Red Line oil?
Safety Car
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 4,010
Likes: 1
From: SE Idaho
St. Jude Contributor
Re: Red Line oil? (vettenuts)
GM spends more money per year on oil research than you could ever imagine. However, if you read the owner's manual, you can use other synthetic oils as long as it meets the GM spec called out in your owner's manual.
Personally, I prefer to stay with a base IV synthetic molecule based oil, versus the Group III basestock oil. Right now, the only Base IV brands I know of are Mobil 1 and AMSOIL. But that is not to say there are not others out there; I just have not researched that far yet. The only synthetic group III basestock I know of is Castrol Synthetic, and AMSOIL XL (AMSOIL produces two different types of oil that they call synthetic). Again, there may be more, but don't know what brands at this time.
(Castrol was the company that Mobil filed suit against back in the late 90s for using group III basestock oil instead of synthetic molecules and advertising as synthetic oil. Castrol won the lawsuit, since they did add synthetic additives, including ether to the product.)
Personally, I prefer to stay with a base IV synthetic molecule based oil, versus the Group III basestock oil. Right now, the only Base IV brands I know of are Mobil 1 and AMSOIL. But that is not to say there are not others out there; I just have not researched that far yet. The only synthetic group III basestock I know of is Castrol Synthetic, and AMSOIL XL (AMSOIL produces two different types of oil that they call synthetic). Again, there may be more, but don't know what brands at this time.
(Castrol was the company that Mobil filed suit against back in the late 90s for using group III basestock oil instead of synthetic molecules and advertising as synthetic oil. Castrol won the lawsuit, since they did add synthetic additives, including ether to the product.)
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 22,025
Likes: 192
From: At the beach in little Rhody
Re: Red Line oil? (WhiteC5Vette)
Yes, Castrol Syntec is Group III. But the European version is not.
Here is a good Redline thread on that subject:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/...=001190#000006
Here is a good Redline thread on that subject:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/...=001190#000006
