switching to synthetic oil

[07yukondc]

I have a 2007 gmc yukon with 160,000 miles on the 5.3l motor.It has 5w30 blended oil in there now but I want to know if it's good to switch to amsoil synthetic oil. I want to try this brand and see what's happens but which one would be best amsoil XL0W30, amsoil XL5w30, amsoil OE0W30, or amsoil OE5W30 ?????

[Jsdirt]

OE is their base oil, XL is a little better. I run Signature Series - that's their best.

 

I'm an Amsoil dealer, but, to be honest, at 160k, I'd just stick with regular cheap dino oil. Blends are a waste of $$$, IMHO. If you have any leaks, or burn any oil, a synthetic will leak and burn faster. If you can afford it, it's not a big deal - synthetics protect the engine better, but I personally run dino (Pennzoil) in all my old, high mile vehicles.

[Black02Silverado]

I have a 2007 gmc yukon with 160,000 miles on the 5.3l motor.It has 5w30 blended oil in there now but I want to know if it's good to switch to amsoil synthetic oil. I want to try this brand and see what's happens but which one would be best amsoil XL0W30, amsoil XL5w30, amsoil OE0W30, or amsoil OE5W30 ?????

If you want to give AMSOIL a try I would go with the OEF 5w-30. If your engine is still in great shape and it doesn't leak or use oil this would be a good oil to use. Especially if you change out at 5k miles.

 

The Signature Series would be overkill unless you wanted to extend your oil change interval.

 

If you are interested let me know and I can get you a quote delivered to your door.

[07yukondc]

My engine has no leaks and is quite barely know that it's on. Would changing the oil change interval to 2 time a year hurt? I live in Washington dc with alot of stop-n-go,potholes,etc. I drive the truck alot everyday all city driving.

[Black02Silverado]

My engine has no leaks and is quite barely know that it's on. Would changing the oil change interval to 2 time a year hurt? I live in Washington dc with alot of stop-n-go,potholes,etc. I drive the truck alot everyday all city driving.

Not at all. How many miles in six months, 8,000?

 

I have a customer that comes in at 15,000 miles for their oil change. I sent a sample off and it came back good. This is using AMSOIL's Signature Series oil and Ea15k oil filter.

[Doug_Scott]

The thing that bothers me about blended oil is that there are no rules as to what percentage is synthetic, which leads to not knowing amount of regular motor oil. In other words, you have no idea what is actually in there. To me, this is akin to what my grandfathers used to do, change oil filter every second oil change. That was actually normal scheduled maintenance right from owners manual in the early 60's. I think it came from cars not even having oil filters, and once they started with them, they figured every other change was about right for the filter. When I started in the dealership shop in the 70's that practice was tailing off.

 

You got to 160k without any issues, why are you now questioning your oil change habits? It would seem to me you are doing just fine doing what you are doing. Maybe send some oil off for one of those oil test things to see how the engine is actually doing? I was watching one of those so called reality car shows the other night, and they had a car with a small block chev engine that appeared to run well, nice and quiet, no smoke. They pulled the pan just to make sure and found rod and main bearings down to the copper level, and after pulling the pistons found some badly galled piston skirts. Point is, just because it is quiet does not really mean much sometimes.

[Cowpie]

I use to be that way about blended oil, but the advances in base oil refining of the last decade have really narrowed any differences between base oils. And throw in the Gas to Liquid technology and the differences almost disappear. I do use full synthetic in my pickup and my small engine stuff, but I use a good blend in my heavy commercial stuff.

 

But folks get all wrapped up in base oil, when it is the additive package that really makes a great oil. The additive package makes up to 20% of any motor oil. It has the zinc, moly, titanium, etc for excellent friction modification. It has the calcium, sodium, phosphorus, antimony, boron, etc for detergency and anti corrosion control as well as extreme pressure protection. TBN to control combustion acids and such. And how it is all blended and what levels they are at to compliment each other has more to do with if a oil is good, better, or best. I have gotten up to 1.4 million miles on one commercial motor on conventional oil, still was good and the next user put the truck right to work with no engine work. I have gotten similar results on other motors with synthetics and blends.

 

And you can tell what a lot of oils are and what stuff is in them. The Petroleum Quality Institute of America randomly selects motor oils off the shelf and tests them and publishes the results. You can compare different brands and viscosities side by side and see how they differ. Little tedious to navigate their website, but worth the effort. I have long since left the brand loyalty thing regarding oils behind me. I use 5 different brands of oils, lubes, and greases. There is no one brand that makes everything better than anyone else. Oh, Amsoil OE was one oil the PQIA tested. Was average at best. Even the Pennzoil "yellow bottle" conventional 10w30 knocked the socks off of the Amsoil OE, and several others as a matter of fact.

 

I would tend to agree with Doug. You have done well so far with what you have been doing, why change now? I would only consider changing if there was a problem with the oil I was using. There is hardly any oil that will not work fine to 6-7000 miles. The extended drain game is interesting, but only if one uses testing to track results. We are talking about a few quarts of oil, not 10 gallons to change the oil in a heavy commercial engine. One can change the oil in their pickup for less than meal for two at the average restaurant. There is no waste. Used oil is recycled or used in other ways. And waste of money might be an argument if oil was $20 a quart.

[KARNUT]

Oil has improved as well as engine technology. With electronic fuel injection and overall controls on engine function fancy high price oils and 3000 mile oil changes are no longer needed.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Black02Silverado]

I use to be that way about blended oil, but the advances in base oil refining of the last decade have really narrowed any differences between base oils. And throw in the Gas to Liquid technology and the differences almost disappear. I do use full synthetic in my pickup and my small engine stuff, but I use a good blend in my heavy commercial stuff.

 

But folks get all wrapped up in base oil, when it is the additive package that really makes a great oil. The additive package makes up to 20% of any motor oil. It has the zinc, moly, titanium, etc for excellent friction modification. It has the calcium, sodium, phosphorus, antimony, boron, etc for detergency and anti corrosion control as well as extreme pressure protection. TBN to control combustion acids and such. And how it is all blended and what levels they are at to compliment each other has more to do with if a oil is good, better, or best. I have gotten up to 1.4 million miles on one commercial motor on conventional oil, still was good and the next user put the truck right to work with no engine work. I have gotten similar results on other motors with synthetics and blends.

 

And you can tell what a lot of oils are and what stuff is in them. The Petroleum Quality Institute of America randomly selects motor oils off the shelf and tests them and publishes the results. You can compare different brands and viscosities side by side and see how they differ. Little tedious to navigate their website, but worth the effort. I have long since left the brand loyalty thing regarding oils behind me. I use 5 different brands of oils, lubes, and greases. There is no one brand that makes everything better than anyone else. Oh, Amsoil OE was one oil the PQIA tested. Was average at best. Even the Pennzoil "yellow bottle" conventional 10w30 knocked the socks off of the Amsoil OE, and several others as a matter of fact.

 

I would tend to agree with Doug. You have done well so far with what you have been doing, why change now? I would only consider changing if there was a problem with the oil I was using. There is hardly any oil that will not work fine to 6-7000 miles. The extended drain game is interesting, but only if one uses testing to track results. We are talking about a few quarts of oil, not 10 gallons to change the oil in a heavy commercial engine. One can change the oil in their pickup for less than meal for two at the average restaurant. There is no waste. Used oil is recycled or used in other ways. And waste of money might be an argument if oil was $20 a quart.

A link to this test would be great, thanks.

[Cowpie]

Well, I gave everyone the name of the PQIA, but ok, I'll do the little leg work for you. Wouldn't want anyone to think I pulled numbers and conclusions out of the air.

 

General PQIA website....

 

http://www.pqiamerica.com

 

Test that showed how Amsoil OE compared to other 5w30 synthetics....

 

http://www.pqiamerica.com/March2013PCMO/Marchsyntheticsallfinal.html

 

Test on Pennzoil conventional 10w30....

 

http://www.pqiadata.org/Pennzoil10W30.html

[Jsdirt]

I've run Pennzoil in our '86 Grand Marquis for most the 13 years we've owned it. 230k miles and doesn't burn a drop. Leaks a bit out the rear main .. but it's done that for 12 years. Used to run the 20w-50, but up here the stuff is impossible to find in that weight now, so we switched to Shell Rotella 15w-40 about 5 or so years ago.

[Doug_Scott]

Well, I gave everyone the name of the PQIA, but ok, I'll do the little leg work for you. Wouldn't want anyone to think I pulled numbers and conclusions out of the air.

 

General PQIA website....

 

http://www.pqiamerica.com

 

Test that showed how Amsoil OE compared to other 5w30 synthetics....

 

http://www.pqiamerica.com/March2013PCMO/Marchsyntheticsallfinal.html

 

Test on Pennzoil conventional 10w30....

 

http://www.pqiadata.org/Pennzoil10W30.html

 

Without doing any research beyond reading the one article, I have problems with independent research companies that openly accept "sponsorship" from the very members of the industry that they are testing. There is no mention of any monetary sponsorship but they are clear in saying "Warren Oil Becomes Platinum Sponsor of Petroleum Quality Institute of America". By saying "Platinum" it implies a level of sponsorship. To me, this is a conflict of interest.

 

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/23027/Warren-Oil-Petroleum-Quality-Institute

[Cowpie]

Yeah, I understand. But Warren is the largest blender of oils in the country. There is just about no sector that Warren is not involved in. Even Amsoil is just a blender. They make nothing. At least Warren is rather neutral, in that they do so many different label oils that I doubt their thumb is on the scale of any one brand. And PQIA also has Royal Purple, Safety Kleen, Lubrizol, Phillips 66, Infineum, Petro-Canada and a stack of others that fall into the supporter category. Just take a look at the PQIA home page. They are up front right on the left side of the page of all their oil sponsors and list them. Seems pretty transparent to me. Doesn't seem like they are trying to hide anything, so that speaks to the presumption that they might just be on the level with their oil analysis.

[Z45]

An oil can test good when new from the bottle but as in all things, there are varying degrees of quality. How good of a job they do, how long they can do the job and with what level of quality is the question?

[Doug_Scott]

Yeah, I understand. But Warren is the largest blender of oils in the country. There is just about no sector that Warren is not involved in. Even Amsoil is just a blender. They make nothing. At least Warren is rather neutral, in that they do so many different label oils that I doubt their thumb is on the scale of any one brand. And PQIA also has Royal Purple, Safety Kleen, Lubrizol, Phillips 66, Infineum, Petro-Canada and a stack of others that fall into the supporter category. Just take a look at the PQIA home page. They are up front right on the left side of the page of all their oil sponsors and list them. Seems pretty transparent to me. Doesn't seem like they are trying to hide anything, so that speaks to the presumption that they might just be on the level with their oil analysis.

 

Do they ever give a negative report regarding any of the sponsors products? By negative, I mean to the same extent they give to a non-sponsors product. The thing about conflict of interest is that unless they actually find negative things about their sponsors from time to time, it taints their findings. Even if they report issues, are they actually reporting the complete findings or are they not as harsh on sponsors? This has always been why reputable research groups steer clear of any possible claims of conflict of interest. Just too difficult to prove the findings. Just because they report their findings does not mean that is actually what they got. Normally you would say that they have no reason to alter the findings, but, not in this case.