kennyPride

I recall reading preference for Syntec over Mobil 1. Aren't both approved by Porsche?

Chaos

up

No HTwo O

I hear very good things about Castrol Syntech 5W50. And plan to use this at some point in my 987S. But, IIRC, technically speaking, the only "Porsche Approved 5W50" is Mobil 1's.

LVDell

Any idea what the difference between Castrol Syntec 5-40 and 5-50 is? The 5-40 is on the approved oils list.

jcb-memphis

I remember discussion on 6am about this oil. Not sure, but additives to get that 50 were stated as no long lived...

I cannot vouch for that. It used to be common...now I never see it.


JB

Kevin

The only Castrol that I would use is the non approved BMW 10W60.. Go figure..

With that said, I "use" and recommend M1 5W50 and M1 5W40 Tubo Diesel Truck which is on sale a Wally Mart for a good price I hear.

And Mobil VTwin 20W50 for ALL air-cooled turbo engines.

raineycd

So if availability and price were not a consideration, would you use M1 5w-50 or 5w-40 tdt?

jcb-memphis

I have used 5w-40 turbo diesel truck....great stuff and easy to find....people say it is more quiet than 5w-50...I have used both and it is. Given noise probably is related to wear, I may move to it. Big diesel engines are nasty places for oil...this stuff might actually be the best street M1 stuff....hiding in plain sight if you will.


I have a lot of the 5w-50...once used up I'll probably just use 5w-40 TDT unless hard data show the 50 to be demonstrably better.

I listen to Kevin.

Jeff

ltc

I prefer Motul motor oils over Castrol, but for now I just use M1

MK19

I'm with Kevin.......M1. I occasionally fall vack to Valvolene, but Castrol has zero virtue over the tried and true M1. The weight is less criticall than the manufacture........loong poor rep in castrol. In MHO.

No HTwo O

This has proven to be an excellent recommendation for me. Thanks, Kevin!

Kevin

What is scary is folks that drive the 993TT and have the dealer fill the engine with 0W40 or 5WXX on the air-cooled turbo..

Chad, 5W50 is very good, if you are having IMS noise, I'd run the 5W40 TDT.

Mikelly

For a turbo? Are you sure?

Mike

Macster

This approved oils business is really confusing. I have two -- make that 3 (I just found another one) -- separate documents, 2 with the same title and dates in the document pages footers that offer conflicting info. The 3rd one I just found has no date.

But all agree that only hydrocracked or synthetic oils are now approved by Porsche.

Further only non-seasonal oils are approved. These are oils that have low viscosity at low temps (like 0w or 5w) and are resistent to evaporating at high temperatures. These oils can be used as non-seasonal oils as long as the temperature is taken into consideration. All oils approved by Porsche can be used above -25C. Below 025C only SAE oils of the 0W class can be used.

Anyhow, on this list I have Castrol Syntec 5w-50 is not on the Porsche approved oils list. This oil was listed on an earlier approved oils list. (The techs where I have my car serviced tell me this oil is approved -- along with about a jillion others (more below) -- but I have nothing more to go on at this time other than this second hand info.)

Castrol Syntec 5w-40 oil's approval expired on 14.09/2008 but Castrol was at the time this approved oils document released seeking an extension (along with more than a few other oil makers). All other Castrol oils that were approved the approval expired sometime in 2009.

Mobil 1 0w-40 oil's approval expired on 04.05.2010 along with 5w-40 and 5w-50.

All the rest of the Mobil oils have an expiration date that expired sometime earlier this year. (The most recent 2010 expiration date is Oct but I see Sept, August, May and Feb (of 2010).)

The only other oils -- USA or WW (world wide) oils only (there are some oils but these are only available in DEU, EU, E-EU and Asia) I see approved until sometime in 2011 are:

AGIP 2007 5w-40.
AGIP Formula Prestige 5w-40.
Castrol Edge 0w-40.
ENOC Protec Green 5w-40.
Fuchs Titan SuperSyn 5w-40.
Meguin GmbH megol Motorenoel Low Emission 5w-40.
Mobil Edge 5w-40.
Mobil 1 ESP 0w-40.
Shell Helix Ultra C 0w-40.
Valvoline SynPower MST 5w-40.
Valvoline SynPower HST 5w-40.
ENOC Protec 5w-40 is approved until 13.05.2011.

(Note: For our friends in the EU and other regions there are other oils that are good until sometime in 2011 but to keep this posting to a reasonable size I elected to not include EU or other regions and the oils available in the EU and other regions.)

Just a head's up. Except for one or two of the above oils all the oils expire in January of 2011. There are one or two that are due to expire later -- July IIRC -- in 2011.

It would appear that Porsche is about due to release and updated approved oils list.

However, some months ago (maybe as long as a year ago) long after this info (I used to compile the above) came out I checked into this some and was told that Porsche essentially rubber stamped -- not quite as negative as it reads -- all previously approved oils (hence my use of "jillions" above), that Porsche recognizes any major brand oil that as long as it met the hydrocracked or synthetic qualification and the various SAE/ACEA3 standards was approved.

I believe I was given a copy of a Porsche TSB like document that stated the above, a one or two page document, but I looked for the document and could not find it.

I'll look some more but in the meantime I'll see if I can't get ahold of a newer approved oils list.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Nikkolaki

so, would it hurt to use castrol syntec 5w40 or 5w50? with change intervals of 4-5k miles?