Castrol Magnatech

You simply need to use Google on the words, "Castrol Magnatech". If you think I'm going to do it for you then you need to think again.

It flushes the engine of multiple commas.

won't work on non-ferrous parts

Seems (to me, anyway) counterintuitive that an engine lubricant should have a property of 'Sticky' (manufacturers propaganda says 'Cling').

Not intended to be a slam; never used or seriously considered using the product.

[Won't work on non-ferrous parts? Why not?]

I'm thinking its 'stickiness', playing on the word 'Magnatech' is sort of implying a magnetic attraction to the part. Which, of course, non-ferrous parts wouldn't have.

Ever use STP? Want to talk about "sticky"? You could use that stuff as a temporary glue to hold a nut in a socket.

Well, 'sticky' and 'cling' are different terms.

A 'sticky' fluid will try to adhere to any surface it comes in contact with, and it it touches two surfaces, it tries to hold them together.

A 'clingy' fluid will try to adhere to other surfaces, but it does not try to hold surfaces together.

Honey is 'sticky,' it tries to hold things together. A good engine oil is 'clingy,' it does not fall away from the parts right away, allowing the parts to carry the oil up to lubricate even higher parts. Water is neither stick nor clingy, when you pull an object out of water, the water falls away very rapidly.

Stickiness and clinginess are mostly a factor of Viscosity and Wetting Ability. Wetting is the ability to adhere to a surface, and Viscosity is the ability to 'hold onto itself' in defiance of gravity or sheer forces. Greases are another category of lubricant, high viscosity, low wetting, but high 'cling.' The grease you SEE on a piston shaft or gear is just the surplus, it's not doing anything there, the grease that *IS* doing its friction reducing job is invisible, a thin film on the shaft or gear teeth, where everything looks clean and shiny. Oils behave the same way, since oil is just a thin grease, or grease is just a thick oil, however you like to think about it. A 'clingier' oil will maintain that thin film better and longer than a less clingy oil.

Thank you, I went to google, same product hype as in 30 second spot( I thought Wikipedia was supposed to be unbiased). Yes, I need to be careful of that itchy comma finger. Castrol touts it as " Now" available in the U.S. And has helped drivers for 20 years, well' if it hasnt been here for the last, then where has it been ? Maybe the MSDS lists regulations listed as " other" for the following countries can provide some clues: Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea,Philippines and China ( I didn't think anyone short of a select few knew had any experience with a car in China 20 years ago) and I also looked at the product sheet. The only thing I could find about " magnatech" was the statement: Chemically modified base oil proprietary performance additives.

Maybe the Dr. from India who wrote the white paper on viscosity index knows.

It's a semi-synthetic motor oil made from mineral oil....nothing new....comes in several grades...like most other oils.....Always stick to the manufacturers recommendation for oil type and viscosity ratings....

"I thought Wikipedia was supposed to be unbiased"

Supposed to be, but the moderators cannot 'style check' every entry (or even every recent edit) in real time, that's why it's a good START in the search for knowledge, but it is not the final stop. Check the sources, see if they agree with the entry, see if the sources seem reputable, and, ultimately, judge for yourself if the entry on a topic is accurate. Look at the page history if something seems to be written in a biased tone, was it recently edited? was the edit by a registered user or a 'visitor'? What did the page say before the edit?

There is an old Russian saying: "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action." Oops, wrong saying, I meant: "Trust everyone, but before they deal, cut the cards." Often shortened to 'Trust, but Verify.' Not everything is 100% true and accurate, not even Wikipedia, and the mistakes and misinformation may not be deliberate.

Yes, you are entirely correct, my blunder, I should have examined and researched the sources before I made that particular statement. I have often wondered about Wikipedia's notice of " last edited by" and who the " by" was, is that a singular individual or a panel of them that know all and tell all to those of us all that want to know all ?

May I ask you a question, is your avatar with the geneology of man excised from the Doors Evolution album ?

In the future I will try to remember the famous American saying: Engage brain before opening mouth :)

"May I ask you a question, is your avatar with the geneology of man excised from the Doors Evolution album ?"

To the best of my knowledge, no.

It's one of the images from the 'stock avatar' library on CR4, with some personal editing to add the caffine-obsessed thought bubble.

Although I would like to add that The Doors ROCK! (holds up lighter)

--- edit ---

Oh, you were referring to the icon below my avatar picture, That simply indicates that I am in the 'Popular Science' User Group here on CR4.

The Doors still ROCK, regardless.

It's "new and improved", 99 and 44/100% pure, guaranteed to make your metal parts "up to" 50% slicker than your old oil.

Any oil sold by a reputable company will be fine. Just change it and the filter every 5,000 miles.

I've been using Magnatech exclusively for too many years to know exactly. Castrol was once an independent company, at least on the surface, but now it is a BP company. I used to be able to buy oil in bulk from Castrol but that ceased when BP became the parent company. They kept the name to keep loyal Castrol customers. I don't race cars, LYN does/did and he may be better able to comment. A car racing mechanic told me that he noticed people who used Pe,#$^ oil had more engine failures than his team. Subjective, but how else would you really know?
Jim

Interesting about the comment about using Castrol in racing. At a time in the past, I was using it for a car that the manufacturer recommended it for, and it worked quite well, but the racing community (which was VERY big in the area I lived) wanted transformer oil, no matter what sticker they put on their car. The transformer oil was a much more highly refined 10wgt hard mineral oil. Most used "gutted" oil filters to reduce back pressure and relieved some of the clearances on the engines to be sure they didn't lockup as the temperatures increased. They only ran an engine for a little over 500 miles and then tore it down and rebuilt it. They wanted an oil that added as little extra friction losses to the engine and flushed well due to a high volume, but really didn't care if the engine had long life. I worked for a company that had access to high quality transformer oil and for a small amount of the leftover oil after filling a new transformer (which we would have had to pay for disposal of otherwise) we could have a good relationship with the drivers and organizations and get free tickets to any racing event we wanted, even to the actual pit areas which is kind of neat in the big races. We were listed as crew but all we had to do was stand and watch the actual workers and those of the adjacent crews perform. I liked it better than the actual racing event. Those crew members "dance" well.

To quote Oddball from the movie, Kelly's Hero's, "I only ride 'em, I don't know what makes 'em work."

I've pretty much hung up my helmet. The cars I drove were NASCAR race cars that were a year or two old. They were prepared by real mechanics.

As I said, anything probably will work well, if changed regularly.

Over the last 25 years or so, I have used several different makes of full synthetic oil. To my mind they are the best of all motor oils that I have every used.

I have not lost an engine, or even had to replace any engine parts, (I do not count one water pump and one alternator as being "engine" parts).

Engine wear appears to have been reduced dramatically (some cars ran well over 400,000 KMs before being "sold on" in a good running condition!).

A taxi firm I used to use in Vienna, that I used very often for several years and got to know a few of the drivers, used exclusively Skoda and VWs with Diesel engines, it is generally accepted that Diesel engines are harder on oil.....

They would sell their Taxis at around half a million Kms, usually 2 - 3 years old, still basically running like new.....that had a list of people always willing to buy one.....

All the vehicles used full synthetic oil as VW has made it mandatory since around 2000 in Europe at least!!

Even though my private cars seldom run so long warm as those taxis do, I have noted similar performances.....

The biggest drawback is the extended running in time.......

I don't know if this so called "magnetic" effect is in the oil or just the minds of the Ad department, but I can simply believe that synthetic leaves a thin coating, sticking to and protecting parts at switch on, from the last time the engine was running.

Especially as everyone knows that its the cold start phase which does the most damage in any engine.....that is not "new" news!!

That alone could explain why synthetic is simply better for most engines!!

I do not believe that its only Castrol synthetic that has this effect, as I am pretty sure that I have never used that product myself, though what the garage uses I cannot say as it simply does not interest me which name is used...it only has to fit in with the requirement specs of the car manufacturer.....

I hope this helps a bit......

I've never used this product before, only their full synthetic product religiously.

I'll have to ask my brother about the Magnatech product since he's Chemical Engineer for Castrol who runs their Racing Oil testing program.

I used to use Lubriplate motor oil containing Z7 (their additive) with excellent results, when a gentleman came in with a 327 mounted on a trailer, running, and flipped a lever which dropped the oil pan away from the pump so you could see the pump pickup hanging in the air, He came into the office and talked to me for about 30 minutes, brought in some more anti seize and other oil products and another demo (gear reduced 1/2 hp motor with an arbor mounted bearing race and a lever to apply pressure) During this time the 327 was running with no oil at about 1200 RPM by the tach. I've been using BG Products MOA as an additive to motor oil ever since. (It contains a 'long chain zinc compound' that allows/helps wear particles burnish back into itself, (that's how it was explained to me in 1972))

My kid brother runs a company on the side (separate from his Castrol-BP career) carrying ZDDP engine anti-wear products. I use them myself and have not experienced any problems whatsoever.

You may want to check out his website (not an endorsement) at:

http://www.cam-shield.com/index.html

The more I think about this, and my snide remark in post 7, the more I wonder if what we are getting here is motor oil with an additive similar to STP already in it. (remember Andy Granetelli and the racing scene in the 1960's?) That is how STP worked - the stuff stuck to metal parts in the engine. There were claims in automotive magazines that it could plug up a filter, but I used it with no problems. Maybe no gains either, but definitely no problems.

What I found when testing on the 1/2 HP with the gear reduction arbor with lever, was that I could make it seize in less than 1minute with STP, Slick 50, Phillips motor oil, etc., but oil with the MOA added, I could not make it seize the roller mounted on the lever at right angle to the rotating arbor, even when applying my full weight for multiple minutes. If you examined the bearing roller where it contacted the bearing race, it would have a small, shiny spot, and the race mounted on the arbor would have a shiny track around it where the roller contacted it, where it previously galled and seized when using the other products to lube it during the test. It has something to do with the zinc additive. In 1972 the Lubriplate Z7 motor oil cost me over $5/qt, and switching to my shop oil with the BG Products MOA saved me money and seemed to perform better.

Never used MOA. Is this stuff kind of a shiny greyish metallic color? I used Auto World's Moly (molybdenum) at one time and it seemed to help the gas mileage of a VW 1500cc. (VW owners in the muscle car era were desperate for anything that would help them get over mountains without being run over) I am guessing the MOA refers to molybdenum additive. (???)

I never said STP was any good. But, they did have some nice decals and paid you a bit if you won with one on your car.

I think the MOA stands for motor oil additive, and I was informed that the active compound was a 'long chain zinc compound'. I was running MOA + oil in my '62 VW dual cab pickup to my cabin on Panguini Creek on the north side of McKinley park when I hit a rock and punched a hole in the case and lost all oil...I ran it about 30 miles back to Healy, epoxied the hole, topped up the oil and drove it back to Fairbanks, another reason I'm fond of BG Products. Molysulphite/molybdenum is referred to as EP (extreme pressure) lubricant, the zinc compound in BG MOA is an excellent 'anti-seize/anti-wear' product in the way it helps bearing surfaces burnish to a smooth surface.

geraldpaxton. Do you have an involvement with superchargers? (Paxton)

Pretty good survival - I saw a VW lose oil in Harrisburg, Pa and make it to Mifflintown, but then it seized after being turned off. (about 45 miles - standard oil)

Andy, with his experience with diesels in Germany maybe knows something about this.

In 1998, the company I worked for, gave me a new International to drive ( it seems I always got new trucks to drive, they said something about my safe driving, although I always have thought that was normal driving) , I generally drove about 16,000 miles a month, the thing I always noticed was that after the lube oil was replaced, within 500 hundred miles, the lube oil turned a dark gray and when it was drained at 25,000 interval it still looked the same, the mechanics in the shop said it was due to a diesels engines operation, how they were not very efficient and burnt diesel created excessive carbon soot, the truck avetaged about 4-6 mpg, i read in the trade mags that if you used an additive like Howes, this would reduce the soot, keep the injectors cleaner, etc. The truck did not have an alcohol injector for winter operation and when the ambient temp got below 30f , I always kept the engine running 24/7.

I used it for two yeasr on an older vehicle (1991 2.0l Opel)..no complaints. Can't say I noticed much of a difference in performance, although one always wishes to see that after making such a change. Then again, I haven't seen an increase in engine performance after switching to full synthetic oil either....

Actually performance is invisible, unless you have access to a dyno etc... what I can report is that that particular motor held up well for 230 000km, under some cruel treatment, and never suffered from a complication arising from poor lubrication.

I think that your last paragraph is really true, it echoes my personal take over many years using various fully synthetic oils, but not Castrol.

I have never "noticed" a "speed" difference between any of them....

I do believe Syn Oil kept my engines lubricated very well and possibly helped my MPG as well....but my car was not noticeably faster....the sort of performance increase to notice would probably be at least in the order of 10% more BHP or more.....and a stop watch!

By the way, the Castrol we are talking about is also fully synthetic according to a web site I looked at a few days ago....

I once had a water loss due to over heating because of very low grade petrol (Italy!) and I do believed it prevented a seizure, but no proof. The engine ran a further 250,000 Kms with no problems with us and the car was then sold in a good running condition.........

The ad says it has intelligent molecules...