But you'd be amazed at how much crap some millwrights can load into a hydraulic system! I've seen systems that live in a more contaminated environment in a week than a car sees in 40 years!
IIRC the original Castrol we ran in 2 stroke motursiclles was made from castor beans. Had a strange odor but worked well.
I once had an old Buick that needed to pass the local smog emissions test but was running like an oil burner. So I pulled the rocker covers, put a false metal cup under the PVC hole so if working would not pull any vapors out of the rocker cover, brazed a rear or back end metal pipe out of each rocker cover then ran a rubber hose from each vent pipe down to the transmission case. So when the car ran it would not pull any oil blow by from the crank case. But when they pulled the PVC valve to see if there was a vacuum, it would show. It would pass tailpipe numbers but the chassis was in a cloud of blue smoke. Had it's own smoke screen when you stood on the throttle. Gotta stand up to The Man somehow.
The problem about using the wrong oils is that it rarely punishes us right away, if at all. If we got a broken down engine the next day, the next week or perhaps even the next month people would make the connection and know not to do that again. If it only causes accelerated wear making the engine last half as long you are very unlikely to figure it out, and it may not be a problem at all if the car rusts away long before the engine is done.
I buy 15w40 in a 55 gallon drum . It goes in diesel tractors, gas powered trucks, pickups , lawnmowers , gas powered auger engines. Been doing this for over 45 years. No major engine failures. Even ran one 350 for 10 minutes without oil pressure because of a wrong coupler on a new oil pump . Lifters stopped pumping up . Got the correct coupler on the oil pump . Truck is still in use .
Actually, the company's name is said to have come from their advancement in lubrication by blending motor oils. A percentage of castor oil blended into regular motor oil made their oil very effective. As such, they were and still are known as a blended oil pioneer. So the name did derive from their use of castor oil, but not from anything specific about selling straight castor oil. But yes, Castrol like quite a few motor oil companies did sell castor oil for racing applications and that oil had a unique smell when it was burning. Castor oil had a very limited lifespan in an engine and was best used in engines that were torn down regularly or burned/leaked a lot of oil. But again, it was the blending of additives into the oil that made them successful and well known.
As is often the case, @gimpyshotrods is close enough to the mark here as makes no difference. So pointing out that it's a bit more complicated is perhaps splitting hairs. People practically treat science, technology, and engineering as synonymous, but they are distinct. They are of course interdependent, in that engineering depends on technological development, which in turn depends on scientific discovery. Something which is debated in rather obscure circles is how much redundancy there is at each transition. My own position is that there is quite a lot of redundancy, i.e. any given scientific discovery allows a greater number of potential successful technological developments than actually happen, and every technological development allows a greater number of potential successful engineering solutions than actually happen — the difference in each case being determined by factors outside the STEM disciplines e.g. culture, politics, power-economics, social dynamics, etc. This is more often than not indirect in that what happens is a more or less straightforward response to a set of circumstances determined by the aforementioned kinds of factors. (For instance, the direction steam technology went at the end of the 18th century was almost entirely determined by the labour dynamics established by the Enclosures of the Commons.) Social construction of technology is a thing. As a core idea it is underdeveloped, and arguably underincentivized. So if you've ever had the feeling that what we're seeing is a very good answer to entirely the wrong question, that might be why. It is nevertheless a far cry from shady cabals paying large groups of people to do stuff against their primary intuitions and to keep their mouths shut about it for decades. A large transitional redundancy implies a much larger cumulative redundancy over history, and hence a pool of potential counterfactual technological development, which in the automotive field is probably my main reason for being on the HAMB.
You'd think these statements from Shell would be enough , unless you're trying to discredit a product to sell your own ...
Now I would do this if I was in the same situation, oil is oil per se and as long as you service the equipment then you’re good
Interesting oil formulation. I worked a project 15yr ago, in which we identified a wear phenomenon.... caused by a Nat Gas combustion known issue, occuring within Diesel engines. Formulation change in oil was the solution. (Adj Target) FYI our team proved we could destroy an engine with no measurable oil degradation of the current known and measured variables. Southwest Research ran our tests. One engine seized in 10 minutes under test.
I once asked a man if he had a FlatHead. He tried to punch me in the face. I was referring to his 40 Coupe. As for Shell oil, once had a nice small block Chevy 307. Always gave it the best gasoline, tuneup and what not. And always gave it regular oil changes using Shell X100 , just like in the advertisements. Starting at about 30,000 miles and this is on a factory new engine, it started to smoke, loose compression and finally the rings and pistons went totally out at just over 30,000 miles. A friend of mine owned a restoration shop for vintage Rolls Royce, Bentley's and other such vintage high end vehicles. He knew my car and what not. When I asked him what could be the cause of the engine just wearing out in 30,000 miles, the first question he asked was " Are you running Shell oil ?? " Why yes I said, he smiled and said, that is the worst oil on the market, it will even completely ruin a Rolls Royce engine in nothing flat. He had seen it many times. Rolls Royce would not do any warranty work on a vehicle that ran Shell oil. For what that was worth. No more Shell oil and never had oil issues after that.
This may cause a stir but... I buy all the oil I find at garage sales,auctions,estate sales...anywhere I find it. I once bought over 200 quarts of various weights and brands from a closed C-store. Most quarts are under a dollar or free. Currently have 30 quarts in storage. When I do a oil change I grab 5 quarts of whatever brands are on hand. I'll mix brands and weights and have been doing this method for 40 years. No issues. I do try and keep any synthetics together and don't mix that with conventional. Garage sale and city wide clean up season is just starting and I expect to gather up 40-50 quarts in the next month. Cash outlay $50 or less. Oil is oil.
Some years back I was at an estate sale of a guy who owned a gas station/garage, and the son was selling everything in his dad's garage. I spent a lot of money on a bunch of tools, but I came across a shelf in the garage that had cases of old motor oil in the old cardboard cans with metal lids. I asked what he wanted for it, and the son said $1.50 a quart. I told him I'd take all of it, and he told me $1 a quart if I took it all. There was a couple cases of Valvoline Racing Oil, and a bunch of misc. oils including two 12 quart cases of Mobil 1 synthetic. I finally used up all the good old oil, and most of the synthetic in my newer cars; but still have a little oddball quarts left.
To the original poster, I don't see the need to run oil with additional zinc in a Ford V8, the valve spring pressures are so low that it is not a huge concern unless you have those heavy Isky style dual springs. I have Lincoln Zephyr springs with Johnson lifters and a 400jr. cam in mine and just use a standard 30W oil. It has been that way for almost 2 decades.
I hope you guys buying old oil are "up" on the API ratings on the container. (There is also an expiration date on the container that may tell you that the oil has passed it's expiration date and may have deteriorated.) If you are and use it, good for you. The first character can be "S" or "C", standing for "Spark" (gasoline) or "Compression (Diesel) ignition. In my opinion, you probably shouldn't use an oil for a purpose it was never intended for, but if you want to take the chance long term and perhaps pay extra, it's your choice. The second letter in the rating on "S" oils is also informative. The later that letter in the alphabet, the more the formulation was designed to provide more protection for the vehicles emission system and less for enhancing anti-wear properties. When you get into lower letters, the proportion of ZDDP goes up. Here is a guide to the ratings; it seems that they are not really concerned to any extent about older vehicles. https://www.gopurepower.com/blog/a-... American,that meet ILSAC's current standards.
Friend of mine who is 76 told me he used to buy recycled oil at a Skelly gas station back in the mid 60’s. Said it was 10 cents cheaper than new and his 55 Chevy used a quart per hundred miles. Anyone remember that?
Remember? I remember selling lots of it when it was 10 cents!. In the 1950s! Better [ Best ] oil is good. In trucks, when putting , hopefully, a million miles on the engine before overhaul, the best available is essential. On our cars that may never see 100,000, not so much. MY opinion! Ben
My Dad had a parking lot street sweeping business for a while when I was in HS. Guess who got the really sweet job of sweeping shopping center parking lots on Saturday Night. Remember I said I was in HS. The sweepers would burn through near a quart of oil a night. So he purchased recycled oil in metal cans by the case. Never needed to change oil. It either ran out or was consumed. I think it was around 25 cents a quart in 1969. What weight was it ? ? I would guess 30wt but who really knew.
When I was a kid, there was a gas station/garage around where I lived that was the only one that stayed open 24/7/365. For the oil burning crowd, they stocked gallon cans of Sapphire brand re-refined oil.
The Jalopy Journal
