Firstly would like to say this is such a cool site, great information, keep up the great work.
I have read through all the posts that I could get my hands on over the last few days. I have been using Castrol GTX and their semi-synthetic blend over the past couple years. I've felt comfortable using Castrol GTX and their semi-syn blend so far. My oil consumption has always been good when using Castrol. I used to use Mobil 1 synthetic religously on my previous car, but after tearing the motor apart on it I was dissappointed with the amount of wear on some of the vital parts, I expected Mobil 1 to protect better than it did based on their famous million mile commercials. I know this is very unscientific annectodal evidence, but its just the way I felt at the time. So needless to say I switched to Castrol and have been using for a couple years. Cost of oil means nothing to me, I see it as relatively low cost maintenance, and I change my oil every 3000 miles religously. My cars are generally in the high revving hot runnig category and I just want to protect them as best as I can as long as they are in my possession. I am running the regular Castrol GTX now as my engine is just finishing break-in period, I will go to a semi-synthetic blend for permanent use as I think regular oil and synthetic oil both have good traits, perhaps semi-synthetic blends can offer the best of both worlds, dunno just my opinion.
The reputation of Castrol seems to be pretty poor around here, dunno if that is based on the oil product itself or their marketing efforts.
I've read a few posts where guys suspect that Castrol leaves some varnish and otherwise dirty deposits in engines and of course guys are pissed off at Castrol's Syntec synthetic oil claims (despite using cheaper base oil, etc....). Personally I don't care about Syntec and its reputation. But I would like to have some opinions on the most recommended regular oil and semi-synthetic blend of oils available in the general market today ?. I read a post or two about Havoline having the highest quality base oil among regular oil producers, don't know much about their additive package though. So what do you guys think is best ?. I have read about Schaeffers oil, but I want to stick with one of the oil brands that you can find at any supply store/outlet. Do you guys think Castrol oil is a cheap quality oil or decent quality ?. Any opinions would be great, I know this sounds like a typical newbie question, but I have searched through quite a bit of posts.
thanks for any replies.
[ August 05, 2002, 08:28 PM: Message edited by: JSIR ]