd oil change with GC?
What would be a good OCI interval for GC for a beginner? 3000 m or more?
-----------------
Veedub:
Thanks also for the advice...
I get my oil changes at the dealer, no way to watch them do it. I know the Ford service advisor well; I wonder if he'll be offended if I ask for the empty bottles;
What is a nice/logical/non-offending way to make my asking for empty bottles seem perfectly normal? any ideas?:)
 
Would not worry about the batch being "old"...you'd have to go back through the VOAs and see if it was one with high iron ppm. If so, and you want to do a UOA, just keep the starting numbers in mind. I don't think you should shy away from doing one, just remember where the oil "started," so you know where it has "gone" later.
 
97tbird,

What do you want the oil to do? Are you going for extended drains or are you just in the experimenting mood?

I use it and I like it. I rack up miles very quickly. It gives me good cold weather (subzero) starting while the HT/HS specs (A3 rating) seem ideal for a hot running DOHC engine. For my uses it seems to work at least as well as anything else available over the counter.

FWIW the green tinge seems to vanish quickly once you start running it.
frown.gif


cheers.gif
patriot.gif
 
Whatever you do, do not buy in mass quantities. AlexD bought a whole bunch and now decided to run all Redline.....now he has to swallow the GC stuff. For some reason, the GC stuff has triggered a buying frenzy among BITOG nerds....I don't know if it is the smell or our advertising campaign.....whatever it is, it's working!
 
quote:

a nice/logical/non-offending way to make my asking for empty bottles

TB- You won't have to retrive the bottles to know the GC is in there, it will show up on the dipstick. You can hint to the service advisor of that and share your knowledge of the product, no way will anybody at the dealer try to screw a nice guy out of his GC fix, too much good Karma with it. Anyway, WHO would want a 0w oil anyway except an oil nut? As far as the decision; to GC or not GC, the smooth cold start from GC is reason enough. You possibly will get better results in summer from 5w-40 BC or D1, but winter is GC time. :
tongue.gif
 
quote:

You won't have to retrive the bottles to know the GC is in there, it will show up on the dipstick. You can hint to the service advisor of that and share your knowledge of the product, no way will anybody at the dealer try to screw a nice guy out of his GC fix, too much good Karma with it. Anyway, WHO would want a 0w oil anyway except an oil nut? [/QB]

TS makes a good point. I think the chances are slim that some crooked mechanic is going to steal your oil.

But if you must be certain, one tactful way to ask for the bottles back just to tell them that you reuse some bottles to hold oil. Believe it or not, I actually do use them. For example, my VW holds 3.7 quarts. So before I take four quarts of oil into my dealer, I pour out 0.3 quarts into an empty bottle to make sure the dealer doesn't overfill (you don't have to tell them this part
smile.gif
). I also do this with the Volvo that takes 5.5 quarts. It's nice having a few spare bottles lying around for this purpose.

[ February 01, 2004, 01:57 AM: Message edited by: VeeDubb ]
 
Thanks to all of you who replied; very much appreciated.

GSV:
you asked me a good question: what do i want from this oil?
I think what I want is a thin enough oil with good cold-flow, which will help with the fact that the 4.6L sohc needs a think oil at start up to lubricate the top-end, thus reducing the cold valve clutter, which I now have at temps below 32F or so(GC pp: -61F).
Other thing: for normal driving(after warm up) i want a thicker oil without getting a 10/40 or so: GC is a thick 30, 12.2 cSt at 100C, so this also gives me what I want.
also, I will of course consider extending OCI over 3000m limit that I've been keeping with dino.(will do uoa of 3k before extending oci, though)

I'm still not decided about if I'll want to use GC in summer, but like many already said, GC seems to be ideal for winter...

I'm not going to buy a lot, just 6 qts(today..). this time; and if my consumption/leak occurs again, I'll go back to dino, like Pscholte said..

So , all sound like an OK plan?
I really, really hope my 4.6L T-bird and GC will be good friends...

I wonder if AlexD tried GC in his 4.6L T-bird???

Thanks a lot again, all of you, for "listening" and understanding.
smile.gif
will keep you all posted
 
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