When I was young, we had fun with Redex,. two-stroke oil, castor oil and other oils and gloops. We were more interested in the best smell and the most smoke than any positive effect on engine performance.

 

Castrol R

Need I say more?

 

Actually, yes. I've never heard of that or seen it. What is it? The only Castrol gasoline engine oils I have seen here are GTX and Edge

 

Castrol R was and still is an engine oil that is used in racing engines and gives off a very distinctive smell which if you have never smelt it will not mean a thing to you. If you have smelt it then women need to wear it as a perfume to attract their mate.

“The unbelievable aroma from this product is remembered by all, the most popular is from its motor racing days, this included both on and off-road racing, one could smell it at all racetracks and it was one of the most pleasant smells at the tracks and in the pits. All motor enthusiasts both two and four wheel also used it just for the great smell.” said the Castrol Classic team.

https://abrbuzz.co.za/events/24-pres...ar-castrol-r40

 

!!! ... think of 12-year old single malt whisky.

 

Castrol R History:



In the case of Sir Charles Cheers Wakefield, later Baron Wakefield of Hythe, the sweet smell of success was more than a metaphor. You still catch the scent of the substance that made his company a household name in the early 1900s wherever older racing engines are exercised: that distinctive, heady perfume of Castrol R. Although castor oil, the origin of the smell, was still the purgative bane of many a childhood when C C Wakefield & Co introduced its Castrol range in 1909 (the name being a contraction of castor oil), to high performance engines on the road and in the air it was to become a more welcome part of the diet.

The story begins in 1899 when, having spent 15 years working for the London office of Vacuum Oil Company of Rochester, NY, later to metamorphose into Mobil, Charles Wakefield resigned his position as general manager and determined to strike out on his own. It was an auspicious time to be doing so. Within four years the Wright Brothers would take tentatively to the air, followed albeit somewhat belatedly by compatriot Samuel Franklin Cody at Famborough in 1908. A year later Louis Bleriot flew the English Channel and, five years after that, storm clouds over Europe would spur a period of unprecedented aircraft development effort. On the ground, progress was scarcely less momentous as the horseless carriage progressed from being a curiosity and plaything into an increasingly practical mechanism, as well as another vehicle of human endeavour and national rivalry.

Charles Wakefield wasn’t slow to realise that here lay both an important new market for lubricating oils and, just as significantly, a whole new marketing opportunity also. The world was agog at the daredevil exploits unfolding on land and in the air; having your product name attached to such derringdo was a golden opportunity to exploit what today we would call product placement. So Charles Wakefield determined to produce a new breed of oil for this new breed of machine, and make certain that the world knew of it.

Engine oil development, like engine development itself, was then in its infancy. Today’s world of multigrade and synthetic oils was a long way off. Prior to the sinking of the first petroleum well in 1859, engineers had had to use animal and vegetable fats and oils for lubrication, but these proved far from ideal at the extremes of temperature involved in the internal combustion engine. As every cook knows, fats and oils thicken when you put them in the fridge and leave gummy, varnish-like deposits when you heat them in a pan. This same behaviour in an engine made cold cranking difficult on startup, while oxidation of the lubricant at combustion temperatures could, literally, gum up the works.

Mineral oils relieved these limitations, even in their early forms offering a level of thermal and oxidative stability traditional lubricants couldn’t match. But they were far from perfect In particular they lacked what, at the time, was termed “oiliness”, the ability to adhere to metal surfaces in a thin, continuous film. Wakefield researchers found that whereas castor oil coated a hot metal surface, mineral oil tended to pool on it, leaving areas of metal exposed.

Today we have a much better understanding of why this happens. Castor oil is composed almost entirely of triglyceride fatty acids, of which ricinoleic glycerides form by far the largest proportion (typically around 86 per cent). Fatty acids are polarised molecules comprising an oily, hydrophobic (water-hating) head and a hydrophilic (water-loving) tail; the hydrophilic ends of castor oil molecules are adsorbed to the metal surface, leaving the oily heads protruding.

The result is that castor oil provides excellent boundary lubrication, much better than that achieved by early mineral alternatives. In hydrodynamic bearings, like crankshaft bearings, where a relatively thick layer of oil is established, this offers no benefits. But where the oil layer is thin — on cylinder walls and cam lobes, for instance — it ensures a higher level of scuff resistance.

Mixing castor and mineral oil therefore seemed a good idea in the early 1900s, but the two are not readily miscible. What Wakefield researchers discovered was that a surprisingly small proportion of castor oil — as little as 0.7 per cent — was sufficient to confer its high film strength on the mix, and thus Wakefield Motor Oil (Castrol Brand) was born. In fact, five variants were introduced initially for different applications, Castrol R being the flagship product intended for aero and racing engines. Wakefield & Co’s core business was — and in the immediate future, would remain — lubricants for the railways and industrial customers, but it was Castrol Brand that was to carry the company name to the four corners of the globe.

Success was almost immediate. In October 1909, Britain’s first aviation prize, the Inauguration Cup, was won by Frenchman Leon Delagrange using Castrol oil. Following which, on land and in the air, the litany of Castrol successes encompasses many of the most significant events in aviation and motoring history, including Britain’s winning of the Schneider Trophy three times in a row with the R J Mitchell designed, Rolls-Royce powered Supermarine S5, and most of the World Land Speed Records established during the highly competitive inter-war years. In the Great War, Castrol R even came to the attention of Kaiser Wilhelm II, achieving almost ‘secret weapon’ status when it was discovered that a captured British aircraft could operate at considerably higher altitudes than German equivalents due to its engine oil’s superior low temperature performance.

In the 1920s castor oil was removed from general motoring oils as mineral oil technology advanced, but its superior film strength ensured it a continued role in high performance engines. Only in 1953 was Castrol R superseded by R20, again containing castor oil but this time mixed with a semi-synthetic, and the successes began all over again. Mercedes-Benz immediately chose it for the advanced W196, Fangio scoring a first-time-out victory for both oil and car when he won the French GP in ’54. Even today castor oil remains the lubricant of choice in certain applications, notably methanol powered two-strokes because of its complete miscibility with alcohol fuels. As a result you don’t have to go to a historic race meeting to catch that distinctive castor aroma. Appropriately, it can even be smelt where enthusiasts fly model aeroplanes.

credit Motor Sport magazine.

 

It's important to know that Castrol 'R' is not compatible with normal engine oils. It doesn't mix for a start.

 

It is not suitable for any modern vehicles either. Meets zero of their specs. Fine for methanol/alcohol in small 2 stroke engines. That's about it. Will mix with some synthetics but why would you want to?

It is a product of the past. Fine for your model 2 stroke airplane. A Motocross bike running on methanol can run on it. Good for stopping skid on roller cranks but does little for ringbelt & bore protection. But who cares. In competition you endlessly discard pistons & rings.

BTW ~ Today Castrol is owned by BP

 

I always use the purchase price of
Castrol, $4.7 billion, to judge the size of
Acquisitions.

 

Whether Castrol R is good or not the smell brings back so many childhood memories of sitting in the paddock at Brands Hatch with my Dad. Every now and then you get a whiff of Castrol R in the distance where some older car has gone by ten minutes earlier. Such a distinctive smell.

 

Rob. I've analysed it. It is just Castor Oil with 0.2% Calcium in it. If you like the smell just pop a small dose in your fuel tank as an upper cylinder lubricant & enjoy the smell. Don't do it too often or you will build up deposits.

I too love the smell.

 

Clyde ~ as a US oilco we nearly bought Castrol. But there was our usual analysis paralysis and some worry about incompatible company cultures. I think they are far better off with BP. We are a very inward looking company that tends to do business with ourselves & via huge distributors in the US. Outside the US we go direct to customer. Castrol are fantastic customer facing marketers. Their products are good but nothing special ~ no better than any other major, We all have our areas of strength. Our additive company sells them most of their additives for GTX, Edge & the likes. They buy some greases from us where we have the technology. One thing we are is a highly technically inventive company.

They are a good honest company with superior marketing skills which I admire. I can say these things in retirement. I hope BP does not bugger them up & leaves them alone.

 

Thanks Glyn I might try that.

 

Our teenage experiments were probably motivated by some of the smoke screen effects of Bond's DB5. It wasn't difficult to lash up a system to make a small squirt of fluid into the inlet upstream of the carburettor driven by a button or syringe in the cab. The castor oil probably arose from reading Biggles' adventures with his Sopwith Camel rather than knowledge of Castrol R. WWI pilots were often soaked in the stuff sprayed form their engines. As a consequence of the amount they ingested, they were as likely to be seen sprinting to the toilet facilities as their planes to intercept the enemy.

As I recall, decades ago Castrol products often performed better than those of the oilco that I worked for. Our company was never very imaginative in takeovers: management could never conceive of anther operation or brand having anything to offer us. Still, as when Ford bought Jaguar, BP probably paid as much for the 'sizzle' as the 'sausage.'

 

The stuff Castrol make that I used to use regularly was Valvemaster, a lead replacement additive, that I put in petrol when filling the tank of my MG Midget, but that car is now sold. A small bottle used to last me nearly a year with the summer-only use of the car. I had to use something as the engine didn't have hardened valve seats.

 

Glyn, BP had to stall the purchase of Castrol while they bought Amoco. Amoco was getting out of the lube business at the time. BP could say don't for fear of issues in either deal.

 

Glyn: I used to work for a company that built compressor packages for natural gas, using engines up to 5000hp; also fuelled by natural gas. Until I started working there, I wasn't aware that natural gas fuelled engines have their own oil spec, and gasoline and diesel spec oils are incompatible. One of our customers was BP, and they had a policy of only using their own lubricants, in this case the Castrol brand.

Unfortunately they didn't make a natural gas rated oil, only their competition did (I think only Imperial Oil and Petro Canada do); so they used gasoline rated oil in the engine. Needless to say, it made it about half way through to the first recommended oil change interval before seizing. I don't think they were able to salvage much out of that engine, it cost them close to a million dollars to replace the engine in parts and labour. After seeing that I have been a fanatic about making sure the oil I use is appropriate for the application.

 

Until we swapped the engine, I used the octane improving version of Valvemaster in my DD6. I think the heads had been skimmed more than once and, as an HE, the compression ratio was off the scale. It used to knock quite significantly on gentle uphills on the motorway. Valvemaster worked, but it required a lot of it.

 

Yes I remember that. We were muddying the water in the background. I think Castrol would have been a very good purchase for us but we got into play too late. My boss & I were gung ho about it but certain people without passports in HQ less so. I won't say anymore.

 

Yes ~ we were the primary supplier to Waukesha gas engines with a proprietary product. We basically lubricate every pump station on the gas pipelines of NA. We did rebrand it for some friendly companies. Much depends on the gas as to the formulation you use. We made an expensive one size fits all apart from some particularly sour gas in Pakistan. There we had to make a special for that market only. Gas can be difficult stuff to lubricate for and I'm not giving away the secrets ~ there is basically one big one. Castrol is primarily an automotive company.

Waukesha was sold in the GE mess up. Their top engine was/is 5000bhp. They are now in the INNIO Group with Jenbacher. We sell buckets of gas engine oil across Asia on top of our US sales.