ORIGINAL: ArCeeFlyer
I was curious if anybody had read the article called "The Great Castor Oil Conspiracy" written by Brian Winch in his column "The Oily Hand" in the February 2006 issue of R/C Report magazine. He talks about castor being corrosive and wonders why even high quality degummed low acidity castor is even used at all anymore with all the advancements in engine metallurgy and synthetic oil. He uses strictly synthetic blends in all his engines and says even after running many gallons (44 in one example) his engines still look virtually new inside. It was a very comprehensive article and got me thinking I should drop castor oil completely. I know castor still probably has better resistance against lean runs than synthetic, but just making sure the setting is always on the rich side, which is good practice always, seems worth the effort to eliminate any chance of corrosion, gumming, and varnishing. What do you think? Much ado about nothing or should it be taken seriously?
Hmm... Sounds like a solution in search of a problem...
Lessee.... we've been using castor oil in model engines for what... sixty or seventy years now, and this pinhead decides NOW that it's corrosive... HELLO!! [>:]
With no corroboration in all the well researched literature on the web re: castor and synthetic oils, IMO Mr Winch should take up writing gardening articles, or better yet just give up writing altogether and take a job as a WalMart greeter, which more correctly suits his ability.