Amsoil 0W30 and MPG with a short trip vehicle

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I know it is a little early to tell, but I thought I would share some preliminary MPG data with you all.

I have a 2002 Toyota Tundra. My driving is like this: 5 miles to work, 5 miles home for lunch, 5 miles to work, 5 miles to home. We never use the truck on the weekends, it's a commuter only vehicle.

I was using Amsoil XL 5W30 and switched to Amsoil Series 2K 0W30 hoping that the oil pump would get out of relief sooner and possibly give me some mileage gains. I won't make a conclusion yet on the MPG, but the oil pressure absolutely gets to normal idle pressure faster. My oil pressure gauge was very high at idle with the 5W30 until I basically got to my destination in the morning. With the series 2K 0W30, It is at the normal idle pressure by the first stop light (about 2 minutes).

Even though I only put 5K miles a year on this vehicle, using this very early estimation, it looks like I will pay for the oil with the MPG savings (my math shows about 7% increase since the Series2K, about $75 over the life of the oil change). Again, two fillups is hardly concrete evidence but I was too excited not to share my findings thus far.




code:

Date Miles Gallons Cost $/Mi MPG Notes

4/29/2006 48,369 17.775 $42.64 $0.15 13.36 Added 6 oz LC20, reseated sparkplugs, started using FP60

5/15/2006 48,642 19.736 $67.08 $0.29 13.83

6/7/2006 48,873 16.992 $56.92 $0.30 13.60

6/13/2006 48,982 7.586 $25.03 $0.30 14.36

6/16/2006 49,033 3.805 $12.40 $0.31 13.40 Added 1oz LC20

7/12/2006 49,234 15.940 $52.70 $0.30 12.61

7/23/2006 49,418 13.328 $43.17 $0.31 13.81 Changed PCV Valve. Added 1 oz of LC20

8/8/2006 49,629 15.448 $50.66 $0.30 13.66 Cleaned MAF Sensor. Changed air filter

8/21/2006 49,774 10.990 $35.60 $0.31 13.19 Long Idle time

8/24/2006 49,835 4.391 $14.13 $0.31 13.89

9/11/2006 50,025 13.298 $41.21 $0.32 14.29 Drove to LAX, mostly frewway driving

9/13/2006 50,072 3.214 $9.70 $0.33 14.62 6qts amsoil 0w30 series 2k, 6oz lc20

9/15/2006 50,131 4.027 $12.08 $0.33 14.65



 
Thanks for posting this. I have an 05 Tundra that sees infrequent use as well, about 7k per year average. I was just wondering what the difference from their S3k 5W-30 to the S2k 0W-30 would be myself. Looks like I'll be buying the 0W-30 for the next change!
 
I have been pondering this same basic issue, but more specifically in the context of upstate NY winter.

My commute is down to about 1.5 miles from 55 miles each way after moving and changing jobs. The 4.0 in my Jeep doesn't get anywhere near warmed up, and though I'm a thick oil fan in this engine, I think that something with a very high VI that is relatively thin overall will protect better.

The S2K 0w-30 looks great on paper, but holy cow it's pricey. I am thinking that the money I save by using M1 5w-30 instead will more than make up the difference over all but perhaps the longest of OCI's. I'm going to do six months with whatever oil I choose and do a UOA.

I have a stash of GC but I feel it's too thick for my current winter needs in this engine. It'll be going in the subaru that drives 10mi each way.
 
To add a little more information. I am in Southern California, in the high desert. The last two fillups were in close to 100F heat. Even with that kind of heat, it took almost the entire trip to get the idle oil pressure to normal with the 5W30. I am going to guess the 0W30 will perform even better in the colder weather (although I am far from an upstate NY winter - it's in the 50s & 60s, with the occasional 40s where I live in the winter).

I will post again in a few months when I get a better sampling of data. We will see if it holds. I wanted to make sure I did this well before we swicth over to oxygenated fuels in November (E10). My MPG always goes down then.

Yeah the stuff is pricey (especially in a 6QT sump), but if this 0W30 continues to save me at the pump - it will pay for itself and then some.

Conventional wisdom would be to not spend a bunch of cash on 0W30 for a low mileage per year vehicle. Yet it is the people who have the really short trips that will probably benefit the most from it in terms of MPG. Once it gets up to temp it should behave like any other 5W30, so although it still saves money during warm up it's going to be a diminished average overall for someone who drives a lot of miles.

I only wished Amsoil made a 0W20. I'd like to give it a shot in the Honda to see if it improved the fuel economy there. The Honda has a lot of short trips too, so I will probably give the Mobil 0W20 a shot in the future.
 
Sparkman:

The way I figured it, Amsoil's 0W-30 has a viscosity 25% less than than their S3k 5W-30 at 32F and 33% less at 0F. What I wasn't sure was how this would correlate to real world fuel economy.

Mobil 1 5W-30 is ever so slightly thicker at the same temps than Amsoil's 5W-30, so I think the savings you'll see in fuel mileage will offset the higher price. I also think you'll see an even bigger savings by going from a 40wt. oil to the Series 2k 0W-30 than Laminar Lou's Tundra.
 
quote:

only wished Amsoil made a 0W20. I'd like to give it a shot in the Honda to see if it improved the fuel economy there. The Honda has a lot of short trips too, so I will probably give the Mobil 0W20 a shot in the future.

Amsoil will be coming out with a 0w-20 sometime early next year I was told.

I would use M1 0w/5w-20 and save the money. The S2k is a very expensive oil. Or try Amsoil's 5w-20. Good oil for the $$.
 
quote:

Originally posted by buster:
I would use M1 0w/5w-20 and save the money. The S2k is a very expensive oil. Or try Amsoil's 5w-20. Good oil for the $$.
I actually have 2 oil changes worth of the Amsoil 5W20. I am glad to hear that Amsoil is coming out with a 0W20 - I'll probably give it a try after I use the 5W20 up. 2 oil changes of the 5W20 will give me a better benchmark to compare if the 0W20 is really worth the added expense anyway. The Honda is not getting the best mileage (15MPG on an EPA rated 20-28 MPG) and although it is still breaking in, I have a feeling it is because it has a lot of little 1-2 mile trips.

I'll tell you one thing though, I added some VSOT to get the moly up on the Honda and boy did the MPG go down the proverbial cr@pper. I am getting the VSOT out ASAP.
grin.gif
 
quote:

Originally posted by mdv:
Sparkman:

The way I figured it, Amsoil's 0W-30 has a viscosity 25% less than than their S3k 5W-30 at 32F and 33% less at 0F. What I wasn't sure was how this would correlate to real world fuel economy.

Mobil 1 5W-30 is ever so slightly thicker at the same temps than Amsoil's 5W-30, so I think the savings you'll see in fuel mileage will offset the higher price. I also think you'll see an even bigger savings by going from a 40wt. oil to the Series 2k 0W-30 than Laminar Lou's Tundra.


I said what the heck and ordered 6 quarts of the S2k 0w-30 today. I really like this oil, we'll see how it goes.
 
I'm not surprised at all by these results....

When the S2000 first came out in 1995, I had a bunch of local customers who were using their 10w-30/ATM product. After testing the S2000 in my Audi 100 and picking up 4% compared to the 10w-30, I started switching everyone over to the S2000 and ask them to keep track of fuel efficiency. Note that these were mainly aerospace engineers who are AR about recording data.

Generally what I found was a 2%-4% improvement w/ the 0w-30 over the Amsoil 10w-30 under the same conditions. Not only in short trip driving, but also under steady state highway driving conditions.

I'd like to see the S2000 chemistry in an SAE 0w-20 oil. I believe that would also be suitable for 5w-30/10w-30 applications, where the fuel savings would be even more significant.

TS
 
quote:

Originally posted by TooSlick:


I'd like to see the S2000 chemistry in an SAE 0w-20 oil. I believe that would also be suitable for 5w-30/10w-30 applications, where the fuel savings would be even more significant.

TS


I was going to ask a question along those same lines...does Amsoil even offer a 20wt oil with that offers the same fuel-savings as it's 0w-30 product (not because it's thinner, rather the formula is better)?
 
Not yet, but it would be easy enough to make by using little or no VI modifier in the current S2000 basestock blend. One advantage to doing that would be an even lower viscosity at low temperatures.

I'd be surprised if Amsoil isn't already field testing a PAO/Ester 0w-20, formulated with the ExxonMobil, "SpectraSyn Plus" baseoil. Mike Sparks might know something about this....

TS
 
I just put in Amsoil Series 2000 in my 2002 Tacoma 3.4L after using Amsoil Series 3000 for the last three oil changes and as expected i lost about 5 or so psi at 60 miles per hour. Im too am a short trip person 20 miles round trip to work and home and alot of short trips around town.
 
Interesting topic. I too have the same daily trips.. 5 mi to work, 5 mi to/from school for child pickup, back to work, then back to home. I do have a few long trips each month, but I'm wondering if i could benefit from using 0w30 as well... is there any increase in startup wear or is it negligible compared to a 5w30?
smile.gif
 
quote:

Originally posted by MysticGold04:
Interesting topic. I too have the same daily trips.. 5 mi to work, 5 mi to/from school for child pickup, back to work, then back to home. I do have a few long trips each month, but I'm wondering if i could benefit from using 0w30 as well... is there any increase in startup wear or is it negligible compared to a 5w30?
smile.gif


One would think there would be a decrease in startup wear as the 0W-30 will flow faster to all the moving parts.
 
quote:

Originally posted by MysticGold04:
Interesting topic. I too have the same daily trips.. 5 mi to work, 5 mi to/from school for child pickup, back to work, then back to home. I do have a few long trips each month, but I'm wondering if i could benefit from using 0w30 as well... is there any increase in startup wear or is it negligible compared to a 5w30?
smile.gif


I agree with mysticgold, the startup wear should be less because the 0W30 is very pumpabale at cold temperatures. I'll submit a UOA at 2K miles and it will be interesting to see the wear numbers compared to the 5W30 I have used in the last 2 OCIs. My guess is that it is going to be lower. And since my engine (and by the looks of it your engine) is in startup 80% of its life, it should be a good indicator of startup wear.
 
Lou,

What OCI mileage were you at with the 5w30 oil? Of course I'd have to do UOAs to see how well it does, but what is the general OCI you have been using?
 
quote:

Originally posted by MysticGold04:
Lou,

What OCI mileage were you at with the 5w30 oil? Of course I'd have to do UOAs to see how well it does, but what is the general OCI you have been using?


My UOAs and OCIs have been at 2K (Chevron 10W30, Amsoil XL 5W30). I ended up changing them at that point because I wanted to try the Amsoil XL, and then I wanted to try the Series 2000. They were 6 month intervals. FWIW both could have easily gone a year - according to some the XL probably could have pushed to 2 years with a filter change.

The 0W30 is going to be in there at least a year. I will do a UOA at 2K just to be consistant, then I will probably wait until the 1 year mark to do a second one. I am not sure if I will go over a year, but who knows? Ask me in a year
grin.gif


Here are my two UOA's if you want to gander:

Chevron 10W30

Amsoil XL 5W30
 
Quote:


...Even though I only put 5K miles a year on this vehicle...



You could use SuperTech Synthetic 5w30 and probably see the same mileage improvement, given your driving habits and location. But if nothing but the best will due for your baby, what the heck, go for it.
 
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