Is this true?

[Mulaka]

Is this true for the GC too?

Recently, Mobil accused Castrol of reformulating its synthetic by substituting other basestocks in place of its synthetic polyaphaolefins (PAO's). Castrol Syntec is a hydrocracked oil. That's right, Castrol has replaced the PAO synthetic base stock with hydroisomerized petroleum base stock. Hydrocracking, as it's called, is the highest level of petroleum refining. Castrol isn't even a true synthetic yet Castrol ended up winning the battle when the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus ruled that Castrol could still market its oil as "synthetic" despite their new formulation. Basically, they expanded the definition of synthetics to include Group III hydroprocessed petroleum oil. This high profile case took place because synthetics are recognized as the market's best hope for growth. Synthetic oil sales have outpaced petroleum oil sales by a wide margin and the gap continues to widen every year. Consumers are getting smarter and demand the best for their vehicles! Read the full story on the Castrol debacle in our informative articles section

 

[glxpassat]

No, GC is PAO with some complex esters.

 

[bighead]

GC is still being analyzed...it is somewhat of a mystery

J/K....don't want the Elven Brotherhood to

me and

my car lol.

 

[blupupher]

Well, since this news is several years old, this has been common knowledge here for a while. GC seems to be the exception to the rule, but as said above, we are waiting on the results to know for sure.

 

[jthorner]

"Recently" .... I think not! This is getting to be a very old debate. That formulation change happened in the late 1990s.

Old news, and becoming all the less interesting by the day. Objective measures of oil performance have not shown Mobil-1 to be superior to the better Group III based motor oils including Castrol or Amsoil's G3 version. Please someone prove this statement wrong!

John

 

[Paranoil]

This is from the Castrol UK website, for SLX 0W-30 if it helps:

Composition/information on ingredients:
Synthetic base stock.
Proprietary performance additives.

Polyolefin amide alkeneamine: 5-10%
Calcium sulphonate: 1-5%
phosphorodithioc acid, O,O - di- C1-14- alkyl esters zinc salts

 

[TooSlick]

What that article doesn't mention is that Castrol used to buy their PAO basestocks from Mobil, before they switched to buying XHVI (very high viscosity index), Group III basestocks from Royal Dutch Shell.

The Shell stuff made from XHVI is about the best and most consistent (in terms of physical/chemical properties), Group III around. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the specific basestock Amsoil is also buying for their XL line....

So a large part of this Castrol/Mobil lawsuit was just about the $$$$. What a shocker!

TS