2002 Suburban, LM7, 4,704 miles, G-Oil 5W-30 SM

[NMBurb02]

This is the second time I have run G-Oil in the Burb and the first UOA I have run on it and I like what I see. This is the non-Flex Fuel 5.3L V8 and the interval was following the OLM. I ran a Napa Gold 1522 oil filter. The air filter is a Fram ToughGuard (oiled cellulose) with about 23k miles on it and the restriction gauge has not budged in that time. The vehicle is a kid hauler and driving is probably 80/20 highway/city (with the freeway onramp only 1 mile from my front door) with a good 30 minute/30 mile run at least once every two weeks. No unusual stress placed on the engine during this 4.5 month OCI. The terrain around here is pretty flat and the climate is temperate, but my neighborhood is pretty windy and dusty with fairly fine dust, which may be contributing to the slightly higher than average silicon number. The engine has not been opened up in some time and she runs like a champ. The only question I have with the numbers in the report is the high calcium. Other UOAs using the same oil show calcium in the 2,000 to 3,400 ppm range. What's going on here? Lab error?

The oil is G-Oil "Bio-Based Advanced Full Synthetic" that I picked up on clearance at Wal-Mart for an average of about $2.25/qt. I think I will take Blackstone's advice and run the current fill for 6,000 miles, which will take right around 6 months to accumulate, and get another UOA. I have another 28 quarts on the shelf, which means I am set for oil for the Burb for the next 2.5 years.

I forgot to catch the sample while draining the sump so I popped a hole in the oil filter before removing it and caught a sample from that stream, hence the "sampling technique" comment.

 

[tstep]

That is a boatload of Calcium and the viscosity is quite a bit thicker at almost 11. IIRC, G-Oil was always on the very thin side under 10 cST. Is there and additive incorporated here?

 

[NMBurb02]

No additive. I thought the viscosity was a bit high too, but I cannot find a PDS to compare the UOA viscosity to the spec'd viscosity. Should I ask them to re-run the sample for Ca and viscosity?

 

[timeau]

I have a feeling that this oil has significant cleaning abilities. Otherwise I could not explain almost twice amount of calcium in this UOA. Compare it with virgin oil:
http://www.pqiamerica.com/January2012A/January2012R2/goil.htm

Of course, if no additives were added. But at least I don't know the additives with that big amount of Ca. I bet that next UOA with this oil will be more or less standart. Nice, you cleaned your engine from inside. But this really surprised me.

 

[timeau]

Ha, I see what the reason of so high calcium. This is a Group V oil, esters have outstanding cleaning abilities. Actually, you got Redline oil for almost nothing, great deal! ;-)

 

[KenO]

This is probably the later iteration of G-Oil. If you kids remember, G-Oil 're-vamped' half way thru.

 

[NMBurb02]

Originally Posted By: KenO
This is probably the later iteration of G-Oil. If you kids remember, G-Oil 're-vamped' half way thru.

That may be so. I'm not completely sure how to read the date codes on the bottles, but it looks like the 5 qt jugs I have were produced in 2012 and only half of the singles were from 2011.

 

[Cutehumor]

I have this oil I got in my oil shrine. I will be running 1 yr or 10k oil change intervals in my 09 vibe. I hope my batch is group v oil. Early UOA reports of g-oil said it sheared and tbn retention was bad

 

[andrewp1998]

This is group 3 with group 5 , that's from customer service.