Oil question Castrol GTX 20W 50 vs Castrol Grand Prix 20W 50

I have used anything as long as its not "recycled" which mean they filter it a bit, and put a nice colour dye in as well, and sell it very cheap, Macro/Aldi/Tesco's own, etc.
Oil that has been through tog, has included industrial quantities of Castrol straight 30 (from an VW beetle shop) straight 30 diesel engine lube from a bus company (it was Esso HDX30) lots of Shell Rimula (again for diesels) and obtained from a truck company which bought 1000 litres at a time and would sell me 50 at a very good price,teher was a time when the factory recommendation (probably because of race bike sponsorship) was Total 20-50 but there was a furious debate about weather the motorcycle oil was any different to the car oil even though the price difference was huge (I bought the car one) and many others that I have long forgotten, the last couple have been Unipart 20-50 for classics, cheap and seemed ok but Unipart no longer exist, its currently Fuchs 20-50 for classic cars, obtained from the local factor and because my son (via the MOD) spends about ?3000 to ?13000 a month in there, so I get a very low price on boxes of four five litre cans.
I have never bought oil that is branded specifically as a motor cycle oil, what  load of crap that must be!
CLEM
 
Paul, I too lost a crank on Castrol I don't trust the stuff. The Amsoil stuff is good along with Redline oil too. If you can find it up north there, Brad-Penn 20/50 is a really good non synthetic. It's the old Kendall GT1 stuff [The Green oil]  I have it in my 3CL and it seems to be smoother/quieter than when I had Valvoline in it.
 
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Just done an oil change on the 3c with penrite 20 - 60 ....

running much quieter now, no clutch slip at all and even the gearbox feels better.

don't know what was in it when i bought it, but it was very black......

Its 40 degrees Celsius here today......
 
I had the dogs on 5th gear fail and was asked by a very knowledgeable sage what oil I used, GTX says I, there's your problem he replied.
Since then I have always used Silkolene 20/50 with never any problems, Slaters recommend this oil as well.
 
Pretty much any and all oils you can buy today are better than what was available in the 1970's. This obsessive compulsive behavior about worrying about the oil you put in the engine may cause problems is ridiculous. Using this logic, had you bought a Laverda new in 1975, you would have to have stored it in the shed for 40 years before oil was good enough to put in the engine.

I am now retired but rode for 37 years to school and work for over 700,000 miles using what ever the cheapest oil was available as in the early days that was all I could afford. Stop believing advertisements from the oil companies. A Laverda engine bearing surfaces are all very lightly loaded compared to a modern engine. A modern 1000cc engine is making at least 150HP. Ours are on average making 70HP. Oil companies making "20W-50 motorcycle oil" that somehow costs more than the same oil for a automobile is a scam. As most if not all modern bikes have catalytic converters on the exhaust, the old anti scuffing additives don't exist in "motorcycle oils" anymore either. I remember a number of oil companies making V-twin (Harley Davidson) oil that cost more than regular motorcycle oil. So somehow a V-twin needs special oil that was different than a flat twin or a vertical twin needed?
 
Modern vehicles run far tighter bearing clearances than the C3 clearances on ours.
Synthetic oils CAN make our roller bearings skid rather than roll.
Modern vehicles use catalytic converters so the ZDDP content in oils used in them are lower.
Our air-cooled low revving clunkers love ZDDP.
Oils formulated for diesel engines have a very high detergent content and should be avoided as it could start to lift sediment out of the crank slingers.
Best for our engines' main requirements is 20/50 mineral oil with high ZDDP content.
That's why oil for Harleys is recommended, similar low revving air cooled engines with larger bearing clearances.
 
I remember a TT supporters club meting long ago (1978 ish) where a Castrol guy came in and did a 'talk' (long before 'presentations'; oh how the promise of one of those makes my heart sink at work..death by powerpoint..)

But I digress, the Castrol guy said GTX was developed for bikes, and then the word 'Commando' was uttered, but it was 'suitable for all bikes'.
I wasn't convinced, never liked it myself; maybe it was the green colour!

I used Valovolene for 20+ years, moving onto Silkolene (now Fuchs) and have lately used Morris on my dinosaur bikes, both straight forward multi grades without problems.
The older rubbish like my Commando, Vin and '26 (total loss) flat tank 16H that gets straight 50.

The real key is less about the fancy brand, get the right grade of clean oil to the right level, and avoid full synthetic on any bike with a wet clutch that is marginal
 
Basic 20-50 available from H-D dealers is slightly more expensive because of the bar and shield printed on the label... but still actually quite cheap when compared to other motorcycle branded lubricants.

Todays engines have far different requirements than our clunkers regarding oils, won't find many heavy-load bearing ball or roller bearings around a modern crankshaft.  Perhaps a couple in the gearbox.  Then there's the liquid-cooling, further removing a lot of stress from various components and their lube requirements.  It's surprising on how low a quality oil modern engines will happily thrive, at least as long as it's time to change to the new model colour scheme.

piet
 
Paul you know by now how much I HATE Castrol GTX "Pony Piss"  -  Yes for HEDO 15w40 Havoline, Mobile Delvac, AC Delco and Duron.

Hedo AC Delco is probably the best buy but Duron is the best in Canada.
 
Just because Castrol has the Italian flag painted all over their Oil Products - Don't be a Fool.

I'm referring to Canadian Oil references for our old Breganzes - NOT Modern rides.
 
in my job as a mechanic we use a lot of rock oil products, having had a conversation with their chief tech they recommend  SYNTHESIS 4 RACING 15W-50 fully synthetic ..i explained the lack of a proper oil filter, crankshaft oil traps a so on..having talked with his engineers this is what they recommend...hope this helps...
 
I've been using Castrol for more than 22 years in my Laverdas's with absolutely no problems (semi-synt).
Likewise I have been using ful synt. Castrol in my Golf 2 for 13 years untill I sold it, and it never broke anything, nor smoking etc. My Corrado also runs perfect on Castrol oil, and so does my Lotus Esprit Turbo SE.
I use their gearbox oil in both cars too.

I change oil every 2500 Km and always minimum once per year on the Laverda SFC1000, and minimum once per year on the cars, and always every 5000 km.
Just my two cent.

Kind regards,
Jacques.
 
redfox said:
I've been using Castrol...

I change oil every 2500 Km and always minimum once per year on the Laverda SFC1000, and minimum once per year on the cars, and always every 5000 km.
Click to expand...
Is it still doing it? I mean losing it's viscosity and then burning away. As far as I know this happened mainly on engines having big surface pressures on valve mechanisms.
 
sfcpiet said:
Todays engines have far different requirements than our clunkers regarding oils,
piet
Click to expand...
Compared to the drama I'm having trying to find the VW specified oil for my Skoda TDI (with DPF), the Lav is a no-brainer - I can think of 100 oils that I'd happily run in it.

I changed the oil in the car yesterday and put in 4L of 0W-40 Castrol Edge DIESEL 'For Diesel Engines With Diesel Particulate Filters' fully synth, specced to BMW-LL04 standard ... at about AUD$85 for 5L. Was concerned that it didn't specify VW 507.00 on the label so emailed Castrol's tech dept and the reply recommends I drain it and refill with Castrol Edge 5W-30, because it meets VW 507.00 and the diesel-specific stuff doesn't!! Seriously. And I don't think it was in the interests of 'another sale' ... before someone throws that one into the ring  :D

15,000km between changes, but what a fukken minefield!
 
Not sure what you ask about MotoJouni?
Anyway, since age 18, now 48, so that's 30 years of driving, I haven't had a car or motorcycle which used any oil. No dead bearings, cambearings or anything else. No clutch probs either.
Being that Castrol, Agip, Shell or any other.
All the Castrol oil I've been using, have performed perfectly. Currently using the new ti formula on my cars.

Cheers,
Jacques.
 
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