re: Castrol Syntec

["Sedon, Doug (OD)" <sedond@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi dave,

seems all the negative comments about synthetic oil is related to early wersions
that dint have a wery high wiscosity quotient, ie - 20 or 30 wt for the 2nd #.
i've used castrol 5w50 in my 3 alfas w/no ill effects.  

in one instance, my wife operated our milano werde for about 15 minutes at hiway
speeds, then let it idle for about 5 minutes, apparently w/ no oil in the sump -
she had holed the pan in the driveway on the way out, and hadn't realized it,
the 'no-oil trip was on the way home, 8 hrs later.  it wasn't til the car
started overheating, when it was idling, as my wife talked w/a neighbor, that
she realized there was a problem.  when she pulled in, horn honking, i came out,
czeched the oil - nothing on the dipstick - so i immediately opened a few quarts
of the castrol 5w50 syntec.  as i started pouring in the 2nd quart, i then heard
the sound of something hitting the ground in a small stream, from under the car
- - the 1st quart was exiting the sump from the gash in the pan!

the only apparent damage (if any) was that i needed a gnu cam (one bad lobe)
about 15k miles later (excuse to install 164's' cams!)  the car had 90k miles
when i installed the 's' cams - it now has 125k, had the dimatteo/kirshtein
afm/ecu mod at 100k, sees 6k rpms frequently, and is still in fine fettle.  

i can't really say whether the use of castrol syntec saved the engine or not -
mebbe there was a couple quarts still in the pan after 8hrs of sitting, and it
went completely dry that last minute of idling.  but i know that the 5w50
synthetic sure dint hurt anything! 

after all this, i must admit that i no longer use castrol syntec - due to its
odd center-spout making filling w/o spilling more difficult, i have switched to
pennzoil performax 100% synthetic 5w50 - also $0.50/qt cheaper at the local
frederick, md pep-boys.

doug s, a believer in synthetic oils

'78 ducati darmah (w/castrol semi-synth - i don't trust its seals to straight
synth!)
'86 alfa gtwe6 - shankle-ized 3.0 bastard
'88 alfa milano werde
'92 alfa 164L
'95 buell s2 (also w/a synth blend - h-d sez straight synth is TOO slippery for
the crank & rod roller bearings - the rollers won't always spin, and they'll
flat-spot.  h-d actually puts friction INCREASERS in their oil cuz of this!?!)

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