Thoughts on Castrol GTX

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Great to hear mines just a TBI 2.2L but im wanting to fix the car up and put a turbo 2.5L in it so I hope the lil 2.2 will run till then
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum

Pfft. Keep a timing belt on it (but even if it breaks its a free-wheeling engine), don't let it run low on coolant, and in another 200k miles you'll be looking for a way to kill it because you're so tired of it (actually, the car will fall apart around the drivetrain if you take care of it). Just ignore the wrist-pin rattle it will develop, too.

The Mopar 2.2/2.5 share main and conrod bearing dimensions with the old B-block v8 engines. Basically that means that the bottom end is almost as strong as a 426 Hemi (the crank IS as strong, but the inline block has a little less structure to support it than the deep-skirted cross-bolted v8 block did). Which is why people can screw the boost up to 20 PSI on turbo 2.5s and extract ~400 horsepower from them without too much grief as long as they keep the fuel mixture rich enough. At those levels, its the top end (head and head gasket) or the connecting rods that will give up first, or the pistons will burn if the mixture goes lean. Very rare to have bottom-end trouble on a 2.2/2.5.
 
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Originally Posted By: Benzadmiral
. . . I've got 5 quarts of on-sale 5W-30 GTX in the Buick at the moment. The Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30 got consumed -- over two 5000-mile intervals, I had to add over a quart, with the first "low oil" message showing up at 2600 miles into the interval. At present I'm at 2800 miles into the current Castrol change, and the oil is sitting right between the add and full marks on the dipstick.

Anecdotal evidence, take it for what it's worth, etc. But dino (or at least this dino) seems to work better for this car.

Update on that --

I just hit 3000 miles, and on checking the dipstick (I check it, not think with it), I found the oil was just barely down below the cross-hatched area. One pint of SuperTech 5W-30 brought it up into the middle of the range. So the car still does lose/use oil on Castrol GTX, but more slowly. Possibly it wouldn't have used even this much if not for the 1600-mile road trip to Tennessee last month.
 
Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
Originally Posted By: sunfire
Why get GTX when YB is a competitively priced group II+ oil?


In tests, GTX often performs as good as the synthetic blends and full synthetics, often beating PYB.


I take it you are referring to Amsoil's NOACK test?
 
I think an important question that you have to ask is this. Do I need an oil with a NOACK rating such as this? 99% of cars on the road are fine with the cheapest SM rated oil found and will drive many trouble free miles on it.
21.gif


No sense in getting caught up in details when it probably doesn't apply to your vehicle.
thumbsup2.gif
 
I agree.

Besides, I doubt GTX consistently performs that well in NOACK across all grades. And that remains only one data point out of many.

I prefer PYB to GTX, personally.
 
I hear you... I was more pointing out the need for some common sense on BITOG. All the newbies (not you) seem to worry more about numbers and test data than what is actually required for their application.

Eg: Newbie drives a Yaris-Sewing-Machine and wants to use an oil like Red-Line or some other expensive very robust oil because it's the best on paper and contains the best base stocks etc. When PYB would probably give him the same mileage as the engines requirements are more than met by modern oils today!
wink.gif
 
I just switched over to Castrol GTX in my car for the first time after seeing how well it performed in my mom's 2003 Malibu with the piston-slapping 3100 V6. Hoping it holds out just as well
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Ben99GT
Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
Originally Posted By: sunfire
Why get GTX when YB is a competitively priced group II+ oil?


In tests, GTX often performs as good as the synthetic blends and full synthetics, often beating PYB.


I take it you are referring to Amsoil's NOACK test?


Not just the NOACK, but also the 4 ball wear.
 
Originally Posted By: RonH
So it definately does not work on engines that run hot and/or have excessive blowby.

Wow. I would have expected the opposite but I guess every engine is different.

I guy I know has 560,000, mostly highway, miles on his '73 Volkswagen van--and you know those little air cooled engine run pretty hot when pushing all that loaded box-on-wheels down the highway at full throttle all day long.

Now when I asked him how long those engines last, he told me he didn't know because he's overhauled the engine about every 100K miles to keep it fresh.
But he's used Castrol GTX in that thing since he bought it back in 1979. 10W-40 in the cold and 20W-50 in the summer. He doesn't drive it in winter anymore.
Anyway, it's always been clean, clean, clean in that engine.

So, I when he came over to help me fix up my '69 VW van (with my even smaller undersized air-cooled Beetle style engine) he convinced me to switch back to the GTX.
I was using the very excellent Mobil 1 "gold cap" 15W-50 but it was leaking out too much because these engines just leak oil, usually.
Since it was close enough time to change oil, I put in the GTX. Maybe YB or others are better, but I don't want to try every brand out there when this seems to work really good in these hot running VW air-cooleds.

That's just my story, FWIW.
 
Castrol GTX is a great oil. Unfortunately, it is one of the more expensive oils. I bought a case of Formula Shell recently, because it's cheap. If Castrol GTX happens to be the cheapest is when I'll buy it.
 
Originally Posted By: ottotheclown
. . . gtx . . . .beat out some pretty snooty oil.

"Snooty oil." Pretty funny. I agree. Good oil.
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: crazycrak


well this is good to hear Im always worring about the Shadow [censored] out on me


Pfft. Keep a timing belt on it (but even if it breaks its a free-wheeling engine), don't let it run low on coolant, and in another 200k miles you'll be looking for a way to kill it because you're so tired of it (actually, the car will fall apart around the drivetrain if you take care of it). Just ignore the wrist-pin rattle it will develop, too.

The Mopar 2.2/2.5 share main and conrod bearing dimensions with the old B-block v8 engines. Basically that means that the bottom end is almost as strong as a 426 Hemi (the crank IS as strong, but the inline block has a little less structure to support it than the deep-skirted cross-bolted v8 block did). Which is why people can screw the boost up to 20 PSI on turbo 2.5s and extract ~400 horsepower from them without too much grief as long as they keep the fuel mixture rich enough. At those levels, its the top end (head and head gasket) or the connecting rods that will give up first, or the pistons will burn if the mixture goes lean. Very rare to have bottom-end trouble on a 2.2/2.5. [/quote]




Man,you guys know your 2.2/2.5`s. Wish this site was around when i had my 84 Chrysler Laser XE Turbo.
 
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Originally Posted By: river_rat
Originally Posted By: RonH
So it definately does not work on engines that run hot and/or have excessive blowby.

Wow. I would have expected the opposite but I guess every engine is different.

I guy I know has 560,000, mostly highway, miles on his '73 Volkswagen van--and you know those little air cooled engine run pretty hot when pushing all that loaded box-on-wheels down the highway at full throttle all day long.

Now when I asked him how long those engines last, he told me he didn't know because he's overhauled the engine about every 100K miles to keep it fresh.
But he's used Castrol GTX in that thing since he bought it back in 1979. 10W-40 in the cold and 20W-50 in the summer. He doesn't drive it in winter anymore.
Anyway, it's always been clean, clean, clean in that engine.

So, I when he came over to help me fix up my '69 VW van (with my even smaller undersized air-cooled Beetle style engine) he convinced me to switch back to the GTX.
I was using the very excellent Mobil 1 "gold cap" 15W-50 but it was leaking out too much because these engines just leak oil, usually.
Since it was close enough time to change oil, I put in the GTX. Maybe YB or others are better, but I don't want to try every brand out there when this seems to work really good in these hot running VW air-cooleds.

That's just my story, FWIW.


"Back in the day"...ie, late 1960's through the 1970's, GTX was always marketed as an oil for 'hard running' small engines. They were after the import crowd, mainly in the southern US. I think there 20W-50 worked well back then in air cooled or high-revving 4-cylinder engines. I've read that early Corolla 4-speeds ran at nearly 4,000 rpm's at 60-70 mph....so you needed an oil like 20W-50!
 
Originally Posted By: GMFan
Castrol GTX is a great oil. Unfortunately, it is one of the more expensive oils. I bought a case of Formula Shell recently, because it's cheap. If Castrol GTX happens to be the cheapest is when I'll buy it.



How is $12 for a 5 quart jug expensive?
 
It's price has come down at Wally very recently. But, one of the reasons I went away from it, like Havoline it became overpriced in comparison to competitors. It made other oils, particularly Motorcraft, look much more attractive.

Right now MC, PYB and QS are tough to beat on everyday Wally price. Not being a brand loyal guy(though I do prefer MC5w20), that is what I look at.
 
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