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My car is used and I bought it just few days ago. Today I checked the engine oil level and it was just on L level. I spotted sticker on the hood with name and type of engine oil, there was "Castrol TXT 5w40", so I went to the shop, bought one litre of the oil and added requested amount of the oil, so level reached letter F. After that, I started the engine, moved to my car wash centre and cleaned the engine (day before I exchanged valve cover seal on left head). After cleaning I started the engine and ticking noise came out of the right head. It didn't stop after few km of driving and now I am very unhappy. I hope the oil inside was the same as stated on the sticker..

Anyway, it is almost one year old, so I will exchange it soon, but I'd like to ask for your opinion on Petro Canada engine oils. I use them in my other two Mazda's cars and they work perfect. I would like to hear no ticking noise after oil exchange. I use Petro-Canada Europe Synthetic 5w40. So far there was no ticking problem before adding Castrol, I know it is extremely bad engine oil, bud I didn't want to mix different brands.

Thank you for your help and suggestions. And sorry for my English.

Quite normal, you may want to use thicker oil tho if its a high milleage car, i use 10 w 30 and it drives fine. Run a quart of transmission oil and then do an oil change, that should quiet her down. Even if it does not, its quite normal for the tick. Compression test can tell you everything you need to know. Im sure its ok tho, my k8 was tapping alot and had good compression

It has 136.000 km (something around 82.000 miles), I think I will try to exchange oil first and I will see.. I have spare 24 HLA from KL engine which has 21.000 km, I still have cylinder block and pistons with crankshaft installed in and ready to be sold.. Just left head is missing.. Back to my ticking, I am really upset, because it started this morning after adding that terrible engine oil - Castrol.

And I also have another problem, I am looking for cheap & good replacement of the exhaust pipe, right before catalytic converter. Any ideas?

u dont want to run castrol since it is a bp petrolem brand same as that crappy arco gas. castrol synthetic or not has a higher than it should be sulpher content and will cause sludge in the engine same with pennzoil and quker state but those two just mentioned are based on periphin was and not as a true mineral oil. as all mazdas with hla's you must change the oil often and not ever heat the motor up or you make those guys mad and tick like crazy. they start ticking because if you over heat the motor it starts to boil the oil and leaves carbon deposits in them and impedes the oil flow. run a high detergent solvent like atf dexron3 or some seafoam for not more than 500 miles and it will help. also run a valvoline/napa motor oil or a redline, amsoil and still change at the 3,000 mile mark or else varnish and debris will cause that. also running thicker oil always will not cure the problem.