Castrol 0w30 (German) report

[G-MAN]

ALUMINUM 0
CHROMIUM 0
IRON 9

COPPER 0
LEAD 0
TIN 0
MOLYBDENUM 0
NICKEL 0
MANGANESE 0
SILVER 0
TITANIUM 0
POTASSIUM 0
BORON 0
SILICON 4
SODIUM 0
CALCIUM 2754
MAGNESIUM 120
PHOSPHORUS 795
ZINC 906
BARIUM 0

TBN: 14.5

Vis 65.9 SUS @ 100°C or 11.9 cSt

Flash point: 455

Trace of insolubles

Blackstone's comments: Iron due to rusty pipes somewhere in the distribution line. Should not be any insolubles in virgin oil, but it's not uncommon.

My comments: The iron worries me, and shows why it's always a good idea to do a VOA on an oil you plan to do a UOA on. If you're starting out with 9ppm of iron, you'd want to know that when you get the UOA report. Viscosity at 11.9 is a little lower than published specs (12.1), but probably well within normal manufacturing variance. Published flash point is 460, so Blackstone's reading of 455 is also with manufacturing variance. The additives don't look like anything out of the ordinary, so that high TBN must be coming from the esters in the base oil.

Overall, this looks like a kick-ass oil.

[ May 21, 2003, 01:29 AM: Message edited by: G-Man II ]

 

[G-MAN]

Here's the original report from Blackstone:

 

[quadrun1]

Aside from the iron, it looks good! No moly, but 6 times the magnesium of a typical Mobil 1 formulation.

Robust TBN; should be interesting to see UOAs of cars using this oil, especially at extended intervals.

Thanks G-Man II!

Jason

 

[Patman]

Thanks for posting this! I must say I expected no moly, but I was hoping for some boron.

Viscosity is nice, but that iron is scary. I hope there isn't any iron in any of the 20L I've purchased so far (4 of which are in my sister's car right now, and 16 others in my basement)

Providing I can catch my sister on a weekend in the middle of June (she goes mountain biking all the time) that's when I plan to change her oil and do the first UOA on this oil. She'll have about 5-6k on it. Then her second interval will be more like 12-13k, and then I'm really going to push it next year, running it from spring until fall, so it will be over 15k then.

 

[J]

Hi G-Man II,

The following is another 0W-30 PAO oil with
Boron and TBN of 17.5

In addition, Saab 0W-30 is a $4 per liter
oil. I was considering Castrol Syntec 0W-30
as an alternative, until now.

thanks

Jae

 

[JHZR2]

J, that is saab 0w-30? Do you know anything more about it? It looks good, especially for $4/L

JMH

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

---

Originally posted by J:
The following is another 0W-30 PAO oil with
Boron and TBN of 17.5

---

I can't help but wonder how Blackstone determines what the vis range should be. For the 0w30 sample you submitted, they said value should be between 58-65, with your actual value being 58.4. For the Castrol 0w30, they said value should be between 57-66, with the actual value being 65.9.

 

[J]

quote:

---

Originally posted by JHZR2:
J, that is saab 0w-30? Do you know anything more about it? It looks good, especially for $4/L

JMH

---

Hi,

Following is previous thread:
Saab fully synthetic 0W-30

Jae

 

[J]

quote:

---

Originally posted by G-Man II:

quote:

---

Originally posted by J:
The following is another 0W-30 PAO oil with
Boron and TBN of 17.5

---

I can't help but wonder how Blackstone determines what the vis range should be. For the 0w30 sample you submitted, they said value should be between 58-65, with your actual value being 58.4. For the Castrol 0w30, they said value should be between 57-66, with the actual value being 65.9.

---

Hi,

Maybe they finally upgraded from slide-rule
to electronic calculator.

The calculation discrepancies do not inspire
confidence.

Jae

 

[buster]

I like the visc and TBN (give or take 3pts) but other then that it doesn't look so special.

 

[MolaKule]

The TBN is most lilkely coming from the alkali metals derived from the Magnesium and Calcium.

A slight bit of AW functionality may be coming from the Calcium.

Other FM and AW protection should be associated with the esters in the formulation.

On the surface, not too impressive. UOA's will bear out whether the esters contribute to low wear metals, after subtracting the rusty pipes.

The latter makes me wonder if the 0W30 is being processesd by a new blending unit!

[ May 25, 2003, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: MolaKule ]

 

[sprintman]

Just spoke to local Castrol distributor here and 0W30 SLX while no longer sold they have 180 x 5litre jugs at the Sydney warehouse. He thought it was made in Malaysia but not sure. I'd be getting a 2nd VOA to see if the 9ppm is correct? if so is that really that bad in the scheme of things apart from skewing FE figures?

 

[Patman]

The 9ppm of iron really has me worried! Do you think that all of the 0w30 produced would have this same amount of contamination in it?

 

[YZF150]

I thought of another possibility: that the oil picked up the iron in the hold of a tanker which brought it to North America from Germany.

 

[MolaKule]

If they shipped the oil in bulk in a tanker, it should have picked a whole host of other, nasty items.

Me thinks they ARE producing this oil in Malaysia, as one of the "Ken's" on the board (in SE Asia) had a UOA of a Castrol 10W50 or 60 oil posted.

 

[YZF150]

Then it is misbranded. The label declares, "Made in Germany."

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MolaKule:
If they shipped the oil in bulk in a tanker, it should have picked a whole host of other, nasty items.

Me thinks they ARE producing this oil in Malaysia, as one of the "Ken's" on the board (in SE Asia) had a UOA of a Castrol 10W50 or 60 oil posted.

---

Castrol no doubt produces SLX at various blending facilities around the world. The SLX that is made in Germany is produced at the Castrol plant in Hamburg.

 

[Chris Jefferson]

And ill almost guarantee you that they buy their basestock from Aral of Germany. Maybe, maybe not, but, Castrol has never been an oil refiner of any sort. They've always been a blender, much like Redline, Neo, Amsoil, Royal Purple, etc.

Unfortunately, up until recently Castrol never really had any good syn products (except old PAO stuff) which youd think that since they are only a blender they can use all their resources to simply buy great basestocks and engineer their syn oil(s)even for us in North America. I dont get it.

What is it about America? It seems like these american companies are incompetent of making a great syn oil(s). I know were not stupid or really incompetent but, were are SO stuck on buying everythin for our cars thats the cheapest and so long as its oil "Itll work fine". Thus, the lubricant market is driven to fulfill the consumers needs. And God forbid the gov't or Auto companies EVER decide to start using full-syn oils in most cars in order to achieve Euro-like drain intervals.

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chris Jefferson:
And ill almost guarantee you that they buy their basestock from Aral of Germany.

---

Well, even if they do, that wouldn't have a thing to do with the color of the finished oil. PAO and ester base oils are CLEAR (water white). The color of the finished oil is a product of the additive package and dyes.

quote:

---

Unfortunately, up until recently Castrol never really had any good syn products (except old PAO stuff) which youd think that since they are only a blender they can use all their resources to simply buy great basestocks and engineer their syn oil(s)even for us in North America. I dont get it.

---

I take issue with this statement. The original Castrol R was an ESTER based oil, albeit a "natural" one since it was castor-based. However the later blends in the late 50s and early 60s had synthetic esters in addition to the castor oil. This oil was considered by most race car builders to be the finest high perf racing oil available, and many still do when it comes to vintage race cars. That's why Castrol still produces it, BTW.

 

[Idrinkmotoroil]

I am very surprised that is has no moly in it, moly is almost a signature additive for Castrol as they've used it for years in their GTX oil while other companies didn't want the expense of using moly in their cheaper oils. They also use moly in their group 3 Syntec and semi syn syntec formulas.

Joey