CASTROL R - ANYONE STILL USING IT/SWEAR BY IT?

[STREETSLEEPER]

I still use Castrol R and I wondered if anyone else still uses it? It seems to be a pretty emotive subject and summat that I've followed with interest on other bike and two stroke forums. Everyone seems to have an opinion and I've read a lot of tosh written on the subject. Stuff like it hasn't been made since the 60's, you can only get it in Oz, right round to it clogs up your tank if you leave your bike standing, and it'll blow up yer engine if ya mix it wiv any uvver oil! A lot of people get a good lungful when I putter by, and I've had some blokes get all misty eyed and go on about how good it smells and the racing at Brand's Hatch in the "good old days" (Brands isn't far from me in Kent). At Camber a few years ago a Vespa rider caught up with us at a junction and said "I've caught you! That's an unmistakable smell mate - I reckon I've been following you for about 5 miles!" So, obviously I've got my own tried and tested version of Castrol R use and I love some polemics and a bit of controversy. Anyone else?

[Captain Pugwash]

No I'm not still using it but

I used Castrol R30 for about a year.
This was on a cast iron Barreled engine, it gummed up the piston and rings, eventually sticking the bottom ring in its groove.
It also had a tendency to settled out in the petrol tank if I left it for any length of time, so I switched back to normal 2 stroke oil.
But it smells great.

[St George]

Love the stuff, even put it in my mower LOL : )

[lozmondo]

Maxima 927 and Castrol A747 are synthetic based castor oils, same lovely smell, but a bit more forgiving

[STREETSLEEPER]

It’s really good to know I’m not the only one using Castrol R! And really interesting to hear your replies, so I’ll try to answer as many (or perhaps the few) replies to this topic.
Captain Pugwash, I’ve heard about these problems quite a lot. I use Castrol R40 all the time and with regard to settling in the petrol tank I think there may be something in it. I rode my scooter (S2 TV175 engine) around this morning and there was frost on the grass and on windscreens. The old girl did seem to smoke a bit more than usual at first so perhaps the oil was starting to settle at the bottom of the tank. Time will tell on this score because I shall be riding her around whatever the weather.
Apparently the R30 that you ran yours on is still available in Oz where they use it in colder weather. To my knowledge it is no longer available here in the UK but I managed to get my hands on a couple of litres a few years ago (for £5 each on a second hand stall) so may switch to this for a while when it gets colder still and see what happens.
I have run mine on R40 for years and I’ll leave it up to everyone else to decide what they think of my decision as I start to make my replies. I do think ratio is very important and I have tried 50:1; 40:1; 33:1 and 25:1.
I’ve had no problem with sticky rings or anything of that nature but I have read of the “glaze” that it leaves on engine components. When I did a complete engine strip-down recently I found it’s true that everything had a shiny glaze left on them. My opinion is this isn’t in itself harmful and could be why so many racers used Castrol R because it prevents seizures. I used to race a TV 200 with a GP200 engine (home-tuned cast iron barrel) in the cutdown class and the engine ran brilliantly. I’ll upload some photos of the engine so everyone can make comments and say what they think. And yep, I agree with you Captain, it smells great

Hope the pic ain't too small to see but this is the extent of carbon build up after running the engine for years on a mixture of Castrol R40, plain modern mineral, part-synth, fully-synth, and sometimes a mixture of one, or more than one other of the aforementioned. Despite what they say about Castrol R not mixing with other oils I believe this to be a misunderstanding. On four-strokes where people use Castrol R in their crankcases I can see why they wouldn't mix, and this is where the warnings come in; but on the total-loss, burn the whole damn lot in the combustion chamber two-stroke, it seems not to matter.

And this pic of the cylinder head is after cleaning and starting afresh. Next year I'll strip her down again to see what condition the engine components are in after having run her exclusively on R30/40. The pics of other engine parts which I've yet to upload, but will get round to during this debate I'm trying to get going, will shock some, and horrify others. By the end of it I hope a whole lot more people will have something to say on the subject!

[STREETSLEEPER]

Love the stuff, even put it in my mower LOL : )

Have you got a two-stroke mower St George? I tried it in the tank of my four-stroke mower and I couldn't smell it at all. Gonna get me an old-two stroke mower so I can do the same!

[STREETSLEEPER]

Maxima 927 and Castrol A747 are synthetic based castor oils, same lovely smell, but a bit more forgiving

I've seen this A747 advertised so will get round to trying it after my present experiment, but what's Maxima 927? who makes that? Have you tried these and if so, what did you make of them? Thanks

[sunrisemac]

I use Castrol R40 all the time and with regard to settling in the petrol tank I think there may be something in it.

Have you put some petrol and 'Bean Oil' in a glass jar, shaken it up then left it for a while to see what happens?
Having used it extensively in racing engines there is no doubt in my mind that it one of the best lubricants for clinging on to components and engine hot spots, we always reckoned that if we blew an engine that a lot more bits would be salvageable if we were running on 'R'.

[lozmondo]

Yes used both. No issues that could be related to choice of oil, but when I tried Maxima is wasn't as easy to get hold of as it is now.
Maxima 927 is made by..Maxima, a US based company.

[St George]

I have a four stroke mower and it smells great, also in my compactor wacker plate. If it mixed with Golden Virginia I would give it a go. Great stuff.

[Covboy]

Hi I have just bought a bottle of castrol 747 - it's says it's for Water cooled engines on the label - is it safe to use in a standed 150 cc engine?

[Covboy]

Well I guess nobody knows! I soon will as I've just filled up and used 2% A747 !

Happy Christmas!

[St George]

You only need a tea spoon of the stuff to get that great smell. Merry Xmas >>

[knievel77]

I've just found this thread.
Did anyone have any thoughts on the Castrol 747?

[lozmondo]

its very good quality oil, but don't mix it with others

[St George]

As mentioned earlier I even put it in my mower to remind my of Lydden Hill, I do remember the lads at Roys of Hornchurch in 1971 ( Royspeed ) told us that R would not do the crank seals any good ? Do love the smell.