TWS Motorsport & EDGE Pro TWS are Different! - Blackstone Report

[Billj747]

After all of the speculation, I decided to send my own samples of Castrol TWS Motorsport and Castrol EDGE Professional TWS in to Blackstone Laboratories to get a definitive answer on the differences between them.

After about $100, here's what I found:

On the surface, both bottles look identical with just a different label.

Rear:

However on the sides of the bottle, there is a noticeable difference in the width of the oil level 'window', as well as you can see a difference in the actual shape of the neck.

Oil in the Blackstone bottles, you can see they have a different color.

Here you can really see a different color of the two oils.


And here is the Blackstone Reports:

TWS Motorsport:

EDGE Profesional TWS:


Results:

The EDGE Professional TWS has:

-215ppm of Moly (vs. 1ppm for TWS Motorsport)
-Half of the Boron (72 vs 156) of TWS M.
-Has Titanium while Motorsport does not
-Twice the Calcium
-Almost no Magnesium (vs. 636ppm)
-About the same Phosphorus and Zinc.
-*Is a little lighter with 100.2 SUS V. at 210*F (vs. 108.2)
-*Is a little lighter with 20.4 cSt V 100*C (vs. 22.26)
-*has a higher flash point of 485*F (vs. 450*F)
-*A higher TBN of 12.3 (vs. 9.1)

I guess on paper for what I know, the new Castrol EDGE Pro TWS 10W60 seems to be the better choice over the older TWS Motorsport 10W60.

[G80indy]

Interesting!
Thanks for doing this

[Ervin87]

Very interesting. Thanks for your efforts. Great information.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Couple of weeks ago i had an oil change at my BMW dealer and noticed too that Edge has a different color !

[meko]

This is an excellent comparison. Thanks for posting.

[FogCityM3]

Very interesting, thx for doing this!

[dparm]

They're clearly different just looking at the bottle. Edge Professional TWS is the newer formula, hence API SN (versus SJ). Overall it's a stouter formula -- higher flashpoint and stronger additive pack. Also worth noting is that it appears to be about 10% thinner. TWS Motorsport is basically the old formula.

I would've been interested to see virgin/starting TAN.

[0-60Motorsports]

Thanks for doing this.

[tokic_o]

Sorry for the ignorance, but after this comparison which one would you recommend be used on our e9x M3? Does the dealer carry the new EDGE one?

[dparm]

Originally Posted by tokic_o

Sorry for the ignorance, but after this comparison which one would you recommend be used on our e9x M3? Does the dealer carry the new EDGE one?

You should be using Edge Professional TWS. The other one is not stocked by dealerships and is an older and less stout formula.

[thekurgan]

I was waiting for a moly comparison, thanks for posting. With respect to the packaging, I always thought it was comical to state the 10w-60 with TWS ... seemed redundant.

[dparm]

OP, I suggest you cross-post this on Bob Is The Oil Guy. We love seeing VOAs like this!

[Richbot]

I also have run these back to back on used oil and noted similar results. Also Noted slightly higher wear metals and more viscosity degradation (which could be a good thing depending on what you want) for the Edge Pro than the TWS over a similar ~7200 mile interval. Inconclusive until I test the TWS that is currently in the car as the wear metals could just be the engine aging.

[StickMon]

Thanks for the effort!! This is linked on Zpost where we were also wondering and hoping that the formula got better, and not worse.

[dparm]

Correct, there are very old SAE tests that show motor oils actually work best after they have been running through the engine for a while. That's why people who run very short intervals might do more harm than good. Oil doesn't really break down due to the passage of time.

Castrol has been pushing titanium a lot in the past few years. Antimony is another new one found in higher-end oils (I suspect it will trickle down to OTS stuff soon).

[ECSTuning]

Mr Sparkle - We've been carrying the Castrol branded TWS for quiet a while now, it's virtually the same fluid for a bit less and without the BMW part number on the bottle. There is a thread rolling around with fresh oil vs fresh oil Black Stone reports on the two, I believe they stated virtually the same oil as well.

-James

[ECSTuning]

Originally Posted by Mr Sparkle

hmm, can't find that thread/post. Can you please kindly link me? thanks!

I'll try to dig it up, it's been a while since it was bumped. From my memory it was on another forum, but I'll link it here when I find it.

-James

[ECSTuning]

Originally Posted by Mr Sparkle

any luck james? I'm keenly interested in seeing the results of the sample, or reading the discussion. Was it discussed outside of bimmerpost?

Sorry, I've been slammed here at the office and haven't gotten a chance to dig very deep. I do believe it was outside of the post and over on m3forum.

-James

[STi_traitor]

Thanks for the information. I just did a oil change with this stuff. I saw the bottle difference and thought it was a change in design but its so much more.

[checkmate]

Thank you so much OP. Great effort. Many thanks.

[viet]

Originally Posted by ECSTuning

Mr Sparkle - We've been carrying the Castrol branded TWS for quiet a while now, it's virtually the same fluid for a bit less and without the BMW part number on the bottle. There is a thread rolling around with fresh oil vs fresh oil Black Stone reports on the two, I believe they stated virtually the same oil as well.

-James

Still waiting for proof on this. Anyone know if the Genuine BMW Edge Professional TWS vs the non-bmw Edge Professional TWS is actually the same oil?

[SenorFunkyPants]

In the UK there are two versions of this oil:
Edge professional 10W60 FST for M engines.
Edge 10W60 FST for M engines.
The "professional" version is the OEM fill oil and exclusive to BMW dealers.
"Edge" is the retail version.
Both meet the same specs but apparently the "Professional" version is more strictly quality controlled.