5W30 oil

[Snow White]

I've posted all my oil samples on the facebook group associated with this forum.  just search for my name but it took 15,000 miles to get past break-in and i'm seeing identical results on the GMC terrain we have, 15,000 miles for break-in.  search for john hammer on the fb group.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NextGenTahoe

[Grumpy Bear]

FYI

 

This is Mitsubishi I'm working with. Yellow line is the average recorded by Blackstone for the 3A9* motor they have on file using the factory recommended 0W20 weight oil. The orange is a fellow Mitsubishi owner with this motor on 5W30  and the pale green my motor on a Euro 5W40 after careful run in on 5W30 BREAK IN oil. The chart is capped at 5ppm/K miles per industry standard permissible limits. All three will meet the OEM 'spec' wear rate. 

 

Wear in takes longer than most will admit to. When this curve bottoms it will start a very slow rate of increase until the motor reaches a point no longer in line with 'normal wear' rates and enter the 'wear out zone' with a sharper rise in rate show in the second graph below and affirmed in "The Oil Geek"'s latest video on the topic. 200K shown in his work as the point of inflection. That however is the "Universal Averge" because human behavours are indeed predictable and yet not absolute. That last word is quite important. YOU have control over that value and that work is confirmed by age old GM wear studies from decades ago. 

 

 

 

 

Wear in is not complete until the slope reverses. 

 

 

Slopes are created by subtracting the background elemental wear metals from the results and normalized to ppm/k miles. 

Edited February 22 by Grumpy Bear

[Snow White]

my 5w30 is tracking less wear metals than your green at 15,000,  think?  napa dexos 5w-30

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10240827150721879&set=gm.25380156778344267&idorvanity=2098942210225719

Edited March 3 by Snow White

[Grumpy Bear]

12 hours ago, Snow White said:

my 5w30 is tracking less wear metals than your green at 15,000,  think?  napa dexos 5w-30

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10240827150721879&set=gm.25380156778344267&idorvanity=2098942210225719

 

Sorry, I don't Facebook so I can't see it.  PM me a copy if you would like me to take a look.  

 

Remember that wear 'rate' is specific to the Engine 'kind'. That is, an Ecotec3 based motor will wear differently than a Mitsubishi 3A9* or a Ford Coyote. It will also wear differently than an LS motor. 

 

What you're looking for is what is 'normal' for your motor platform, in your service, with your fluid choice. Universal averages can be useful only as a motor platform guide. Not much to be learned between platforms. 

Edited March 4 by Grumpy Bear

[Black02Silverado]

14 hours ago, Snow White said:

my 5w30 is tracking less wear metals than your green at 15,000,  think?  napa dexos 5w-30

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10240827150721879&set=gm.25380156778344267&idorvanity=2098942210225719

Here's mine with 0w-20 AMSOIL Signature Series. Same wear or less at same mileage. Fuel dilution is high due to my driving short trips.

 

 

2019-SILVERADO--MAIN-E-I-957089-Sev1.pdf

[Snow White]

 

I'm paying less than half for the NAPA, am I right?

 

Edited March 14 by Snow White

[Grumpy Bear]

The real reason millions of engines are being recalled

(link)

 

None of these articles are fully on point. The writers still don't know the difference between 'tolerance' and "clearance". The MAIN CLEARANCE to be tightened was piston clearance. Use of hypereutectic pistons fit under .015" on a 4" bore and newer ultrahigh silicon content forging alloys. Bearing clearances are still about a thou per inch of journal diameter. 

 

This motor, the 3A92, mine, calls for a 0W20 oil. The chart here shows three different viscosities used in this motor. 0W20 line if from Blackstone's library. The 5W30 from an acquaintances motor who is as annal as I, and the last, 5W40 my personal motor. The "Total Wear Metals" chart I posted earlier in this thread. 

 

Chart I haven't posted is the Iron level chart. What it showed was that bore wear was reduced by using 5W30 over 0W20 but little more was gained in the use of 5W40. Almost all of the Total Wear Metals reduction comes from the huge reduction in piston skirt wear....aluminum. Bearing wear is reduced with each increase in HTHS viscosity so a smaller portion of the total wear improvement comes from that.  

 

Piston cleanliness has next to nothing to do with an oils viscosity. Cleanliness or lack thereof is a ring killer, a VVT-AFM-DOD solenoid killer and a cam chain eater. 

 

The posted link hints at manufacturing putting the viscosity cart before the ability to keep it clean enough to support that weight horse. That has absolutely zero to do with piston wear. But skirt and land wear have EVERYTHING to do with ring stability and longevity and control therefore of blowby.

 

Dirty assembly will kill any engine on any weight oil. If the culprit is surface finish then viscosity is a card to be played. 

 

Use the information as you see fit. 

 

Edited March 16 by Grumpy Bear

[Snow White]

0W 40 from lake speeds info, I interpreted as a waste because it barely exceeds the 5w-30 from napa. and amsoil is liquid gold..... not arguing they aren't factually "better" but the roi seems low.  thanks for sharing the data

[Jsdirt]

When I switched to 10W-30 Amsoil Signature Series from the same oil in 5W-30 in my '07 900-series Silverado 1500, my wear metals went way down.

 

Even with that, they were still high ...

 

https://postimg.cc/56P8rRMz

 

Edited March 26 by Jsdirt

[Jsdirt]

34 minutes ago, Snow White said:

0W 40 from lake speeds info, I interpreted as a waste because it barely exceeds the 5w-30 from napa. and amsoil is liquid gold..... not arguing they aren't factually "better" but the roi seems low.  thanks for sharing the data

The wider the gap between the 1st and 2nd numbers, the more additives are required to maintain that gap. So, that oil tends to break down / wear out much sooner.

[Grumpy Bear]

On 3/25/2026 at 9:04 PM, Jsdirt said:

When I switched to 10W-30 Amsoil Signature Series from the same oil in 5W-30 in my '07 900-series Silverado 1500, my wear metals went way down.

 

Even with that, they were still high ...

 

https://postimg.cc/56P8rRMz

 

 

Normalize your results. Divide PPM by K miles. Iron for example is 36 ppm / 7.5K miles = 4.8 ppm/K miles Not shabby for a Ecotec3 platform where 7 ppm/K is the universal average. Be happy, don't worry. BTW good choice IMO anyway. Try the 0W40 AZF  

[Jsdirt]

Well, that truck is ancient history. After the endless list of problems and the utter frustration the A-hole engineering caused me over the 16 painful years & 134k miles, I couldn't take it anymore and finally dumped it 3 years ago.

 

I bought this instead. Best thing I ever did for my mental health ... AND my wallet! 

 

https://postimg.cc/mzKr55sY
 

https://postimg.cc/tnPgQNRH

 

https://postimg.cc/jD9d51W5

[Black02Silverado]

On 3/27/2026 at 5:36 AM, Jsdirt said:

Well, that truck is ancient history. After the endless list of problems and the utter frustration the A-hole engineering caused me over the 16 painful years & 134k miles, I couldn't take it anymore and finally dumped it 3 years ago.

 

I bought this instead. Best thing I ever did for my mental health ... AND my wallet! 

 

https://postimg.cc/mzKr55sY
 

https://postimg.cc/tnPgQNRH

 

https://postimg.cc/jD9d51W5

Nice change.