G-OIL 5W30 -- 6K Miles -- 08 Nissan QR25DE

[barlowc]

This is the third UOA I've had done for my 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe 2.5 S. It has the 4-cylinder QR25DE engine and a CVT transmission. This car is my daily driver, driven about 80% highway and 20% city.

Some history… The factory fill came out at 4K miles. It was followed by two 6K mile intervals using Valvoline SynPower 5W-30, two 6K mile intervals using Castrol Edge 5W-30, two 7.5K mile intervals using Pennzoil Ultra 5W-30, and most recently two 6K mile intervals using G-OIL 5W-30 (i.e. the Bio-based Advanced Full Synthetic API SM variety). This sample of G-OIL was from the second consecutive fill of G-OIL, so there shouldn’t be any cross-contamination.

Some thoughts…

• I wonder if the slight up-tick in Silicon is due to having cleaned my K&N filter about 1K into the OCI.
• Insolubles was back down. I wonder if the increase in the previous UOA was due to Ultra's cleaning.
• This seems to be another example of G-OIL shearing a bit but still providing great wear protection.

Current fill… Upon draining the fill of G-OIL from which this sample was taken, the API-licensed SN variety of Royal Purple 5W-30 went in. I’m also using one of the Royal Purple filters manufactured by Champion Labs. I will probably run the oil for 7,500 mile intervals and sample at the end of the second fill. (I’m interested to see how this “boutique” oil compares to the other high-quality oils I’ve used.)

 

[friendly_jacek]

Excellent report, except for the lowish TBN. It shouldn't be a problem for up to 10,000 mile OCI or so (IMHO).

It sheared down as usually, almost exactly as much as Edge did, ending in SAE 20 grade.

Good oil, especially for it's price (after rebates).

Any differences in fuel efficiency between those oils?

 

[fdcg27]

This seems a typical G-Oil UOA, with lots of TBN deletion and lots of shearing, but very good wear numbers.
Good flashpoint as well.
Not capable of much longer drains, while the Ultra and the Edge would have been, based upon residual TBN.
Still, while I have three changes of FAR Ultra, the least I've ever paid for Edge was ~3.80/qt, after AAP ten dollar off coupon and MIR.
G-Oil can be gotten FAR almost always.
A very good oil, even if not good enough to spend $26.00 per change.
Or maybe it is?
There was the one 10K Volvo UOA, with TBN of 1.0, which also showed astoundingly low wear metals.
TBN retention isn't linear.
I wonder how long this run of G-Oil would have retained its remaining TBN?
Anyone brave enough to find out, other than the Volvo guy?

 

[chubbs1]

Great to see how the G-oil held up, I know you were a little apprehensive to run it in the beginning. Works as well as any oil out there and I would not read into the TBN of Grp.V's as I would the petroleum base groups.

Bottom line is...this is an excellent engine and you could probably run olive oil and get back a great UOA.

 

[Artem]

Looks like a decent UOA but it sucks that the oil is pretty much toast @ 7,500 miles.

 

[Loobed]

With that ad pack, I am guessing you used the old style G-oil.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: Artem
Looks like a decent UOA but it sucks that the oil is pretty much toast @ 7,500 miles.

TBN of 1.6 at 5800 miles, I wouldn't go beyond 7k miles with G-OIL.

Pennzoil Ultra is another story with TBN of 4.3 after 7500 miles, I would feel comfortable with 10-12k miles.

 

[dnewton3]

Those lubes are returning generally "average" results. None of them are performing to a level that would be statisicially significant past any measure of standard deviation. Barring any mechanical defect, a car that sees "80% highway" is always going to have nice low wear.

I am not saying that any of those lubes did a poor job; that is just not the case. I'm saying that none of them distinguished themselves by returning an outstanding UOA (outside any sigma) relative to the ROI. That's a lot of money spent on premium lubes flushed away before the OEM OCI ever comes around. In short, your engine wear is completely "normal".

 

[barlowc]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Any differences in fuel efficiency between those oils?

Nothing that I'd determine to be conclusive. I take monthly readings from the car's computer which displays MPG between resets. The averages of my readings are as follows:

• SynPower 30.7
• EDGE 31.1
• Ultra 30.6
• G-OIL 31.0

Maybe I'll export my Fuelly.com data and analyze it a bit to see what it shows. Maybe there is a "real" difference in there, albeit a small one.

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
I wonder how long this run of G-Oil would have retained its remaining TBN? Anyone brave enough to find out, other than the Volvo guy?

Our Saturn is on its second consecutive fill of G-OIL. I plan to dump it at 7800 miles and get a UOA. It'll be interesting to see how the oil holds up for the longer run and that vehicle is subjected to a lot more city driving too. That'll also give me an apples-to-apples comparison to the previous UOA of SynPower 5W-20 that was run for 7800 miles.

Originally Posted By: Loobed
With that ad pack, I am guessing you used the old style G-oil.

Correct. It was a jug that had been purchased in April 2011.

Originally Posted By: dnewton3
That's a lot of money spent on premium lubes flushed away before the OEM OCI ever comes around.

It's really not as much as you might think. I buy my oil on sale and with rebates. The EDGE and Ultra fills cost me around $20 with filters included. The G-OIL was FAR so my cost was around $4 with filters included. Besides, like many BITOG folks, I like chaning my oil and get impatient if I wait longer than the 6000 - 7500 mile intervals I've been doing.

Also, I'm switching between oils and like to hold the intervals relatively constant to see how the UOAs compare. EGDE was my first UOA. When I saw the results, I felt comfortable increasing to 7500 miles with Ultra. Ultra was my second UOA and the main reason why I didn't run the next interval at that or a longer was because I used G-OIL which had limited data available. Given the UOA data I've accumulated for my vehicle, I'm comfortable running the current fill of Royal Purple for 7500 miles and may go longer, but more than likely will dump at that point and get a UOA.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Originally Posted By: barlowc
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Any differences in fuel efficiency between those oils?

Nothing that I'd determine to be conclusive. I take monthly readings from the car's computer which displays MPG between resets. The averages of my readings are as follows:

• SynPower 30.7
• EDGE 31.1
• Ultra 30.6
• G-OIL 31.0

Maybe I'll export my Fuelly.com data and analyze it a bit to see what it shows. Maybe there is a "real" difference in there, albeit a small one.


Interesting, both G-oil and Edge have lowish 100C KV for xW-30 oils (10 cSt and under) and both shear out of grade. Both showed the best MPG. That makes sense and the lack of "energy conserving" starburst on G-oil doesn't seem to be a big deal.

 

[barlowc]

Analyzing my Fuelly.com data:

• SynPower = No Data
• EDGE = Incomplete Data
• Ultra = 29.06
• G-OIL = 29.53

While a bit lower than the readings from the car's computer, they're consistent. The G-OIL which sheared out of grade still provided good wear protection and had slight better MPG that Ultra.

If I analyze the data a bit further, I can find what that translates to in terms of extra miles and/or lower gas costs.

 

[zanzabar]

Really cool to see the consistency of this oil's performance in UOAs. I also don't believe anymore that low TBN and visc are indicators of this oil being "only a 5k OCI oil". I've run it 6500 in a 1.8T (very hard on oil) and it was fine (though I did top it up quite a bit due to all the UOA samples). I don't see why it shouldn't be regarded as a 5k 'severe service' oil or a 10k 'light service' oil.