more Castrol ravings

[dshimano@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Digesti,

Thanks for all the genuine feedback on synthetic oils. My primary concern
was with viscosity, as 5W-50 seems almost too good to be true. If there is a
tradeoff in using synthetic oils with an extreme stretch between high and
low grades, I wonder at which end of the scale performance suffers? Notice
there is 5-30 and 15-50 but no 5W-50 Mobil 1? I would have used a 10W-40
Mobil to keep to Alfa's specs- I'm told there is a 10W-40 but I've never
found it.

As far as Castrol is concerned, I have been using their oil in various Alfas
for as long as I can remember, with no extraordinary engine wear that I am
a-wear of. Before I started using synthetics I would do a Northeast seasonal
changeover from 10-40 to 20-50 using ordinary Castrol without any trouble. I
don't want to start a thread I can't back up so I will parenthesize- [I
spoke with an Alfista who is a reformed British car enthusiast- he finally
saw the light thru all the Lucas wiring- and he claimed that Syntec is truly
synthetic product, while Mobil 1 is still a petroleum based product. Seemed
a bit difficult to believe, but so did E-types with coffee cans and toilet
tissue for oil filters.]

Alfa does recommend Selenia 10-40 synthetic in the 164 [I don't know if this
was for the 12V as well], and in the "alternate" column spec calls for
10-40. Selenia comes in a really cool tin in Alfa red with the Alfa logo. It
looks great on a garage shelf, but try getting some when you're a 2 quarts
short, or doing an oil change 3am on Saturday morning. I'm not one to write
off Italian oils [non-olive], but I wonder if the price differential is
justified. Is it possibly a subliminal poke at Americans to name oil A GIP,
as the French name their costly Poland Spring alternative EVIAN [spell it
backwards]?


dave s.
95 164Q [Syntec 5W-50 enabled]
83 Aston Martin Lagonda  [Lucas disabled, Tom Hardy 10W-20 Ale enabled]

To do is to be.        -Descartes
To be is to do.        -Voltaire
Do be do be do.    -Frank Sinatra

------------------------------