castrol GTX

[gmc]

What do you think of this brand of oil? Better than Vavoline?

[curtis73]

I would say as good as or a touch better, but its all relative. What brand/year/mileage of engine are we discussing?

[foureyedbuzzard]

First, remember that lubricating oil is ultimately a usable by-product of the FUEL distillation process. All other things being equal - viscosity, API grade, etc. - oil is pretty much oil. The additives (detergents, oxidation and corrosion inhibitors, etc) are all the same or similar. The equipment used to refine it and produce it is very similar, the crude comes from the same oil fields, blah, blah, blah. There are varing degrees of quality in the parrafinic bases used by various manufacturers, but it would be difficult to know which company is using a higher grade base as it would vary due to product and the crude they were using.
I'm not a lubrication expert- but I HAVE done process equipment work/installations in many refineries. The engineer formulating Castrols newest version of GTX may well have worked for Valvoline or Shell or _____ two years ago. Many of the "off brands", i.e. Wally World Supertech, are made in the same refineries, have the same additives, and are simply privately labelled when packaged.

The bottom line on oil is:
Oil is never any better than the day you put it in the crankcase.
Synthetics are better than crude parrafinics.
No oil will ever be better than the base it is made from.
Aftermarket additives(oil treatments) are market hype rip-offs.

Interesting link: http://www.micapeak.com/info/oiled.html

[curtis73]

^^^ what he said ^^^^

[sracing]

Originally Posted by foureyedbuzzard

The bottom line on oil is:
Oil is never any better than the day you put it in the crankcase.]

Actually, I read in an article somewhere that the oil gets slightly better for a while since the engine actually distills out some impurities left from the refining process. Take it for what it's worth.

Synthetics are better than crude parrafinics.

Yep

No oil will ever be better than the base it is made from.

Sure it is. The additive package is at least as important as the base oil. And that is the major difference between brands.

Aftermarket additives(oil treatments) are market hype rip-offs.

Yep. At least as far as every one we have tested or read about.

Jim
SR Racing

[foureyedbuzzard]

Originally Posted by sracing

...oil gets slightly better for a while since the engine actually distills out some impurities left from the refining process. Take it for what it's worth.

Somehow I highly doubt this. Sounds like an "Urban Legend". I don't see many racing teams "breaking in", or should I say "breaking up"(shearing) the oil molecules before running - not that many are left using anything but synthetics - and one of the biggest advantages(in addition to thermal breakdown resistance) of synthetics is their ability to resist molecular shear.

Originally Posted by sracing

Sure it is. The additive package is at least as important as the base oil. And that is the major difference between brands.

Agreed. The additives are what give modern oils their superior performance and longevity. The major differences between brands, however, both in the base petroleum and "additive package", is incredibly MINOR.

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

http://www.ibmwr.org/otech/oilreport.html

[sracing]

Originally Posted by foureyedbuzzard

Somehow I highly doubt this. Sounds like an "Urban Legend". I don't see many racing teams "breaking in", or should I say "breaking up"(shearing) the oil molecules before running - not that many are left using anything but synthetics - and one of the biggest advantages(in addition to thermal breakdown resistance) of synthetics is their ability to resist molecular shear.

I also found it suspect. However the claim was not the breakdown at a molecular level. It was simply distillation. Breaking it down to the molecular level would take 400+ deg. The statement was only in regards to removal at a mixture level, not compounds. So certainly if there were water condensation etc. in the can, a few heat cycles would distill out. It is suspect to me only because I don't think there are many impurities in the new oil.

Jim
SR Racing