No film on the bottom of Castrol bottle

[BlueOvalFitter]

Since my local Wal-Mart stopped carrying Chevron,ive switched to Castrol GTX 10W30.I read a post here awhile back,someone stating there was a "film" left on the bottom of the containers of Castrol oil after pouring it in the engine.I changed my oil this morning and saw no film at all.
Also,in another post here Stuart Hughes stated that Pennzoil would be cleaner in the motor then Castrol.I use to use Castrol before Chevron and had no problems with it.Are there new problems with Castrol I dont know about?

 

[davidc]

Only that everyone has an opinion about certain brands and of course everyone has a (you should know the rest of the saying)

Other than brand loyalty, they is not alot of difference in the conventional mineral motor oils as long as you are comparing the same API classification grade and viscosity.

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

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Originally posted by davidc:
Other than brand loyalty, they is not alot of difference in the conventional mineral motor oils as long as you are comparing the same API classification grade and viscosity.

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Well, the VOAs and UOAs on this forum have shown there to be considerable differences between conventional oils. Some "brand name" oils have substantial amounts of boron and moly in the additive packs while others have none. And Valvoline has been shown to have the weakest additive pack of any oil on the market.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

So,how does Castrol GTX stack up against the rest?

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

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Originally posted by BlueOvalFitter:
So,how does Castrol GTX stack up against the rest?

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Based on the UOAs that have been posted, GTX appears to be one of the best conventional oils you can buy. Good wear numbers and a good additive pack.

 

[Flimflam]

quote:

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Originally posted by BlueOvalFitter:
Since my local Wal-Mart stopped carrying Chevron,ive switched to Castrol GTX 10W30.I read a post here awhile back,someone stating there was a "film" left on the bottom of the containers of Castrol oil after pouring it in the engine.I changed my oil this morning and saw no film at all.
Also,in another post here Stuart Hughes stated that Pennzoil would be cleaner in the motor then Castrol.I use to use Castrol before Chevron and had no problems with it.Are there new problems with Castrol I dont know about?

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"Don't Believe The Hype." For Eternity, Castrol has been a part of the World automotive scene. Now, all of a sudden, you have people saying, ah Castrol killed Christ, Castrol is the Devil Incarnate, Castrol causes cancer, etc., etc.

I have been using Castrol for 25+ years now. How come all the bad stuff: shearing down, poor cold weather performance, residue in bottom of castrol bottles, "varnish" in engines. How come it never happened to me?

Just don't believe the BS, buddy. Trust Castrol. It is the best "Off the Shelf" oil you can get. Shaeffer might be a little bit better, but before Shaeffer puts itself on the shelves, it's only an academic exercise....like German Castrol Syntec 0w-30.

 

[Patman]

quote:

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I have been using Castrol for 25+ years now. How come all the bad stuff: shearing down, poor cold weather performance, residue in bottom of castrol bottles, "varnish" in engines. How come it never happened to me?

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The only beef I have with GTX is it's poor cold weather performance, and you've gotta admit, cold weather is not something you're accustomed to in Texas.

 

[UncleS2]

I based my opinion on the fact that back when I ran Valvoline Durablend, Castrol Syntec Blend or GTX in my car, the Castrol always seemed pretty clean for most of the 3K interval. After a few changes with Castrol, when I used the Valvoline, it would get *real* dirty looking *real* fast-within 500-600 miles. Not real scientific, I'll be the first to admit. Your results may vary.

 

[MikeW]

Flim,

For conventional oil, I might agree (that Castrol is very good). Then again, between the various name brand flavors of dead dino, I don't think there's that much difference.

For synth it's a different story. The were the first perpetrator of the Group III as synthetic con. In the synth market I'd take Mobil 1 over (domestic) Syntec without any question. The German SLX 0w30 is the only exception to this. And this oil proves they can make a good, REAL synthetic. They just choose not to over here.

 

[Flimflam]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:

quote:

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I have been using Castrol for 25+ years now. How come all the bad stuff: shearing down, poor cold weather performance, residue in bottom of castrol bottles, "varnish" in engines. How come it never happened to me?

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The only beef I have with GTX is it's poor cold weather performance, and you've gotta admit, cold weather is not something you're accustomed to in Texas.

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For 15 years, I lived in New York. In New York, we had more than our fair share of "snowstorms O' the Century." Some days, people had to bundle up so tight, one would not recognize his own mother walking on the sidewalk outside his house.

I did not know about this site then, so I used GTX 20w-50 and HD-30 grades of Castrol then. Engine never missed a tick. Cranked and started first try, every time. 'Nuff said.

P.S.:-- We spent a lot of time hunting and fishing in Western NY State, too. Read, Canada weather. Also, used the same stuff. Heavy grade Castrol. Cars never failed to start; We almost failed to start, though. Many times, in that dreadful Canada-like weather.

 

[davidc]

Thanks MikeW for seeing my point - there is not alot of difference in finished performance between conventional API products.

G-Man and FlimFlamm
Here's another reason why to use a higher quality oil than conventional. I purchased one of my 'gotta have cars in my life' back in October 2002. A 36,000 mile, original (stock) 1994 Twin Turbo 'God it's still sexy today' RX7 R2. In fire engine red. From a friend who build's V-8 circle track engines. One owner car that always had the oil changed every 1000-1500 with Castrol GTX.
The car is nice. Passed emissions (yeah, the EPA god's play havoc in Houston)with flying colors recently using the oil and filters as purchased. (It's a third vehicle, well actually fourth - okay seventh if you include all the others including the two race cars and the one being restored)

Well, I wanted to get a baseline on the car's stock performance including the conventional oil and then start documenting performance upgrades.
The usually stuff, catback, K&N, bigger intercooler, more boost, more power!)

Changed to fresh Castrol GTX, oil filter, air filter, coolant, coolant hoses, plugs, wires, etc to make it a fair baseline rather than runnning on oil that had 1000 miles on it.
Couldn't get the chassis dyno (at a Porsche shop) to repeat. By the third run, the exhaust was emitting oil smoke on deceleration. By the fourth and fifth, the oil carryover into the intake was apparent.
What happened you ask?
The conventional mineral oil, that many call 'dino' (sic) oil, allowed the oil seals on the secondary turbo to get hard and crack. Under the hard pulls on the dyno at full boost (10,8,10 psi typical boost pattern of a third gen RX7) the oil was being blown into the intercooler and intake to where it was pooling in the throttle body - I know because I checked) The previous owner did not abuse the car. He changed the oil every 1000-1500 miles using the 'vauted' Castrol GTX but it did not have sufficient high temperature protection against thermal breakdown. (hmmm, sounds like something out of a commercial).

By the way, the car still runs great on the street but until I swap out the turbos, it won't get any long term high boost runs. But with the frequent oil changes IF the mineral oil had been sufficient, these seals should not have failed.

IMHO, the early failure of these seals is directly related to the lack of high temperature performance of conventional oils.

 

[cryptokid]

the early failure of your turbo seal was probably related to the fact that your rotary puts out freakin HOT exhaust gas!

do you have any proof that this oil caused your turbo seals to get hard and crack?

and what to you expect to happen to your turbo? i mean your engine has the ability to put out exhuast hot enough to melt the bumper of a car behund it. all that hot exhaust has to travel right through your turbo. theres plenty of reasons why your seal might of failed that are not related to lubrication.
in a situation such as a modifyed rotary, using synthetic isnt going to be a miracle in a bottle, its going to help a bit sure but i think your overestimating it.

what im trying to say basically is i dont think you have proof that dino oil caused the seal failure, so i dont think it is right of you to express your opinion as a fact.