Castrol GTX vs Mobil 1

[SargeGTO]

You missed I said in a well maintained car. Bill maintains his cars...as most on this forum do.....I am talking the "average" knucklehead" whose air filter hasnt been changed in forever and 'forgot" to change his oil last year.....I'm not lecturing anybody about anything....your remark must be aimed at somebody else

I recommend conventional to many folks on the LS1 forum I mod for....they cannot justify nor do they need a synthetic after discussing their motor mods/driving habits....I am talking about the average Joe in this country....

 

[Bill in Utah]

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This is especially true in winter with bad weather. So most people encounter a severe service during winter. Again, your roads might be better, less traffic and congestion, not sure.

For example, I drive 80% highway. Yet on bad days (snow/ice) my commute can double timewise. Thus my engine actually ends up working twice as long for the same distance covered, often with more acceleration and breaking. Sometimes I get stuck behind a salt truck, so back to 2nd gear. And so on.

The point is that engine generally works harder during winter due to inclement weather. There is more moisture, salt. It is probably safer to go with synthetic or a blend and avoid having to change my oil at freezing temps in the middle of the winter.

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My normal commute time is 55-1hr 5 mins daily.

Durning winter my "record" is 4 hours. Trust me, I know snow packed/icy roads. And stop and go.

Durning the UOA above, it incl quite a bit of 10-20 mph following snow trucks / waiting for them.

A Corolla with snow tires is not the best thing for taking on 8 inch snow fall (though I have been up to 14" in it.. TIP, DON'T STOP

)

Take care, Bill

 

[Bill in Utah]

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You have a Corolla which has a smaller sump, like 3-4 qt, right? My Hondas also have smaller sumps, 3 qt. Don't we need to change our oil more often due to smaller oil capacity? 5k miles would be the most I would do, winter or summer.

Just to clarify, we see 0F and below for most of January and February. I see the 0F-32F range as a border between dino and synth. Below 0F there is a very good case for synthetic oil. Where do you see that threshold?

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The Corolla has a 4 qt oil change. I go between 5k and 6k for OCI since Toyota wants that.

I've seen -20 plus below but normal winter temps are in the single digits below zero weather. (ie, 5-10 below)

I figure I've used only conventional for 30 plus years and made hundreds of thousands of miles in many engines using yesterdays 10w-30 oils (and once they became the norm 5w-30) I can't really tell you at what temp I'd HAVE to use syn.

My point is we have people in states like So CA, TX and FL telling us that since they may see freezing, SYN is a must.

Its not.

And all the wear that cold starts have. I guess I may be getting A LOT of Startup wear and my Supertech (it has Super in the name!

) must be filtering all the wear out to cause the low wear metals in my UOA?

I'd say prob if you see below -20 MOST of the time durning the winter, I'd first look into plugging in and then syn.

Take care, Bill

PS: while the coldest I've ever seen was in Dec, Jan/Feb are our coldest months like yours.

 

[Bill in Utah]

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2) For an extra $2 per oil change, my engines will be getting syns only.

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Above I did the math for actual prices for oil you can buy today. Could you please show me how your getting oil that costs twice as much only adding $2 to your oil change cost?

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Castrol GTX (dino) = $1.59 per qt. No rebate required.
Pen Platnium (syn) = $1.99 per qt. Rebate required.

$0.40 x 4 qts (per OCI) = $1.60 more per change.
3-4 OC per year = $4.80 - $6.40 more per year.

For my sacrifice of 1 cup of coffee in a 3 month period, I can recover the "additional costs" associated with syns. Pretty good deal IMO.

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I buy oil quite a bit, the normal price when on sale was 49 cents a quart. syn is around $2 a quart.

I picked up about 70 quarts of PP for 99 cents a quart (it was the cheapest oil avail at the time. I just bought some Halvoline and QS for 79 cents.

All required rebates BTW.

You "normal" price for GTX is very good!

Sadly, the lower price oil is hard to get..


Bill

 

[Bill in Utah]

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i would say any synthetic oil over conventional oil, if you have a new car, go with 0W-30 grade

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I agree. 5K OCI or not, cold weather or not, synthetics flow easier (= faster) than dinos. Even a 0w grade is not ideal at startup, but it is better than a 5w.

Oil pressure has little to do with how well the engine is lubricated. Flow is a more important factor than pressure IMO.

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The facts you have regurgitated are total B.S. You have proven you don't have a clue.

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Hard to argue with those "facts" you presented.

The Effects of Crankcase Oil Viscosity on Engine Friction at Low Temperatures, Cockbill et al:

…...By using lower viscosity oils there is less friction, improved cold weather starting, improved fuel economy, a savings of starting system components and less wear by increasing the rate of oil pressurization and flow in the upper oil galleries…….

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5w-30 is the same viscosity in conventional or syn. This mindset that syn is more "slippery" is not fact.

Using 5w-xx oils over 20-xx oils will help the engine. Esp in the colder temps. Agree with that!

 

[Bill in Utah]

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Dino base stock molecules are long carbon chains that are sensitive to stress and heat. Additionally, various paraffins that are contained in all petroleum products regardless of how well refined they are, cause oil to jell like a syrup at extremely cold temperatures. At the other end of the temperature spectrum, high engine temperatures and heavy loads cause these chains to break down and the base stock actually boils off causing a change of viscosity and the formulation of sludge. This can happen at temperatures as low as 230º F and by 250º F many petroleum oils are suffering significant breakdown.
Synthetic oils on the other hand are engineered specifically to provide all the lubricating properties that natural oil possesses, but none of the cold thickening or hot thinning properties of petroleum oil. Synthetics are made up of uniformly shaped molecules with shorter carbon chains which are much more resistant to heat and stress. Synthetics can withstand temperatures of 300ºF all day long and still protect your engine. In fact the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) standard wear resistance tests are conducted at 302º F. In this test synthetic lubricants far out perform petroleum lubricants by factor of four to one and greater.

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Let us know were you got this quote..

Thanks, bill

 

[PF52]

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Castrol GTX (dino) = $1.59 per qt. No rebate required.
Pen Platnium (syn) = $1.99 per qt. Rebate required.

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Since the title of this thread is "Castrol GTX vs. Mobil 1", I think it would be best to compare the normal everyday prices of those two oils, which around here is something like $2 vs. $6 a quart. Or an extra $20 per oil change for me.

I'm with Bill on virtually every one of his points.

 

[02zx9r]

Bill where do you normally find the oil on sale? Only thing I can find is bogof at AAP every so often. I did score 1 quart of Havoline 20W50 SL at wal mart for .50 cents, i was so excited.

 

[Bill in Utah]

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Bill where do you normally find the oil on sale? Only thing I can find is bogof at AAP every so often. I did score 1 quart of Havoline 20W50 SL at wal mart for .50 cents, i was so excited.

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Most of the time its at Checkers.

Bought most of the stash (which is below 100 quarts now) there and you can not beat Chevron for 49 cents a quart.

Sadly, that deal is long gone.

Take care, bill

 

[KORKL]

The rate of wear is much higher within 15-20 minutes of start-up than after reaching normal operating temperature. There was a lot of data but I conclude that the initial start-up time period (first 20 minutes) result is 100 nanometers of wear whereas the steady state wear rate was only 4 nanometers per hour thereafter…...

If this is true, and I drive in severe service. Short trips all the time of less than 10 minues, would synthetic in some way protect better than conventional?

 

[SmotalChaos]

I use WD-40 in my engine and it works fine......

 

[02zx9r]

Unfortuanetly they do not have checkers, Schucks, kragen or a murrays up here, which blows

 

[KORKL]

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The rate of wear is much higher within 15-20 minutes of start-up than after reaching normal operating temperature. There was a lot of data but I conclude that the initial start-up time period (first 20 minutes) result is 100 nanometers of wear whereas the steady state wear rate was only 4 nanometers per hour thereafter…...

If this is true, and I drive in severe service. Short trips all the time of less than 10 minues, would synthetic in some way protect better than conventional?

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[98LSC32V]

I don't count rebates which you get in the mail a month later. Do you understand the concept of time value of money?

 

[KORKL]

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The rate of wear is much higher within 15-20 minutes of start-up than after reaching normal operating temperature. There was a lot of data but I conclude that the initial start-up time period (first 20 minutes) result is 100 nanometers of wear whereas the steady state wear rate was only 4 nanometers per hour thereafter…...

If this is true, and I drive in severe service. Short trips all the time of less than 10 minues, would synthetic in some way protect better than conventional?

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[Bill in Utah]

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I don't count rebates which you get in the mail a month later. Do you understand the concept of time value of money?

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Your correct.

It is much better that I bought my PP for $4 a quart at Wal-Mart than wait 4 weeks for the rebate that saved me $3 a quart.

Lets see, 70 quarts for $280 vs $70...

I know I'd make the $210 difference in a month.

Or forget about any stash and go buy single quarts when I need it.

Bill

PS: Same "savings" with Pennzoil, GTX, Chevron when its on "sale" for 25% of retail.

 

[buster]

How can this topic still be going on? LOL!!

 

[Greggy_D]

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I don't count rebates which you get in the mail a month later. Do you understand the concept of time value of money?

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So you sit around doing absolutely nothing else while waiting 4-8 weeks for your rebate?

 

[KORKL]

Ok, but if the rate of wear is much higher within 15-20 minutes of start-up than after reaching normal operating temperature. There was a lot of data but I conclude that the initial start-up time period (first 20 minutes) result is 100 nanometers of wear whereas the steady state wear rate was only 4 nanometers per hour thereafter…...

If this is true, and I drive in severe service. Short trips all the time of less than 10 minues, would synthetic in some way protect better than conventional?

 

[02zx9r]

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2) For an extra $2 per oil change, my engines will be getting syns only.

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Above I did the math for actual prices for oil you can buy today. Could you please show me how your getting oil that costs twice as much only adding $2 to your oil change cost?

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Castrol GTX (dino) = $1.59 per qt. No rebate required.
Pen Platnium (syn) = $1.99 per qt. Rebate required.

$0.40 x 4 qts (per OCI) = $1.60 more per change.
3-4 OC per year = $4.80 - $6.40 more per year.

For my sacrifice of 1 cup of coffee in a 3 month period, I can recover the "additional costs" associated with syns. Pretty good deal IMO.

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I buy oil quite a bit, the normal price when on sale was 49 cents a quart. syn is around $2 a quart.

I picked up about 70 quarts of PP for 99 cents a quart (it was the cheapest oil avail at the time. I just bought some Halvoline and QS for 79 cents.

All required rebates BTW.

You "normal" price for GTX is very good!

Sadly, the lower price oil is hard to get..


Bill

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I'll say, our "normal" price for gtx is $3.09