Delo 400 5/40 drain interval - GM 5.3

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mjk

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Morning,

Switched my Tahoe over to Delo yesterday, to see what impact (if any) it would have on piston slap.

Not having experience with HDEO oils, what is a typical drain interval for a GM 5.3?

No towing, 75% freeway/25% stop/go in the Minneapolis metro area. Most miles occur during the weekends.

Thanks.
 
Start with 7500 and UOA from there, though I'm sure there will be all kinds of people calling for 3-5k...
 
Thanks. I am probably going to cap this initial run at around 5.5-6k, since I put a Fram Extra Guard on it.

I'll have to upgrade filters next time, should I go over 6k.

I have 0/40 T6 from AZ, which will probably be the next experiment...
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Might I ask why bother asking?


Sure.

As I stated, I had no real background with HDEO oils. Then, I forgot about the weak link - my filter. However, I have no issues with dropping that at around 5k, and using a 2nd filter. Never have done that before, but here is a good chance.
 
The Delo LE and T6 5W40's are excellent oils. You should be able to run them according to the OLM no problem. I have used both in my Colorado. Really quiets the OHC and vavletrain down.
 
Originally Posted By: mjk
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Might I ask why bother asking?


Sure.

As I stated, I had no real background with HDEO oils. Then, I forgot about the weak link - my filter. However, I have no issues with dropping that at around 5k, and using a 2nd filter. Never have done that before, but here is a good chance.


Personally I feel that even a low end Fram should handle 7500. There are plenty of pictures in the filter forum that show that they can do it... even if a little wavy. Even if you elect to change them out early, you should have zero issues in getting to 7500 on that oil. Given that lube and those driving conditions, I wouldn't even raise an eyebrow at 10k.

Just remember that unless specified, engine oil change intervals are specified with the lowest common denominator in mind.
 
The GM OLM in those years assumed use of conventional oil, and went up to 7500 miles as long as operating conditions were good. A full synthetic should go longer, especially an HDEO. If you had a better filter, I wouldn't worry about 10k.
 
Delo synthetic 5W-40 should do a nice job for you at 7,500 miles in your Tahoe.

On the filter, the last FRAM OCOD I saw cut on this forum looked good and would likely do 7,500 miles.

The one prior looked horrible. It had about 10 pleats and looked like it had been stepped on. It would have been a bad bet even for 3,000 miles.

FRAM OCOD's are like that.

Different applications look so very different when cut.

Even within a single filter model, QC can vary, depending upon when it was produced, from acceptable to very marginal.

A FRAM Ultra is an expensive filter ($9 in most sizes) but doesn't seem to suffer from the variability found in their basic orange can filter.

I think the Ultra would team well with your Delo synthetic.
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: mjk
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Might I ask why bother asking?


Sure.

As I stated, I had no real background with HDEO oils. Then, I forgot about the weak link - my filter. However, I have no issues with dropping that at around 5k, and using a 2nd filter. Never have done that before, but here is a good chance.


Personally I feel that even a low end Fram should handle 7500. There are plenty of pictures in the filter forum that show that they can do it... even if a little wavy. Even if you elect to change them out early, you should have zero issues in getting to 7500 on that oil. Given that lube and those driving conditions, I wouldn't even raise an eyebrow at 10k.

Just remember that unless specified, engine oil change intervals are specified with the lowest common denominator in mind.


I'm running 20k intervals with rebadged tough guards(motomaster) and when I dissect them there isn't any defects visible and could run even longer. My engines are known clean though so there aren't any deposits getting cleaned up.

As far as interval is concerned if it's conventional run it out via the oil life monitor,if synthetic double it.
Simple.
 
The 5W40 I tested was Duron E CJ-4/SM, still a 40 at 13,000 km the add pack was down to 33% remaining.
One option would be to try the CI-4+ Duron instead with a 25% increase in additives.
With a good filter such as M1 212, 20,000 km should be a reasonable expectation.
Personally I put more weight on the additive pack and not the base oil group.
When starting with an XW40 in an engine that can operate on XW20, a lot of fuel dilution and shear can be tolerated before viscosity becomes a concern.
As long as oil consumption is kept to 1L/10,000 km I can't see high SAPS being a problem for the emission equipment.

My Dura-Max with it's DPF is a different beast. Only CJ-4 multi-grade or low SAPS mono-grade go in that engine.

I change the oil in the Diesel when it turns black, or around 25% remaining on the OLM, which ever comes second.

We need M37Charley to do a VOA on MX 15W40 next.
 
My question would be, what was the reasoning for going with a 5w40 HDEO in a 5.3L gas motor? It doesn't call for a 40w. Is this motor on it's last leg and you want a thicker oil to make up for engine internal sloppiness? If it is one of the AFM equipped 5.3L motors, your oil choice might not be wise. Keep us posted.
 
As per UOA, the gasoline engine was harder on the additive pack than the Dmax.
The attraction of using XW40 engine oils in all my vehicles is that all except the Dmax, they can go 7,500 miles or more with out adding oil.
In the same using XW20s as per oil cap on 2 X 2013 Matrix, I would expect 1 liter per 1,300 miles consumption. (The 2015 5.3s likely about the same)

The above 5.3 is a 2013, 5W30 Dexos on the oil fill.
A short winter interval on a non-Dexos 5W30 was a disaster, used a liter in 3,000 miles in the 5.3 and turned the inside of the engine parts in the Toyotas brown.

Summer of 2014, 15W40 CJ-4/SM went into everything. The oil cleaned up what the 5W30 left behind and none of the vehicles need oil added between changes.

I had the 15W40 from the 2013 5.3 tested, then a year later with the same brand of 5W40 and a M1 212 filter.

Poking around the South African Toyota site I noticed 15W40 oil fill caps on everything.

Gotta get me some of those.

I test the oils to see how far they will go, instead of trying to determine a wear trend or initiate a contest between one oil over another.

Here is why:
Oil "A" might show lower iron than oil "B", but for all I know ALL the iron in oil "A" came from the top ring reversal point, while most of the iron from oil "B" came from the bottom of the cylinder at the oil ring reversal point.

The high aluminum in my Dmax using SAE 30 was from 150 cold winter starts, not a deficiency in the engine oil.
The oil was good to go much further when I chickened out and drained it.

Back to the 2013 5.3L.
The duty cycle is 99% highway, once in a while it will log a 4,500 mile month.
I would bet with 15W40, the average bulk oil viscosity is lower than a short hopped city church going grocery getting truck with 0W20 in the crank case.

My Dmax has 54,000 miles on it, but only 1335 hours. That is why I can get away using mono-grades, weather permitting.

Viscosity is only half the story. If I use an engine that will go OLM with out adding, the additive package better go the distance too.

For example if an engine spec'd to run on XW20, consumes a quart every thousand miles with X additive package, using 20W50 to halt oil consumption with X additive package would be foolish, not from a viscosity argument, but from an additive depletion standpoint.

Once again, depending on circumstance, weather and duty cycle, the engine with the 20W50 may have a lower average bulk oil viscosity than the short hopped one with 0W20.
 
Originally Posted By: mjk
Morning,

Switched my Tahoe over to Delo yesterday, to see what impact (if any) it would have on piston slap.

Not having experience with HDEO oils, what is a typical drain interval for a GM 5.3?

No towing, 75% freeway/25% stop/go in the Minneapolis metro area. Most miles occur during the weekends.

Thanks.


So, what's the update lately? Reduced engine noise or back to the same?
 
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