Castrol 0W-40, info?

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jaynissan12

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Ok guys, newby to the forum here. I decided to run 0w-40 in my '12 frontier 4.0L due to constantly driving up and down mountains in the Appalachian region, gearing down as you descend and constant 2500-3000 rpm going up the mountains. I was using 5W-30 of pick your brand ( I tried several to see if any would hold up to the daily torture this area can bring, list included PP, Kendal Semi, QSUD, Valvoline Synpower, Havoline Syn.). Of that list with what my engine goes through, Synpower and Kendal seemed to hold up the best but I still felt they had sheared enough to change by 3-4K miles, regardless of additive depletion or what have you.

Just to feel better about the load my truck sees daily, I decided to give Castrol 0w-40 a whirl and was surprised to read on the back that it is made in Germany. I have searched quite a bit using google but not much comes back on this oil in regard to good info. Anyone know of whether this is like german Castrol 0w-30 in composition (group IV)? Has anyone used this oil and what is your experience/knowledge of it. So far my truck seems to like it, less valve/timing chain noise on start up, very very minor difference in take off. Someone educate me on this oil since there doesn't seem to be much info on it that I can find.
 
One of castrol's largest manufacturing sites is in Germany, and they make more than just 0w40! I'd guess that more than half of All Castrol is German Castrol.
 
Where's your used oil analysis showing shear and therefore lack of viscosity is causing any issues or anomalies in the report.

And let's get serious here. 2500-3000rpm isn't stressing an engine in any tangible way unless you've got the pedal floored and that's all the rpm the engine will muster up.
You made a comment about the "load" on the truck. Exactly what does that mean.
And what grade does the engine call for in the first place?
If all you are doing is driving up hill that's not much of a load,again,unless you've got it floored to get there.
And 4000 miles on anything more than conventional is throwing money and resources down the drain unless of course tuning or driving pattern necessitates it.
What are your max oil temps experienced? What oil temps are experienced at highway speeds and in traffic?
If you are seeing oil temps 30-40f over typical stock oil running temps then it might be smart to go a grade thicker.
If oil temps don't run elevated for a significant amount of time you gain nothing going thicker.
In fact its detrimental.
Engines will run on various grades of oil so that the markets the engines are operated in don't require any special effort to acquire
HOWEVER
That in no way means its optimal.

My charger says 5w-20. I've seen enough high mile hemi's and owned one with high miles and the 20 grade has proven to be more than enough to keep the engine running longer than the car around it,so during the winter I run the specified 20 grade.
Once the streets are cleaned off and the temps warm up I thicken that 20 grade with a 40 grade because of how I drive the car in the summer months.
My oil temps can stay above 260f for hours on end when I'm enjoying myself and at those temps I'm more comfortable with a few litres of 0w-40 in there.
But that doesn't mean its absolutely required.
Dodge engineered these engines with thin oil and from what I've seen they hold up very well and aren't dissolving,so going thicker may not do anything useful at all in my case.
So share your data like oil temps,used oil analysis and so on so we can assess your situation.
 
The available evidence suggests the 0w40 is similar to the 0w30 and that we get the same product as the Germans ie this is a Voll (Full) Synthetic rather than a HC Synthetic.
 
Frontys (I used to own one) are hard on oil with the timing chain setup. The poor tensioner design leads to wearthrough and an expensive replacement of the plastic tensioner shoes. Mine had to be replaced around 32,000 miles under warranty. I always used Mobil 1 5W-30 and changed it following the Nissan recommendation which was 3750 miles. There is a reason Nissan has that low mileage change recommendation.
 
To answer a few question here, some obviously didn't read my post. I started off with 5W30 because that what the truck specs, but as one poster has mention (Boomer), these vehicles are hard on oil and unless you have a high shear high temp oil, it is going to shear before other engines would. Do I have any lab evidence to prove this, no, not going to either. The oil basically goes in a 5w30 and comes out a 5w20 and some quicker than others. Changes in engine noise from cold start to warm idle is noticeable over the course of the OCI. I use synthetic because I want to and it tends to provide the best shear resistant capability.

Beyond all that, a larger engine that holds a 2500 to 3000 rpm for 15 minutes at a time is significant for this engine, and in my opinion is the reason my oil thins sooner than it would for someone else. Is this causing damage to my engine, probably not, but it makes me feel better and the "load" of holding the torgue/hp up a mtn here is about he same as towing.

My questions are about the oil I am using now as there is not a lot of info or discussion about it, its numbers in visc. is extremely similar to GC 0W30, it is a very very light 40w, beyond all that, I know very little. I chose this oil because it is a lot more resistant to shear from what I did find and flows like a heavy 30w. What a deal it is if it is a group IV mostly, but if not it still seems like a decent oil enough, WM here had it at 21 something for 5 quart jug.
 
Originally Posted By: jaynissan12
To answer a few question here, some obviously didn't read my post. I started off with 5W30 because that what the truck specs, but as one poster has mention (Boomer), these vehicles are hard on oil and unless you have a high shear high temp oil, it is going to shear before other engines would. Do I have any lab evidence to prove this, no, not going to either. The oil basically goes in a 5w30 and comes out a 5w20 and some quicker than others. Changes in engine noise from cold start to warm idle is noticeable over the course of the OCI. I use synthetic because I want to and it tends to provide the best shear resistant capability.

Beyond all that, a larger engine that holds a 2500 to 3000 rpm for 15 minutes at a time is significant for this engine, and in my opinion is the reason my oil thins sooner than it would for someone else. Is this causing damage to my engine, probably not, but it makes me feel better and the "load" of holding the torgue/hp up a mtn here is about he same as towing.

My questions are about the oil I am using now as there is not a lot of info or discussion about it, its numbers in visc. is extremely similar to GC 0W30, it is a very very light 40w, beyond all that, I know very little. I chose this oil because it is a lot more resistant to shear from what I did find and flows like a heavy 30w. What a deal it is if it is a group IV mostly, but if not it still seems like a decent oil enough, WM here had it at 21 something for 5 quart jug.
Sure it's a decent oil, but a 40 weight is still probably unnecessary in your application. Unless you have had a UOA telling you the oil is shearing, I doubt it's as bad as you think. You don't think the engineers who designed your truck took it into account that your vehicle will be driving over some hills? Unless you're doing 90 mph for 15 minutes uphill at 4,000+ rpm I doubt you're going to get much benefit. 2,500-3,000 rpm isn't much. My car does that on the highway, same with my old Camry which was 3,000 rpm on the highway.
 
You may be right, but still worth the peace of mind to me. Engines act differently, Nissan has one of the most stringent OCI when compared to others, especially the 4.0L because of the timing chain and how it destroys oil and failures related to timing chain, thin oil is not good for that issue. Everything I read to make this choice on other forums, people had more pleasant experiences and less failures by using heavy 30w's or light 40w's, which is probably why the Valvoline and Kendall reacted better for longer in my engine vs. the other choices I have tried, they are on the medium side of 30w while the other start off on the light side of 30w. I don't put a lot of faith in the "well the engineer designed it for 5w-30 etc etc". That's not really true, previous manuals for the exact same engine had a range of oil visc. from 5w-30 to 10w-40, the phasing out of the heavy oil in the manual is probably more due to the CAFE stuff than flow issues with the engines. I am not worried about gas mileage, hard to get much increase around here with not many places for cruising speed.
 
K.

So what I'm getting from this is the OP is using his "feelings" to decide oil choice and has no data whatsoever to base it on.
How could anyone know the difference between a 20 and 30 grade at oil change time especially when hot.

And gimme a break. If your saying 3000rpm is hard on your engine I think it's funny. Who in their right mind buys a vehicle that can't run at 3000rpm.
Piece of junk.

Op. If you are looking for validation without data youve come to the wrong place. No one here who knows anything will even bother answering with their "feelings" so I'll answer for them.

So use whatever you like. Without data this is a pointless thread.
 
I just don't know why he even came here if he already knows everything and doesn't have an open mind. I mean why even post? Just run your 40 weight oil to keep the butterflies flapping in your belly
 
yep, waste of time, looking for info on an oil, not what is right or wrong for a particular vehicle. my reasons for going with said weight is not what I am asking, I just put that out there for conversation sake, I was looking for information on this particular oil and someone's experience with it, guess I ask too much.
 
Originally Posted By: Apollo14
The available evidence suggests the 0w40 is similar to the 0w30 and that we get the same product as the Germans ie this is a Voll (Full) Synthetic rather than a HC Synthetic.


Thank you Apollo14, that is some of what I am looking for.
 
Originally Posted By: Apollo14
The available evidence suggests the 0w40 is similar to the 0w30 and that we get the same product as the Germans ie this is a Voll (Full) Synthetic rather than a HC Synthetic.

The stuff now sold in Germany says that it includes Titanium. The 0w-40 sold here does not mention it, so it may not be the same product, although recently some of the black Castrol Edge jugs did start mentioning Titanium. It's been a while since we had the Edge 0w-40 tested, so who knows - maybe it does contain titanium now.
 
Originally Posted By: jaynissan12
yep, waste of time, looking for info on an oil, not what is right or wrong for a particular vehicle. my reasons for going with said weight is not what I am asking, I just put that out there for conversation sake, I was looking for information on this particular oil and someone's experience with it, guess I ask too much.


Yeah, it's not a nice way to be welcomed to a forum after your first question!

Quattro Pete's link and advice should help you. And I hope you saw my post where I directly answered your question and said that the evidence suggests 0w40 is very similar to 0w30 and is the same as the product sold in Germany as a full synthetic ie a group iv synthetic.

You may also find another poster who commented on less valve noise with Castrol compared to M1 0w40. I'll be putting this in my Mercedes in the next month or so and am keen to see what happens.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Apollo14
The available evidence suggests the 0w40 is similar to the 0w30 and that we get the same product as the Germans ie this is a Voll (Full) Synthetic rather than a HC Synthetic.

The stuff now sold in Germany says that it includes Titanium. The 0w-40 sold here does not mention it, so it may not be the same product, although recently some of the black Castrol Edge jugs did start mentioning Titanium. It's been a while since we had the Edge 0w-40 tested, so who knows - maybe it does contain titanium now.

That would be a plus if it did have titanium. Bottle doesn't mention it while the other grades do now (from what I saw on the shelves), I think it may not have it at all, says on the bottle is "European Forumula", pretty much it and exceeds a bunch of European specs, which in my opinion cant be a bad thing. One thing that got my attention a few days ago before deciding on this oil for trial, was that my particular engine is a flat tappet design, but I have no idea how much pressure the valve springs have, I was left wondering if a higher zinc/phosphorus content 40w oil could only help lube the cam lobes even more than the SN 5W30'S allow. Just a thought.
 
Originally Posted By: jaynissan12
That would be a plus if it did have titanium.

One particular ingredient does not a good oil make.

What's important is the end product and the mfg specs it meets, as you mentioned.
 
Originally Posted By: Apollo14
Originally Posted By: jaynissan12
yep, waste of time, looking for info on an oil, not what is right or wrong for a particular vehicle. my reasons for going with said weight is not what I am asking, I just put that out there for conversation sake, I was looking for information on this particular oil and someone's experience with it, guess I ask too much.


Yeah, it's not a nice way to be welcomed to a forum after your first question!

Quattro Pete's link and advice should help you. And I hope you saw my post where I directly answered your question and said that the evidence suggests 0w40 is very similar to 0w30 and is the same as the product sold in Germany as a full synthetic ie a group iv synthetic.

You may also find another poster who commented on less valve noise with Castrol compared to M1 0w40. I'll be putting this in my Mercedes in the next month or so and am keen to see what happens.


I did see that Apollo, your responses have been welcome and helpful. From what I understand, most if not all Nissan 4.0L's have valve rattle and timing chain rattle at startup for a few seconds until the oil pressure comes up. The timing chain tensioners work off of oil pressure and of course the flat tappet lifters are hydraulic as well. I have experienced this rattle with every oil I have tried, with some brands be better or worse than others. I don't know if it means anything yet or not, BUT after putting the Castrol 0w40 in the other day, the rattle has been almost non-existent at startup. The Nissan has a dummy oil pressure gauge so its hard to comment on whether that is what is helping it or if its the adhesion of the 40w vs the light 30w's. To answer a few questions, which I am sure to get a smart response from, I have no idea of engine oil temp, no gauge for the oil temp to know. When I mentioned shearing I was referring to mechanical shearing (timing chain assembly is known for this on the Nissan), for what its worth.
 
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