Time for proof; Castrol bashing.

[Stelth]

Originally Posted By: dgsbikes
Originally Posted By: Falken
...do you call your gas engine a PETROL engine?...


-

Actually, isn't Petrol the technically correct term? "Gas" is a misnomer if you ask me! Gas is a state of any substance (Well technically Gaseous is, but you get the point!

)

Some countries actually refer to LPG as gas.

There are many others that I don't understand...

I am an immigrant to this country like many others reading this post or their ancestors at some prior generation...I land in SFO airport and ask the cab driver to take me to San 'Jose' and he looks at me as if I was a clown out of a circus and asks me if I want to go to San 'Ho-Zay' and I say "No...I would like to go to San 'Jose' please"...after going back and forth couple of times I realized he was playing me (in good spirit as I realized later on!) so I wrote it down for him and he took me to San "Ho-Zay"!

I had to travel to New Jersey before I had enough time to be assimilated...tip was stay in the right lane if I wanted to make a left turn! I discarded it as one of those pranks and then the reality hit...

"We live in a strange world" never felt so real ever before and now I perfectly understand (I think!) why is anyone not born in US is termed as an "alien" by the immigration officials up until citizenship through naturalization!

More than a decade later...the assimilation still continues!!



"Gas" is short for "gasoline." Yes, it's confusing, because we also have "gas" engines here that run on natural gas or LPG. I think "petrol" is a British term. In Germany and some other countries, I believe they call it "benzin" or benzine.

 

[Falken]

Gas was derived from Gas(oline), but I agree that it isn't a Gas(eous) fuel used.

Petrol is derived from Petrol(eum).

Both are good enough for me.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Falken
But, in all fairness, OVERKILLS Sis' 330i illustrates what people mean by Castrol Devil Varnish. It is almost like plastic, and so uniform in hiding metal surfaces it looks like your engine is made of bronze.

Aside from that, and to disregard OVERKILLS valve pic as proof, the fact remains:

Castrol is overpriced for what it is, and people do get Devil Varnish from it.

If you have a steady supply of Pennzoil Ultra SN for ~26$ a jug (I don't), you are blessed.


28 bucks,and I bought 15 jugs.

 

[richport29]

Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: Falken
But, in all fairness, OVERKILLS Sis' 330i illustrates what people mean by Castrol Devil Varnish. It is almost like plastic, and so uniform in hiding metal surfaces it looks like your engine is made of bronze.

Aside from that, and to disregard OVERKILLS valve pic as proof, the fact remains:

Castrol is overpriced for what it is, and people do get Devil Varnish from it.

If you have a steady supply of Pennzoil Ultra SN for ~26$ a jug (I don't), you are blessed.


28 bucks,and I bought 15 jugs.


Stop bragging

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted By: Falken


Aside from that, and to disregard OVERKILLS valve pic as proof, the fact remains:

Castrol is overpriced for what it is, and people do get Devil Varnish from it.


People get varnish from lots of oils. I've seen no evidence that Castrol causes any more varnish than any other oil. Using ridiculous terms like "Devil Varnish" doesn't make it so.

Don't know what's up with Overkill's sister's car, but here's one using Castrol's BMW oil and M1530 (gasp...the WRONG OIL),over 200K miles

Driving habits, OCI, engine design, there are a lot of factors. I've seen VW's on hear with heavy varnish from M1 0W40. And varnish isn't necessarily a bad thing anyway.

As far as pricing, when I see it on sale locally at those oil change specials it's the same as everything else.

Some people like to feel like they're in the "in", by knowing that a well-known product is bad. Pennzoil had the same reputation, and still does by some. Fact is, there's no "bad" name-brand oil, they all meet API standards which are reasonably rigorous. There are lots of independent tests out there which confirm that. Use an oil that meets the specs for your car, keep the level up and change it when the manufacturer recommends for your conditions, and with rare exception you won't have any lubrication-related issues.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: JOD
Originally Posted By: Falken


Aside from that, and to disregard OVERKILLS valve pic as proof, the fact remains:

Castrol is overpriced for what it is, and people do get Devil Varnish from it.


People get varnish from lots of oils. I've seen no evidence that Castrol causes any more varnish than any other oil. Using ridiculous terms like "Devil Varnish" doesn't make it so.

Don't know what's up with Overkill's sister's car, but here's one using Castrol's BMW oil and M1530 (gasp...the WRONG OIL),over 200K miles

Driving habits, OCI, engine design, there are a lot of factors. I've seen VW's on hear with heavy varnish from M1 0W40. And varnish isn't necessarily a bad thing anyway.

As far as pricing, when I see it on sale locally at those oil change specials it's the same as everything else.

Some people like to feel like they're in the "in", by knowing that a well-known product is bad. Pennzoil had the same reputation, and still does by some. Fact is, there's no "bad" name-brand oil, they all meet API standards which are reasonably rigorous. There are lots of independent tests out there which confirm that. Use an oil that meets the specs for your car, keep the level up and change it when the manufacturer recommends for your conditions, and with rare exception you won't have any lubrication-related issues.


JOD:

To be fair, that picture above, the VANOS has quite obviously been scrubbed clean (take a look at the ends) and would have originally resembled the build-up that you can see on my sister's car.

BTW, where are you finding these pictures? I'm posting my first-hand accounts because those are the ones I can verify are accurate. I could drag all kinds of horrific BMW head photos off the Internet to demonize Castrol, but I'm not going to because I can't verify the legitimacy of the stated maintenance regime nor the possible agenda behind the poster.

This is also why I'll refrain from posting the valve cover pic of my wife's 328i, since I do know it was dealer maintained for much of its life, but perhaps the horrific varnish it currently sports is a result of the maintenance (or the lack thereof) that occurred between then and my ownership.

That being said, I've been a member of the BMW boards now long enough that I am quite frankly very surprised by the amount of varnish many of these engines have inside of them, and this includes the M cars run on TWS. Perhaps the operating temperatures of BMW's engines has something to do with it

 

[CATERHAM]

Castrol makes quality motor oils although there is nothing in their current line up that I'm particularly interested in.

But if I had a DI engine with a known deposit control problem I'd certainly consider Castrol Edge which is one of the cleanest burning oils available. Has a third of the deposits by wt of PU which is cleaner than most in the TEOST (ASTM D6335) deposit test:

http://www.amsoil.com/lit/G3115.pdf

 

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: wally6934
Originally Posted By: Astro14
I started a thread a while back in which I showed a picture under the valve cover of the 1ZZ FE in the Corolla. It had been run on "cheap" oil...well...oil purchased inexpensively...the majority of which was Castrol.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2634266&page=1

Take a look. Judge for yourself. I think the engine looked pretty good...certainly not sludged up...and it now has another 40K on it, using exclusively Castrol (that I got for $1.98/QT) since...and it looks the same.


Is that 1ZZ engine a flat tappet or roller cam?


Take a look...

 

[JOD]

Overkill, those were literally the first photos that came up when I stuck something in a Google search. I agree though, without knowing the complete history, there are always questions. As I said earlier though, my own experience with it is that it kept my CRX very clean (I know, not a challenging environment for oil). I used GC a bit in my V70R but besides that I haven't used much Castrol stuff. I have no bias for or against them. It's just the whole "this oil sucks" thing gets old, not matter the oil.

As far as Bimmer varnish, who knows. High-boosted white block Volvos are varnish factories as well, yet some have really clean engines. I do think that GTX10W40 (or any other conventional 10W40 that meets the viscosity spec) will probably work fine in non-M Bimmers, as long as the OCI is shortened. So, to that original photo I don't think it's impossible if the guy was doing 5K OCI's.

 

[fdcg27]

The Castrol brand name appears on a wide variety of oils and while some may be very good, none of them are bad.
GTX may appear to be a thicker, pricier version of VWB, but many users swear by it and it has a good enough reputation to be generally the priciest conventional OTS oil.
Castrol also offers GC and Edge 0W-40, both of which meet various demanding specs, including those for most Mercedes, BMW and VAG cars.
BMW's own branded oil is a Castrol product and is reasonably priced for the specs it meets.
When BMW needed something special for some of its M cars, it turned to Castrol and got TWS.
I doubt that BMW is dealing with a shady blender of inferior oils in Castrol, just as I doubt that BP bought the brand only to cheapen it out of the premium market position it enjoys.
Castrol products may not be the best oils available OTS and their product data sheets may be among the worst, but I don't think anyone would go wrong in using a Castrol product of the right specification and viscosity for their application.
I've used Syntec in the GC flavor and otherwise, Tection Extra, GTX and old Edge in various engines over the years and have no complaints with any of these oils.

 

[Ben99GT]

Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Castrol makes quality motor oils although there is nothing in their current line up that I'm particularly interested in.

But if I had a DI engine with a known deposit control problem I'd certainly consider Castrol Edge which is one of the cleanest burning oils available. Has a third of the deposits by wt of PU which is cleaner than most in the TEOST (ASTM D6335) deposit test:

http://www.amsoil.com/lit/G3115.pdf


It would interesting to see the conclusion of this paper. http://papers.sae.org/2009-01-2663/

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Ben99GT
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Castrol makes quality motor oils although there is nothing in their current line up that I'm particularly interested in.

But if I had a DI engine with a known deposit control problem I'd certainly consider Castrol Edge which is one of the cleanest burning oils available. Has a third of the deposits by wt of PU which is cleaner than most in the TEOST (ASTM D6335) deposit test:

http://www.amsoil.com/lit/G3115.pdf


It would interesting to see the conclusion of this paper. http://papers.sae.org/2009-01-2663/


Agreed!

Great find Ben!!!

 

[antiqueshell]

The fact is that Castrol products made in North America are totally different than those made in the USA. Most European products are NOT available in the USA with a few exceptions.

 

[volk06]

Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
The fact is that Castrol products made in North America are totally different than those made in the USA. Most European products are NOT available in the USA with a few exceptions.


That statement makes no sense what so ever. The USA is North America...

 

[CATERHAM]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: Ben99GT
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Castrol makes quality motor oils although there is nothing in their current line up that I'm particularly interested in.

But if I had a DI engine with a known deposit control problem I'd certainly consider Castrol Edge which is one of the cleanest burning oils available. Has a third of the deposits by wt of PU which is cleaner than most in the TEOST (ASTM D6335) deposit test:

http://www.amsoil.com/lit/G3115.pdf


It would interesting to see the conclusion of this paper. http://papers.sae.org/2009-01-2663/


Agreed!

Great find Ben!!!

Yes it would be interesting, I wonder if any well connected members such as Tom and Mola, have already downloaded the paper? Regardless, none of the three deposit tests actually apply to intake tract deposits but rather piston deposits. I would suspect that the TEOST MHT test is the most applicable since the test is made at a lower temperature but again it would nice if there was a ASTM test specifically at the lower temp's the back of intakes valves operate at.

 

[wally6934]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: wally6934
Originally Posted By: Astro14
I started a thread a while back in which I showed a picture under the valve cover of the 1ZZ FE in the Corolla. It had been run on "cheap" oil...well...oil purchased inexpensively...the majority of which was Castrol.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2634266&page=1

Take a look. Judge for yourself. I think the engine looked pretty good...certainly not sludged up...and it now has another 40K on it, using exclusively Castrol (that I got for $1.98/QT) since...and it looks the same.


Is that 1ZZ engine a flat tappet or roller cam?


Take a look...


I did, that's why i asked.

 

[Astro14]

Wally - the Corolla is a DOHC engine. While roller vs. flat-tappet typically refers to a cam in the block that has roller or flat lifters on it, this engine has typical overhead cam buckets...they're flat, but they're not the "flat-tappet" to which you're referring...are they?

 

[wally6934]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
Wally - the Corolla is a DOHC engine. While roller vs. flat-tappet typically refers to a cam in the block that has roller or flat lifters on it, this engine has typical overhead cam buckets...they're flat, but they're not the "flat-tappet" to which you're referring...are they?


OK, i am learning something here. Good keywords, i was able to Google some good pics of cam buckets and tappets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhead_camshaft

The cam buckets go over the valves and are pushed down by the cam shaft. And the buckets are flat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tappet

The buckets are tappets, but there are also tappets actuated by push rods and they can be flat or roller.

I am under the assumption that flat tappets are bad because they require a very good oil to lubricate them with loads of ZDDP.

From reading your post it seems you are saying there is a difference in the bucket tappet being flat and a tappet in a push rod system being flat, but i am not quite sure what you are getting at.

 

[hardcore302]

I tend to change oils in my Mustang a lot just for giggles. The oil I have used the most, however, is Syntec. Seems to be doing just fine. Yeah, I know, not really a scientific observation, but I haven't needed motor work the last time I checked. No funny noises or loss of MPGs.

 

[Spazdog]

I switched from Bel-Ray Synthetique to Castrol GT-X 20W50 in my Kawasaki ZX600C at about 42,000 miles and ran Castrol until I sold it with 83,000 miles.

The oil level check window did cloud up. I do not know if that was from the Castrol itself or maybe clutch material building up on the glass. I also lost second gear. That is probably due in part to weekly runs at the local 1/8th mile track.

The engine had little to no sludge when I adjusted the valves and had good compression across all 4 cylinders. Transmission? Like I said, 2nd was gone and you had to hold it in 3rd under full throttle. But it was an 80,000 mile sportbike that was run on PCMO.