+Frank Gonzalez It's more of a test to show how well the oil breaks down over time in high heat situations. Obviously you want the better performing one for your car right?
I knew a guy that used a heavy oil designed for excavators that he got for free in his car. He ran it like he did not care, everyone including me said the thick viscosity would wreck his engine. It never smoked and never missed a beat for 10 years. He changed it every 3-4000 miles regardless. I later bought the car off him for a project and decided to strip the head off to see how well it faired. I could still see signs of the honed cross hatching and no noticeable lip at the top of the bores. It looked remarkable inside and very clean. Over 90000 miles and still it had brilliant compression and never burnt a drop of oil. I think you could use almost any oil if you changed it regularly. Today, the £75 for 5 litres of oil are very good but often are expected to run up to 2 years and even 40000 miles. The oil is expensive so it does not get changed as often as before and often it's just fine but a regular change often highlights other issues that might cause trouble down the line. A slight leak, either oil, fuel, coolant, brake fluid, hyd fluid etc. Hose damage, blockages, drain holes, fuel/coolant contamination etc. Many bonnets only see daylight every year or two and often by then, damage is done. I worked in industrial maintenance for many years and regular oil changes gave long life and predictable performance. We tried, vibration analysis and oil sample analysis which did give longer run times but later longer down times due to increased wear later on. I'll stick to old school and keep it changed.
I am a castrol guy, had a beamer a year now after 25 yrs GM only, 1 ford, 1 dodge for reasons of goofing off with them. But, it was always VALVOLINE or Castrol around here. We restored and owned Model A fords, cars throughout the next several decades. My favorite vehicle is my 87 Silverado, i have had 6 of those square body trucks of the 80s, was my first vehicle. At my uncles shop one weekend, one of my dad's distant cousins pulled in with his 79 silverado, he had 275k miles on that old truck, he wanted us to overhaul his engine. He said "It has never had a thing in it but Quaker State every 3k miles I kept it changed. " My dad groaned. He just knew we were going to have a time inside that motor. We took a rag and could wipe the valve covers clean, the heads looked new, the bottom end clean. No one I knew liked Quaker state or pennzoil. We had saw every mess you could see over the years. Most bad messes were always chalked up as BAD OIL, CHEAP OIL !!! Thats what happens if you use garbage!!! Over the years, i came to realize those that bought cheap oil had bad habits in life. They didn't take care of their money, their cars, or themselves for that matter. This is why their engines were crappy, their lives were, and their health was. Keep it changed and you will keep an engine going a long time. Much healthier. I am still a Castrol man. But, I no longer rail on others.
Engine oil is designed for constant flowing inside the running engine block, there shouldn't be any circumstances that engine oil stayed still inside engine block with high temperature (running engine). The engine will be damaged if that happens regardless what oil you use.
I'll prob keep castrol as my oil... 1. I don't plan on 13k mile oil schedule... change it often. 2. It's relatively cheaper than BMW oil by 3 bucks a qt. 3. Castrol been around long enough, so they did't just put out a mediocre product to have that kind of staying power. 4. Official oil supplier usually means supplier who came in with the lowest bid...
really, good i just bought castrol magnitech ll04, how can one company swap if the car was made and tested on a certain brand oil, or is that just it, shell and castrol are a brand but the oil is the same? do you get where im coming from, bmw is very specific about using there oil
Yeah, I agree. I'm switching to Castrol Edge after the switch. I'd rather stick with Castrol rather than some custom swill Shell's lubricants division decides to conjure up. www.shell.com/global/products-services/solutions-for-businesses/lubes/media-centre/news-media-releases/2014/shell-to-be-bmw-recommended-oil-supplier.html
HI boy and girls, this video was shown to me as some veird example by person outside of "trade" to prove something absolutely stupid ... anyway most of you are partially right. As I was involved in engine design for some time I'll straighten few misconceptions that people have: 1. Yes in turbo your temperature will get sky high, regardless if you have intercooler or not - intercooler cools down air _after_ being compressed by turbo. 2. Most high charged engines nova days have oil cooler which will cool oil - oil passes turbo end engine at very high rate, there is simply no time for it to over heat 3. If you stop engine - yes oil will get exposed to high temp, still 400 Centigrade will be there for maybe a split second ... heat escapes really fast from hot spots 4. Turbo timer (thing that makes you engine run for a minute or so to let "oil cool down") was simply an answer to engines that were a) badly designed b) designing it better had no point - like racing engine in which you don't want to spent time on over-designing, but simple trick like timer will solve problem. Now problem was that when you hammer your car, yes turbo get very hot and if you will immediately switch it off your oil will get so thin it will completely exit turbo housing. NOW if you look at turbo on your car if it has oil feed and exit on top of the turbo - there is no chance for oil to evacuate turbo ... simple physics - this is how car manufacturers fixed the problem - simple init ? Now few fact that people completely miss when talking about engine oils ... just astonishing how this can slip their attention. 1. Engine is considered a hot chemical reactor - a place where all kind of reactions take place, and burning fuel provides energy for those reactions to take place. Engine oil is meant not to react with metals and substances in your engine. Best example I can quote is that using exactly "same" oil in terms of viscosity mix number (yes two different oils are mixed to get xWy number like 5W30) will a) result in different PH messing up your turbo bearing, b) come in reaction with soft seals like injector o-rings or crankshaft seals and simply accelerate their ageing giving you co called "oil use over x miles" - This is where stupid certificates come to place - just check back of your car manufacturer approved bottle and bottle you want to use and compare certificates - most of them will mean that oil does not react with certain types of rubber or preserving PH over time and temperature. 2. viscosity mix means that oil can provide a lubricating film that given temperatures (bottom and top) that will provide certain hydrodynamic pressure for part rubbing against each other. This has absolutely nothing to do with how essentially your pump will shift it through the engine. Dropping oil pressure will mean that no oil is getting to some parts or that it gets there with insignificant pressure to cover whole surfaces with oil film ... one "racing mechanic home-grown genius" decided that there is no point to use oil that costs 1k a change and resulted in last piston not getting oil sprayed on bottom of it and completely melted it. Numbers did match - right ? Please if you don't get the sarcasm now better stop reading. 3. Every single engine since 90ties is designed to last for a million miles if used within specification - this means oli, service schedule, usage pattern. Now my Mrs was very upset with her diesel car when for second time injector seals got pushed out. I was a bit surprised as I did put a right oil there all along. Anyway to cut long story short I've put a can logging device there without her knowledge and after a week of her driving everything was VERY clear - when changing gears on hard acceleration she did miss-shift few times causing engine over-reving while turbo was putting maximum pressure and EGR was widely open (does that on shift) causing exhaust gasses being pumped into intake increasing pressure even more and just pushed out seals - moral here is simple: people with heavy right foot will blame oil or something else for their crap driving, other people with light right foot will chose crap parts and destroy engine prematurely. 4. Every single oil has it's capacity for being diluted by fuel - yes unburned fuel does slip out of your combustion chamber through ring to oil sump. Now there are two things to look at a) it will continue to lubricate your parts with certain amount of fuel in mix b) will not start reacting with fuel - remember hot reactor analogy ? So, bottom line is: 1. Why for f*** sake you think you got something more to say than engineers spending billions on developing a bloody engine and telling you which oil to use exactly to give you best life span 2. If you can't afford to maintain the f*** car, why you have it ? seriously your ego is that big ? 3. People in development trade don't want to get involved because they have enough of silly home grown self proclaimed mechanics tell them stuff while they spent months in development testing facility proving otherwise.
Tomasz Kusmierz Some interesting points here. About your bottom line - I am pretty sure developing engineers know best what specification of oil is suited for their engines. But I am unsure the end user will always get the right information from manufacturer. For example using thin oil can reduce emission in standardized testing and lower the penalties for CO2. Cars are already crippled in many ways to pass these test with best possible outcome, even if that means the real world usability and consumption is compromised. So I have no reason to expect it is different with oil recommendation. Manufacturers already introduced some ridiculously long oil change intervals to attract fleet customers, as long as 30 000 km. I don't believe such numbers came directly from engineering research as optimal compromise for longevity of the engine. More likely these originates from the competition of marketing departments of idividual manufacturers, after asking engineers if it will withstand at least the guarantee period on such regime.
Mr.Tomasz thanks for explanations 😃 Found most valuable reasoning in your chapter2 - points 1&2, simply said multi grade oil could behave properly within your engine mechanism stressed by variety of thermodynamics/ hydraulicss cases But more importantly, it lefts chemical residual nussproduct which is potential source of problem if we don't change in regularly periods. For that reason inmho most important is to use oil with approved additives at recommended gradation/ viscosity (also considering dpf/ catalisator) and lastly the most stable thermally oil.
I noticed a number of comments say that oil never sits still to cook. Actually, it does, when you turn off ignition on a hot engine. That's what turbo timers were for, to keep up circulation on idle to cool down before stopping.
Its interesting to see but people are ignoring the fact that its not about which oil lasts longer, but not letting it stay too long in your engine. either oil is good in this case as long as the proper viscosity is used and most importantly keeping the engine up to date with maintenance.
Ninth bmw taxi going, always used original oils, no issues. Lots of idle running, very harsh conditions (down to -35 degrees of celsius), no preheating of the engine. Always starts, runs well and never had any issues.
Some really good additives have lower flash points and oils will absorb heat differently, just use the right oil in you engine and if your engine is produced before 2003, you should consider older grade SL oil since it's likely to have more ZINC like the Quaker state DEFY and mobil 1 racing oils. If your engine has flat lifters or is pre 90s ( less likely to have cats and O2 sensors), you should really use a Zinc Dalkyl dithiophosphate rich oil. Having the right additives is equally or more important then having a incredibly high flashpoint. Most/some multigrade diesel oils will meet API SL for gasoline engine requierments. Heavy Duty engine oils like some of those diesel SL/SM oils can be worth looking into.
Two main contributors to sludge. Extended oil service intervals and excessive heat. Excessive heat is what you get from having catalytic converters next to the oil pan (attached directly to the exhaust manifold(s), and turbochargers under the hood. Excessive idling is bad as well since you are not moving forward to blow/move heat from under the hood to under the car. Henceforth, manufacturers went to full synthetics and lowered service intervals esp for "severe service" like old school days.
Put the two oils in two steel cylinder of the same metal content..put a thermocouple on each to measure the Temp.Heat both cylinders at 100C constant.The lowest Temp reading on either cylinder will indicate the best oil.
I don't get it? I was waiting for the glass cleaner to be used to clean the flasks. So what was used to clean the flasks? Is it available at our favorite supermarkets?
Thanks also. Now I'm contented that BMW 5W30 will keep my engine safe running for 40 minutes at 400°F. LOL!. All I need now is to find an engine that when it overheats can run for 40 minutes at 400°F.
thermometers and equal volumes would have actually made this a valid scientific experiment/demonstration. I've never seen two bulb heaters with random volumes operate identically when trying to hold 400°. I tried freeze framing the top half of the apparatus, but couldn't find the thermometer (sorry if you actually did use one). ...something to consider if you make any more comparison videos cuz they are quite interesting.
A very good test. Ignore the guys that suggest testing at lower temperatures. Pushing the limits is the point. I would really like to see Castrol gtx 5W30 Dino.
Actualy the the BMW Oil it's produced by Castrol in their facilities in germany, specially aditivated to meet the BMW tehnical requierments. And the price is almoust half than Castrol at the same oil grade. I used BMW oil in my BMW for 700.000 km with changes intervals at 30.000 km... and still no sign of any kind of wearnes...
Mobydick I believe cold situation test is more appropriate than heat where most of the engine wear happens during the engine cold start up. A good oil is the one that maintains it's viscosity during cold start up
when you shut down you engine with ring packs at 300 degrees, you can see oxidized oil that goes back to the sump when you restart it by the change for fresh oil during running. That made the oil go darker
David Steckley yes but you have several quarts of flowing oil to prevent the oil from ever achieving those temperatures.. it’ll just absorb the heat and transfer it through the flow drastically diluting the affects shown in this video.
I bought a 2013 VW TDI last year and my Oil of choice was the Castrol Edge Gold Synthetic it was specifically recommended by my VW dealer if I decided to change the oil myself. I got mine off Ebay with the VW Filter on the bottle it said formulated for VW and Audi TDI vehicles.
This test just shows the temps the oil can withstand, which is ideal for people who dont regularly change oil, but the most important factor in PERFORMANCE engines is lubrication and oil pressure, this test only shows durability. So dont go making up your mind on one small test, more research would be ideal :)
***** I was actually speaking in general terms. It is important not to look at tests of durability (unless you change your oil less frequently off course), rather how well it lubricates and how well it keeps the oil pressure high. I personally do not know how well both the BMW and the castrol oil lubricate. The castrol oil could have both good lubrication and durability thus being the better oil, or, it could be as you said, provide less lubrication but more durability. Hence why i suggest doing some research and purchase oil based on how often you service the car, and how hard the car will be driven. :)
***** They should. Not too sure since im from Australia. But compared to castrol, nulon, royal purple etc... Motul is by far the best oil i have ever used. Google it, nearly everyone favors motul. Just to give you an idea of where Motul stands, a 5 litre fully synthetic 10w-30 costs 120 doillars(AUD), while a 10w-30 castrol edge only retails around 69 dollars. You get what you pay for in this scenario.
I've been using Castrol 5W-30 fully synthetic oil for my V6 engine and its giving me a splendid performance, BMW is only selling their brand name....sludge way quicker than Castrol.... still cant choose by just heating the two oils, there is one thing missing in this test which is friction..."moving parts"
If any of you actually paid attention the one on the left had the BMW oil poured into it, but for some reason the guy labeled it incorrectly later when he edited his video. The BMW oil is the one in the grey container, just pay attention to what u r actually seeing!
I am not quite sure but does it really mean the BMW oil is not as good as the Castrol.. BMW have been partner with Castrol for many years now.. why should they start making a "worst" oil for their engines? Can fully understand. A second point is: is the engine temp at 400ºC when running? =/ This question is very important because I am due to change my 118d oil and I don't know if I do it by myself (Castrol edge 5w30) or not (BMW dealer oil). Looking for a reply from a chemical / mechanical engineer.
You got it! The engine oil runs on average 70C, a racing car gets up to 120C down the main straight on a hot day. No engine oil runs at 400C. So use the Castrol Edge with confidence.
Supatipanno J Yes, I always have used castrol on all my (German) cars, and so far no problem and also because BMW have used Castrol until now. And this is why I am facing with this issue.. Should I trust BMW's or keep on with Castrol...? Can't decide.. =/
Marc Antunes personally i would go with whats recommended, it should say it on the cap where u put your oil in but i recommend you drain your oil out before changing it as all that gunk will mix into the new engine oil, i use castrol edge for my e92 320d m sport i can tell the difference, no engine runs at 400 degrees cel lol.
alaan smithy 320d "m sport" you should probably use castrol because it says "m sport", your idiotic mind thinks that its faster just because it says "m sport" you think that it has a different engine just because it says "m sport" or perhaps you put that "m sport" behind the 320d just to show off, i have a 530d with some m bumpers thats it! nothing special i dont feel the need to put that ridiculous "m sport" behind it, you probably have a M badge on your trunk too behind the 320d ///M
alaan smithy Did you recommend draining Marc's oil before changing it? How could he change his oil without draining it?... seems your advice is a bit redundant.
I work for an independent BMW workshop we use OEM oil for performance engines and Castrol for the rest what's important is your oil and filter change intervals
Never use Castrol or Bmw oi..Only use Shell Helix Ultra 5w30 for supercharged,and 5w40 for natural aspirated engines-Change every 10.000km,and it will serve you till life!
And not to forget-if you living in Alaska,Island(cold climate)use 0w30. And if u are in Africa,Saudi,Australia(hot climate)use 10w40. Mpower engines are diferent story-i think they use 10w50 15w50 or 15w60-not quite sure...
New BMW oil is either Shell Helix Ultra or Pennzoil Platinum. It's a natural gas based synthetic oil. The 0W-20 is ACEA A1/B1 and is LL-14 FE certified. It's the best oil you can buy for under $10/qt (or liter). The only other brands I know of that meet these specs are Fuchs GT1 Evo and Castrol Professional SN 0W-20. When this video was made in 2012, BMW was rebranded Castrol.
yup, in this video. i believe both are oil from castrol. i know it from from it container. the old castrol container identical as this BMW oem oil. whats make it different is that the castrol edge is full sintetic while BMW oem is semi sintetic.
anyway most of the time the piston crown is cooled by the reciprocal movements of the piston as well..its the fuel mixture and movements cooling the piston and preventing the crown the hottest part exposed to the constant thrashing and explosive thrust from the hell chamber, if you really want to control the heat at full throttle might as well get a tiny wiper wash inlet into the engine manifold for water super cooling, works beter than any snake or cat oil
so whats the meaning from this? The BMW oil lasted longer from the cooking oil demonstration? Wow, this means I have to fix larger oil coolers from allowing that to happen in the first place and fix extra fans!! Must not let it near that 400 degree mark!
Nice knowledge, my friend. But what happens when you just turning your hot engine OFF every time?! Go google for turbotimer and all around issues, probably this will clarify some basic things about oil in your engine.
Been watching some of your vid regarding the oil ( bmw vs castrol)...found them very usefull, its difficult to find good reviews about oils; from what ive seen so far, clearly 5w30 arent the best option ( both make sludge, castrol less, bmw more)....from your other vid, the best option for 0w30 is BMW oil ( castrol made sludge, bmw no) and for 0w40 is castrol ( bmw made sludge).....it would be interesting to see more oils, maybe mobil 1 or motul...anyway keep up the good work man !
Sorry but this test doesn't have any validity, the test does not replicate the conditions the oil would be experiencing inside the engine, merely heating oil is meaningless.
well, the engine heats that oil to at least 250 degree, but in some tight spaces like lubing piston ring...you can get 400 degrees easily. But the test is about long term use of a certain brand.
A lower viscosity (or lighter) oil i.e 0w30 will be better at fuel economy then an heavier oil such as 5w40 or some 0w40. Even if your vehicle requieres 5w30 for example, you can still run a 10w30 heavy duty engine oil in the summer because the oil will still be recommended by your manufacturer with a simply higher cold temperature viscosity. This means, your 10w30 oil will do great until the temperature gets colding or near freezing or way bellow freezing like here in Canada. A fully synthetic oil is not better then a conventionnal oil because additives a huge role to play. But if you take for example the Mobil 1 racing oil, it is fully synthetic and has all the additives you want and need in your engine. The synthetic oil will tend to have better multigrade performance like 0W and 5W ratings whilst being able to meet 40 weight oil. Those oil are really good for you engine in colder temperatures, use the 30 or 40 weight oil recommended from you manufacturer and a 0W or 5W rating.
Why did he exchange position of the two oils right before the experiment started? The two tubes were already in position then he exchanged it. Is the temperature different to make it appear that the other one is better? Look, starting at 1:21.
Nice video, but really useless for 99.999999% of the drivers in the world. If the oil temp reaches 400 celsius, I think your oil tarring up is the least of your worries. Maybe you should get out of the volcano first.
The temperature in the turbo reach 800celsius when engine is shut down after hard driving. That's why is recomend NOT shuting down the engine at least 30 sec after u stop.
@sebbyk15 and fccars924, 400 degrees will never be seen by your coolant, but oil most definitely has to resist insanely high temperatures. Most hydrocarbons burn with a flame temperature of over 1000C (1832F). Gasoline specificially burns at 900-1250C (1650-2280F). Your engine internals will never get quite that hot, but the your piston heads and rings will reach some crazy temps (sometimes over/up to 500C), and the oil has to deal with that.
My old E46 the cap said castrol oil, and read in other forums that the BMW oil was Castrol but with the BMW sticker on it. This video is awesome. Can you do Castrol and Mobil!?
Ignoring everyone whom is an internet mechanic on here, thank you for this test. Could you and would you PLEASE do one with Castrol 10w60 and BMWs Shell Oil 10w60 and Liqui Molys 10w60??!?!?!?!
Well I've been using Castrol Edge and regular changes on my 98500 miles BMW E91 Msport for the last 3 years, then last week my Turbo let go 180 miles from home with no recovery service to help me out. Would it have gone sooner if I had used cheaper semi synthetic oil or would it prevented it if I had used BMW oil ? Even using the best oil didn't prevent that, so may start buying own brand fully synthetic and saving the spare cash for AA Recovery !!
The Castrol Edge is evidently better quality oil than others This test proves and confirms the fact. Explanation is clear because the Edge contains full synthethic components based on Decen_1 , Regards
I change my Royal purple every 3000 miles tore engine apart at 280k miles looked new.. Failed to say it was a toyota 4.0 not american..2005 toyota xrunner
Best oil is clean oil. If the oil is API American Petroleum institute approved your good to go. Change the oil and filter every 5,000 miles. Walmart Super Tech motor oil is a good oil at a very reasonable price. My friend had 318,000 miles on his van and only used conventional oil. It was still running strong when he traded it in for a newer van.
your test just shows that if you run those oils at nearly twice the normal operating (expected operation temps) that one solidifies more polymers quicker, more polymers that may very well seriously out perform the the Cast/oil under normal conditions.
I worked for bmw spares department. We always recommends Castrol. Even in the year off 2007 we used castrol txt 5w40 Softec. It comes in the bmw grey bottles with their logos on it. But 2006/7/8 it was castrol not sure today.so blame the supplier lol not bmw.
Dan Nguyen lol I drive an Escort wagon that cost less than the tires I put on it ($250 for the car, $280 for the tires). There's absolutely zero douche cred in my vehicle.
Что то я не понял. Это реклама или антиреклама. Насколько я понимаю автомасла недостигают таких температур, при которых происходит критический распад смазывающей цепи. Первоначальная задача автомасла это смазывать трущиеся поверхности. И какая здесь сила трения по маслу опыт не показал. Вывод сие действие было бессмысленно как на мой взгляд.
This test shows that BMW oil creates sludge under extreme conditions,and that castral keeps its original form,sludge plugs ports and oiler holes through out critical spots in ur engine.
нафига его греть до 400 градусов??? Да и все манипуляции с мензурками, и исчезновением канистр и баночек с экрана сеют сомнения. Сергей давно уже бакланит масла БМВ, хотя подписывается бмв-сервис. Он к нему такое отношение имеет как я к балету Да и видно, что кастрол кипит как подсолнечное вначале, но в конце по волшебству в баночке с маслом бмв как будто серы навалили с две ложки. Такого быть не может.
In a fact: ''As part of the recent program, bp will continue to produce BMW Group’s branded engine oils which meet the OEM’s most recent and rigorous engine specifications including LL-17 FE+ and LL-12 FE as well as older generation specifications such as LL-01 and LL-04. The BMW branded lubricant formulations are based on Castrol EDGE, a leading full synthetic brand strengthened by Fluid Titanium Technology which increases film strength, reduces friction, and improves lubrication under the intense pressure of high output engines.'' -so it is the SAME OIL what we are talking about!?
stupid question which oil did better? the castrol vaporized which would'nt clog oil galleries, which i like, but the bmw oil stayed put and sludged up, i also followed the attached link to the video and found the oil i used in my acura tsx teh mobil 1 0w20 "fuel efficiency" would you recommend this oil for continued use thanks.
@footincanuck; The oil temp in the turbine will reach temps of 800 C degrees or even higher, of course for a short time, taking into consideration the oil circulation through the turbine. Turbine oils are totally different form non turbine oils. Piston rings for turbine engines are completely different from piston rings of non turbine engines. The biggest problem of engine brakedowns is the wrong oil selection not-appropriate oil. Normally oils never brake down and never need to be changed.
I think the unanswered question here is what's the difference between Castrol Edge Professional and regular Castrol Edge? I'm glad you did the experiment @ 400 degrees because the main issue is how the oil breaks down over time under extreme high temperature(and I doubt this experiment would have been done at all in real time). I, also, think the issue is what oil grade/viscosity meets the requirements of your particular BMW (LongLife-01, LL-04, etc)? I would suspect that the BMW brand named oil is actually produced by Castrol or perhaps Pennzoil today since Pennzoil received the honors of being BMW's NEW recommended oil brad in America. The real question is: What in the "Professional" line of CAstrol Edge that sets it apart from other BMW LL-01 or BMW LL-04 certified oils.
Castrol Edge Professional is only sold to auto repair shops. I've been told there's UV dye in it so the mechanic knows the car's oil was last changed at a shop, but the product is still the latest BMW Longlife, Volkswagen 504.00/507.00 and so on oil.