Castrol R

[rok-the-boat]

Years ago I used to run Castrol R in my 2 stroke road bikes - works well and smells great. I'd like to get some for my Jetski - is it available in NZ?

[Motu]

Supercheap.

[Mom]

Yummiest smell in the world

[pete376403]

Pro - Very good lubrication, smells beautiful, Con - expensive, oxidises to a crappy gum over time which can clog small passages in carbs etc.
I once bought a Jawa speedway engine that had been left standing for a long time (several years) and the crank was initially locked solid because of R40. Filled the cases with solvent and rocked the crank back and forth with a big wrench until the bearings freed up.Took quite a while. Ran that engine on mineral oil after that, which was ok but didn't smell as nice.

[Conquiztador]

Years ago I used to run Castrol R in my 2 stroke road bikes - works well and smells great. I'd like to get some for my Jetski - is it available in NZ?

You can get it from Castrol. Used to be downtown off from Victoria Park towards the waterfront (forgert the name of the place).

[Motu]

But Supercheap is cheaper.

[Robert Taylor]

Do you like doing regular decokes and removing oil varnish off pistons? It may lubricate well but there are a lot of disadvantages that given the modern and ''clean'' oils on the marker why bother putiing up with it.
Its also only a premix oil not suitable for oil injection pumps. Even as a premix oil it has its attendant problems, it seperates out of the fuel or wont always mix so well. It needs a blending agent likea percentage of acetone.
I too remember the stuff ''fondly'' but really the world has moved on.

[Motu]

Modern R is not like the old stuff that caused problems if you didn't change it,or ran it in a petrol powered bike.But it still forms a hard shiny carbon,on a race bike that comes apart regularly it isn't really a problem....if you think an engine should stay together for 3 seasons then it is going to be hard to get it off.

[Robert Taylor]

Modern R is not like the old stuff that caused problems if you didn't change it,or ran it in a petrol powered bike.But it still forms a hard shiny carbon,on a race bike that comes apart regularly it isn't really a problem....if you think an engine should stay together for 3 seasons then it is going to be hard to get it off.

Ok, but given the modern synthetic lubricants that provide even better protection and burn really clean the argument for a vegetable based lubricant is wearing pretty thin.

[Motu]

There are some areas where fancy lubricants can't get near old basic castor oil,but for an internal combustion engine there is not much point....although if I was running alky,castor would still be the way to go.Alky and castor mix,petrol and mineral oils mix,but not the other way round.

[CookMySock]

Use a modern synthetic and add just a little R for flavour.

Steve

[pete376403]

Way back when DT1 Yamahas were a state of the art off roader, Dirt Bike magazine did an oil shootout, and they did it properly. A baseline dyno run, then for each type of oil tested the engine got a new piston and rings before being dyno'ed. Oil and fuel was premixed at the same ratio, probably as much control over things as it was possible to get. They tested about (IIRC) 20 different oils, and Castrol R40 gave the best power output of all the oils tested. However this was nearly 40 years ago, oil tech has improved a wee bit since then.

[Motu]

Try running anything but R30 in a worm drive diff.

[CRF119]

You can just buy pure caster if you want that smell. I mix Nitro fuel for RC cars and we use it in most of our fuels but not all. I wouldnt use it in a modern 2 stroke. But i do thank those that still do nothing smells better then burnt castor in the bush.

[HenryDorsetCase]

You can just buy pure caster if you want that smell. I mix Nitro fuel for RC cars and we use it in most of our fuels but not all. I wouldnt use it in a modern 2 stroke. But i do thank those that still do nothing smells better then burnt castor in the bush.

so its good secks lube as well? good to know!