Castrol GTX vs PYB

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MuzzleFlash40

MuzzleFlash40

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I tried doing a search on this but the only thing that came up was a few years old.

My Dad is an avid Castrol user down to his bones, thats all he has ever used in all of his vehicles as far back as I can remember. Even today in his 2004 F150, 1993 5.0 Mustang, and 1972 Gran Torino 351 cleveland. When he came by the house and seen the bottles of Quaker state and PYB on the shelf that I found dirt cheap at K-mart in the garage he kinda flipped out. Telling me that all my engines were gonna be full of sludge.

Now I know thats not going to happen and it's a myth, but there no telling him that. But, When it comes down to it which is better? Which has a better base stock and add pack nowadays?

He was so upset he offered to replace my stash with castrol. Since he knows my wife is out of work, there is no way I could replace that much oil even if I was willing, lol.

I'm not trying to start a fire fight, I'm just asking a question, lol.
 
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Often you here, "Oil is oil" and for the most part all GF-5 oils meet very strict specs and are very close in performance. I have an engine that is very tough on oil. My 3.5 Nissan will shear oil, and build sludge with a vengeance. I spent time and money with the help of a Nissan board of owners swapping and sharing UOA's. I found that Castrol GTX is paraffin based and out performed quite a bit of the synthetics. You can imagine my disappointment at the results when I had already bought 6 cases of Mobil 0W40 and cut the UPC's for rebates. When my expensive synthetic stash is up Castrol GTX in the 10 quart box will be the only oil I will buy. More expensive sometimes isn't any better. PM me with your email and I will send you my UOA's.
 
If I had the choice between GTX and PYB, I would run which ever was cheaper, but he is probably referring to the old wives tale in the 60's when Pennzoil contained the most wax of any engine oil, thus creating more sludge.

I would say GTX has a better base oil, but the additives in PYB are certainly better for cleaning.

I used to get that too, on trips to walmart with my friends I used to pick up oil, I always ran PP when it was 16.50 for 5 quarts, they would always hastle me about the wax content and how much sludge my engine would have. I ran it for 20k in my 3.4L grand am, and when I replaced the lower intake manifold gaskets, I took pictures of the inside for them, they were really impressed, not one bit of varnish or sludge on anything.

Sleep well, those two oils are proven time and time again, just don't make waves with your Father over something as dumb as oil, he doesn't know what you know, and its things like that that leave the good deals on Pennzoil for us
wink.gif
 
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As far as which has a better base stock
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[heck] if I know.

One is headquartered in The Hague, the other in London. So they are both technically foreign companies.

Royal Dutch Shell does have a large operation in Houston and you are almost certainly getting an American product, but still the parent is in The Netherlands.

And most of us know where BP is getting their oil from following their much reported crisis. probably the same Gulf of Mexico crude as SOPUS

Which leaves us Ashland and Conoco/Phillips for US brands.

But honestly, I do not think that any one of the major brand names holds a distinct advantage over the others in conventional motor oils.
 
Originally Posted By: Brenden
I would say GTX has a better base oil, but the additives in PYB are certainly better for cleaning.


I've yet to see any proof of Penzoil beaing better at cleaning, except for people debating it based on Pennzoil commercials and marketing B.S.
Here are two UOAs of PYB and GTX, their calcium and phosphorous levels are almost the same.
PYB:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2335770#Post2335770

GTX:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2258333#Post2258333

The two are great oils, and I would buy any of them, that's why I have 7 jugs of PYB in my stash, as the price was too good to pass and 0 jugs of GTX, as generally it is more expensive.
 
Can't say much about PYB, but I put 467,000 miles on a F150 with 5.0 engine using GTX almost exclusively. I might add a quart or two of Syntec if I planned to pull my bay boat a lot during the hot summer. But it was GTX most of the time with 3K OCIs. Electrical gremlins finally forced me to retire the truck.
 
There's a thing called the Sequence VG sludge test and Sequence IVA wear test among others and independent testing claims show the PYB performs as good or better than any other conventionals. These motor oils are all standardized and it's just silly to believe that one "premium" brand is significantly different from another. I don't believe the base oils differ among the conventionals nowadays.
 
I haven't used a castrol product in my car since the gulf oil disaster myself.

I think most brand loyalty comes from marketing campaigns anyway.
 
My dad is an old school car buff. It's really hard to change the opinion of one of those kind of guys. It didn't shock me when I got home today to find that he had replaced the 4 jugs of Quakerstate GB 5-20, 4 jugs of QSHM in 5-30, 5 jugs on PYB in 5-20, and 8 or 9 single quarts of the QSGB. He replaced it all with Castrol GTX and GTXHM.

I cannot be mad at him because he believes he is "helping" me. The only reason I would purchase anything other that castrol is because we have to watch how we spend money right now. All I could do is laugh and say thanks Dad! lol. I have no idea what he did with my stash, he probably took it to autozone and dumped it, lol
 
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Originally Posted By: MuzzleFlash40
I cannot be mad at him because he believes he is "helping" me.


That's exactly the way to look at it. He replaced one quality product with another, and he feels he's doing you a favor. You know they're both good enough; he feels differently, so what? Replacing another GF-5 oil with GTX is no problem. At least he didn't take a stash of M1 filters and replace them with Frams or something like that.

As an aside, if you were in Canada, you'd be hard pressed to beat GTX prices. Once again, Walmart is promoting a GTX rollback. I just don't know how it differs from the pallet of GTX that's on rollback, advertised or not, every time I walk into Walmart. I don't think I've seen a jug of GTX up here for over $14 at Walmart since I started posting here and really paying attention.
 
I wouldnt say GTX has the better add pack as its known to use a Group II , while PYB is known to be a Group II+. What the average consumer will notice between the two is negligible, however I do believe PYB is a better oil than GTX based on its better base stock and a stouter additive pack. Pennzoil today is nothing like the Pennzoil of the 60's and 70's. PYB is a premier conventional oil as is GTX but I would use PYB over GTX , just my opinion , some people just remember the bad Pennzoil days and cant accept its a good oil now.
 
I picked up a few Gallon Jugs at Kmart on clearance for $9 a Gallon. With the current $7 rebate on 5 quarts or more on GTX, the price is right for a short run or for a mixed blend with some Edge or Syntec. So sending in the rebate for 2 gallons of SM, GF-4, GTX from Kmart brings the price, per gallon, down to $5.50 before tax and stamp.

I'd be hard pressed to pass up that deal, with rebate, along with the PYB, Valvoline White Bottle, Mobil 1, and Valvoline MaxLife, red jug, HM, SM, GF-4 all in Gallons at Kmart.

Don't forget....some of these oils have rebates on 5 or more quarts or the engine guarantee, if you qualify, from Pennzoil and Valvoline.
 
Yeah, I might have been a little angry if he got of my motorcraft filters, lol...... I'll only use frams in a pinch

Its a good thing motorcraft is all he uses
 
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