Patman

Here are my latest oil analysis results from my 98 Corvette:

8000 miles on oil
Feb 19 to July 17 (5 months)
51,000 miles on the car
German Castrol Syntec 0w30
K&N HP1007 oil filter
K&N air filter
LS1 5.7L V8 engine
Daily driver with a lot of rush hour traffic
No oil added (none was needed!)
Oil life monitor was below zero (I reset it at zero and went another 11%)
Analysis by Wearcheck Canada

Iron 9
Lead 4
Aluminum 3
Copper 3
Chromium 0
Tin 0
Silver 0
Titanium 0
Nickel 0
Silicon 11
Potassium 0
Sodium 3
Boron 2
Barium 0
Calcium 2547
Magnesium 127
Moly 4
Phosphorus 818
Zinc 852
Fuel 0
Glycol 0
Water 0
Oxidation 64%
Nitration (not given)
Viscosity 12.0 cst at 100c
TAN 3.94
TBN 3.82


So what do all these numbers mean? The wear numbers are extremely low! Most notible is the fact that the iron is in the single digits, and lead (bearing wear) is almost nothing. If you compare this to results with Mobil 1 in the LS1, you can clearly see the advantage this oil has over Mobil 1.

And at 8000 miles this oil still has life left in it, so those of you changing your oil every 3k because you think your oil is dirty or that it needs changing, you're just wasting money. A good synthetic like this one can go much longer (I've also proven you can trust your oil life monitor)

Dave68

Thanks for the info, Patman! I change mine once per year (approx. 5500 miles), as per the owner's manual suggestion.

FRCTony

So where do I get this magical elixir.....

RonJ

Patman, I see you're a Canuck, ( ), we talking miles or kilometers????

If it's miles, that's almost 13,000 kilos ...... wow!!!!

Ron ...

Blown-Interceptor

I think I might change to Castrol...Thanks for the info.

BTW-what is "German Castrol Syntec 0w30."

Thanks,
Jason

02bluez28

Been running German Castrol Syntec 0w30." in my 02 z28 without any problems, traded it for A 04 vette, its what I put in after first change... so far no oil use or piston slap...The service manager had no problem with the change....

blazeone

Yep, I use GC in my baby

Dragonsi

so what's german castrol syntec...? isn't castrol american?

I though oil degrades over a period of time though?

ztheusa

Chevrolet recommends Mobil 1. Your costly botique oil will do NOTHING to increase the life of the engine.

One oil analysis, by itself, is meaningless. That is why it's called "trend analysis." You need to send in many samples over years to determine the trend---then you can make a determination if and, more importantly when, a component has wear.

Don't waste your money on marketing hype and remember that Mobil is an OIL company. Castrol is a MARKETING company. You've swallowed the bait!!!

abnrngr

PATMAN, has anyone confirmed if there is a difference between the green and brown german castrol?

Patman

In the US it is only in Autozone (and not all of them carry it, only the bigger ones do)

In Canada it's in Walmart, Canadian Tire, and Partsource.

Patman

Yep, you are correct, I did 13,000km on this oil. I'm gonna take it further next time (possibly 10k or 16,000km, depending on how much driving I get done before the weather turns cold here)

Patman

Oil degrades much slower than people think, these results show that it can go a long time if you've got things in control (such as good air filtration and a proper running engine that doesn't dump fuel into the oil)

Beginning in 2002, Castrol shifted it's 0w30 from being American made, to being sourced from Germany. So if you look on the back label and it says made in Germany, that's the good stuff you want! I've been running it in my cars since early 2003, with awesome results.

Patman

This isn't just one oil analysis though my friend. It's the third one in a row! And each one was awesome! Not only that, but I've been running it in all of my cars since 2003, and every one of those oil analysis reports came out awesome too!

You can bet this oil will make this engine last longer! Just look at how many Mobil 1 oil analysis reports show much higher iron levels and much higher lead levels. That my friend is valvetrain wear (iron) and bearing wear (lead)

It's not hype, and I didn't swallow any bait, in fact Castrol doesn't even advertise this oil at all!! This oil has simply proven itself in many many oil analysis reports that I've seen on BITOG.

Do you honestly think GM recommends Mobil 1 because they think it's the best oil in the world?? If that is what you believe, then you bought into the hype too! Mobil 1 markets the heck out of their oil, and makes people believe it's the best, but the experts out there who make a living out of interpreting oil analysis reports will tell you otherwise. It is far from the best oil, it's just marketed very well, so everyone thinks it's the best.

Patman

There is definitely a difference, as the latest brown stuff is now Castrol Longtec SLX, while the green stuff is Formula SLX. So far it looks like the new Longtec stuff is just as good though. Time will tell though.

ztheusa

Yes, I think you have COMPLETELY gone off the deep end. It doesn't matter WHAT oil you use in your Corvette. As long as it meets the GM specifications the engine will last longer on this earth than you will.

It's been 60 years since engines quit due to some kind of oil failure. You'd be far better off taking some driving lessons because your car has vastly more chance of being destroyed in an accident than some kind of oil breakdown.

You seem to be obscessed by oil minutia. You should be more worried by being hit by space debris!

George8211

It's good see some people that are not changing their oil simply because the quick change places are scary'g them to death... Most people that have done their homework know that changing the oil at 3,000 miles is just throwing perfectly good oil out. It cost more, increases oil use, and raises cost for disposal. bottom line is... it's simply wasteful and irresponsible.

Regular old dino oil used to be replaced at 6,000 miles... now people are changing sythetic at 3,000 I've been changing mine at 8 - 10 thousand since I bought it new... with the exception of the first change.

What a waste... and it's mostly because the quick change places say to. When the quick change places came on the sence they recommended 6,000 mile changes... these place were losing money and where starting to go under... they quickly changed the marketing to 3,000 mile changes and doubled their business.... the uneducated consumers swollowed it hook, line, and sinker.

Patman

Not true. Engines may not completely blow up and fail outright due to oil, but engines do wear out eventually, many due to the wrong choice in oil. What do you think happens as an engine gets older and begins burning more and more oil? That is due to the oil not providing enough protection, so your rings wear out. So if you choose the right oil to begin with that keeps the overall engine wear lower, it'll keep the engine from beginning that nasty cycle much sooner. You also lose performance as your engine wears (especially if your cam wears out sooner, many GM 305ci engine owners in the past found out about this) so choosing an oil that shows the least engine wear allows your performance to remain good for a longer time.

For those C5 owners who only drive 5000 miles a year, it honestly doesn't matter what oil they run, they'll end up trading the car long before the engine is close to worn out. But for someone like me who drives 20-25k per year (and plans on keeping my car a very long time), I'd like to see my engine get well over 300k before it starts to burn a serious amount of oil. Right now it uses none, so I'd like to keep it that way as long as I can.

Besides, Mobil 1 costs more than German Castrol up here. So why would I use a more expensive oil which is obviously inferior? Why not choose the best oil I can possibly buy, even if it might be overkill? (in your eyes that is)

George8211

Some of the older engines had engine wear problems because of poor engineering... not use of cheap oil. By the time most 305 cid motors hit 70,000 miles the cam was toast, I swapped out several cams on those motors. The failure was due to not having the oil in the right quantities in the right parts of the motor... plus those cams were made using metals that wore faster than those of the past and current years.


In the old, old, old days .... the motor was the most expensive item in car... and you were doing great to see 130,000. These days it's all the stuff that bolts on to the motor that cost so much, and the electronics. The air conditioner parts, computers, climate control, transmission, the crazy labor cost. The engines today should do 250,000 miles easily. No matter what kind of oil you use... you can't remove the stress of 250,000 miles of driving. The stress will be way more of a wear item than todays synthetic oils.

As the miles you expect from a car go up... so will the maintenance. Normal maintence could include engine rebuilds if you plan to drive for 500,000 mile. You will eventually lose an oil pump, timing chain, or a rod bolt. The oil simply is not the weak link anymore.

new vetter

Soooo, what have you done to back up anything you have to say and pull a flag on Patman??????????????