Castrol 0w30 or Shell 5w40 any good?

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
He wouldn't happen to have left any other old things laying around, would he? Such as a vintage Mercedes Gullwing?


LOL, his kids swooped in and grabbed his cars in about 10 seconds. They had no interest in changing any oil. I am sure those cars and the huge inventory of snap on tools he had will be trashed in no time. Very sad.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: Doog
Well I called a nearby independent BMW/VW mechanics shop I know of and you guys are right. The owner is going to swap me Mobil1 5w20 for every quart of both oils. So, I will be all set for a long time. Thanks to everyone for the replies.



You should've offered that Castrol up for sale, you could've made a KILLING on it, especially for us local guys.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: Doog
Well I called a nearby independent BMW/VW mechanics shop I know of and you guys are right. The owner is going to swap me Mobil1 5w20 for every quart of both oils. So, I will be all set for a long time. Thanks to everyone for the replies.



You should've offered that Castrol up for sale, you could've made a KILLING on it, especially for us local guys.


I know but this guy is only about 10 miles away so it is the easy way out versus packing & shipping all of these boxes. He will sell it to his customers with their oil changes. I know he will make a profit on it but he is a really nice guy so I don't mind.

 

[dparm]

Ha, I probably would've taken it if you were near Chicago.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Doog
LOL, his kids swooped in and grabbed his cars in about 10 seconds. They had no interest in changing any oil. I am sure those cars and the huge inventory of snap on tools he had will be trashed in no time. Very sad.


That's too bad, especially with respect to the tools. It seems to me that quality, unique tools are harder to replace than vintage cars.

Good score on the oil, though! I may have to rethink my stance on garage sales and estate sales!

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: Doog
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Wow, was this guy a BITOGer?


I don't really know the bottles of castrol are made in germany and I opened one of them but I think the oil has gone bad because it has turned a dark green color. Would that be from water getting in the oil? Also, the Shell oil is hellix brand in black bottles. I asked my neighbor and all he wanted was the Mobil1 0w40 so I gave him that box.


You aren't trolling here, are you?
Green GC?
Wow, the real stuff!
A shop will swap this hoard for M1 5W-20?
Well, yeah.
Your neighbor sportingly took the M1 0W-40 off your hands?
How kind of him.
Had he known a little more, he would have taken the rest as well.
You just swapped the cow for a handful of magic beans, my friend.
I would have swapped with you too.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27

You aren't trolling here, are you?
Green GC?
Wow, the real stuff!
A shop will swap this hoard for M1 5W-20?
Well, yeah.
Your neighbor sportingly took the M1 0W-40 off your hands?
How kind of him.
Had he known a little more, he would have taken the rest as well.
You just swapped the cow for a handful of magic beans, my friend.
I would have swapped with you too.


Well, I am no oil expert...and my neighbor who took the Mobil1 0w40 isn't either. But, I really have no use for this oil as does my late neighbors spouse. So trading the oil for some 5w20 I can use is fine with me. BTW, what is the big deal with the green oil anyway? I thought it was contaminated. LOL. I mean really can't you just go to Autozone and buy this stuff anyway?

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: Garak

That's too bad, especially with respect to the tools. It seems to me that quality, unique tools are harder to replace than vintage cars.

There were 2 of the snap on red rolling tool carts that are about 5 or 6 feet wide with about 20 drawers each. Completely full. Every wrench or socket you could ever imagine collected over his lifetime. It took 3 guys to roll them onto the truck lift to move them.

 

[addyguy]

You shoulda sold that green GC on here, man. That stuff is liquid gold to many on here!

Wow, what a find, and you traded it away for 5W-20. I think you should have your site membership revoked!

 

[cchase]

Originally Posted By: Doog
Originally Posted By: fdcg27

You aren't trolling here, are you?
Green GC?
Wow, the real stuff!
A shop will swap this hoard for M1 5W-20?
Well, yeah.
Your neighbor sportingly took the M1 0W-40 off your hands?
How kind of him.
Had he known a little more, he would have taken the rest as well.
You just swapped the cow for a handful of magic beans, my friend.
I would have swapped with you too.


Well, I am no oil expert...and my neighbor who took the Mobil1 0w40 isn't either. But, I really have no use for this oil as does my late neighbors spouse. So trading the oil for some 5w20 I can use is fine with me. BTW, what is the big deal with the green oil anyway? I thought it was contaminated. LOL. I mean really can't you just go to Autozone and buy this stuff anyway?


Not for the green 0w30. Not available anymore.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Doog
I mean really can't you just go to Autozone and buy this stuff anyway?

The green stuff hasn't been made for over 5 years now. You're obviously new here, but this stuff had a huge cult like following here on BITOG back in the day. That's why it's so highly valued and sought after.

 

[Letter_K]

Read the first thread and the first post in this section - european and import motor oils. 0w30 is referred to as German Castrol or GC for short.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/faq-gc-german-castrol.57138/

The green dye oil was made from 2002-2005 and changed to gold color. Some claimed it was a miracle oil and the whole Bob is the Oil Guy crowd got wrapped up in GC madness.

There are still many members here who have stashes of this 6+ year old oil and are still using it.

Was it magical, maybe, maybe not, but a lot of people devoted there time searching the back of shelves for it and the magical green elixar. You probably could have sold it for $7-8 a quart and bought any oil you wanted. Who knows maybe more. I'm sure someone here would have hopped in their car and driven 500 miles to pick it up.

 

[fdcg27]

I was ribbing you a bit.
Green GC is considered the holy grail, while the M1 and the Helix are very good oils for cars needing a Euro spec oil, or for other applications where the owner wishes to use a little thicker oil than a US spec thirty grade.
Any of these oils would be suitable for extended drains.

 

[Doog]

Yeah Ok, but hasn't anyone sent a sample of the old green oil and the new oil that replaced it to a testing lab to see if it were any different? I mean what if all of this hub-bub is only about some green dye?

 

[zyxelenator]

there is plenty UOAs of GC, use search

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Doog
Yeah Ok, but hasn't anyone sent a sample of the old green oil and the new oil that replaced it to a testing lab to see if it were any different?

It's been done. They are in fact different. However, both green and gold GC still meet the same specs, so even though the chemistry/add pack may have changed, it should still be the same from a performance standpoint. Alas, most of the hoopla around the original GC was about its unusual color.

 

[Letter_K]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Doog
Yeah Ok, but hasn't anyone sent a sample of the old green oil and the new oil that replaced it to a testing lab to see if it were any different?

It's been done. They are in fact different. However, both green and gold GC still meet the same specs, so even though the chemistry/add pack may have changed, it should still be the same from a performance standpoint. Alas, most of the hoopla around the original GC was about its unusual color.

The color thing is funny, Royal Purple dyes their oil purple and it never got this big.

The general consensus now is that there are other oils that may be just as good, if not better. Times have changed and at one point some consider synthetic oils only good if they were PAO base oils. Green GC was considered a true synthetic, while some synthetics now are group III base stocks.

GC is a thick oil for a 30W. I won't say you can call it a 0W-37.5, which someone did and got laid into. (note: to those speed reading, I DIDN'T SAY THAT). I noticed when I used it, my gas mileage declined. My car specs 5w30.

Just figure there are many people here who were late to the party (I'm one of them) and if you do any reading, GC comes up and the mysterious holy grail of green GC that they haven't seen in person or tried yet.

As for the testing, isn't it expensive to determine the basestocks of the oil and do a full workup? Basic testing only tells the level of sodium, metals, etc. I know there was a big, group funded study of GC, but I'm not sure if any spent the coin to study the replacement gold GC.

 

[Doog]

Ok, so what about this "Green Oil"?

http://www.penngrade1.com/

When you google "green oil" you get a bunch of hits.

 

[addyguy]

'Penngrade-1 oil by Brad-Penn is another, different 'oil legend story:

Back in the 1950's and 1960's, when Kendall GT-1 oil was made with pure, 100% Pennsylvania-sourced crude oil, it was a green colour, also. This wasn't from dyes, the oil really was a green-ish colour.

Kendall was a very, very good oil, that had a certain 'myth' attached to it - it was an excellent oil for the high-powered muscle cars of the 1960's, but Kendall made it hard to find and buy, to add to the mystique. So people hunted for 'green Kendall GT-1'.

Fast forward to today, and Brad-Penn, which uses the old Kendall refinery to make their oils, and uses Pennsylvania-sourced crude, dyes their oils green to cahs-in the mystique of the original Kendall GT-1. Oils these days, b/c of hydro-cracking, are almost clear in colour.

That's not to say that Penngrade-1 oils aren't good..in fact, they are very good oils for high-perfromance apps...they are just really milking the nostagia factor to drive product recognition.

 

[dparm]

Until someone can conclusively prove that the old GC is better than the new stuff, or vice-versa, I will continue to suggest it as quality oil.