Amsoil vs M1 vs XD3 20,000km 2003 Montana

[olympic]

2003 Pontiac Montana
99% hiway driving
Amsoil dual remote bypass BMK-13
Amsoil TS air filter
Make up oil: 0.5L
All samples: 20,000km or 12,400 miles and 2 months

Firs column: Amsoil 0w30, second column M1 5w30, third column Esso XD3 0w30
Tin 1 1 1
Lead 2 2 4
Copper 18 14 15
Aluminum 5 0 2
Silicon 19 12 7
Iron 16 21 17
Chromium 0.5 0.7 0.7
Silver 0 0 0
Zinc 1150 1050 1200
Magnesium 849 84 17
Nickel 0 0 0
Barium 0 0 0
Sodium 11 9 7
Calcium 2000+ 2000+ 2000+
Vanadium 0 0 0
Phosphorus 1050 886 1100
Molybdenum 2 82 13
Boron 25 73 6
Manganese 184 159 122

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
Viscosity 14.57 11.55 12.19
Water 0 0 0
Solids Glycol No No No
Fuel Dilution No No No

OTHER PROPERTIES
Base No. 9.40 9.70 9.88
Oxidation 0.19 11.52 5.14
Nitro Compounds 0.00 0.00 3.05
Organic Nitrates 14.48 15.62 18.19

It's pretty much a wash at this point, all oils did well except for Amsoils viscosity. XD3 takes the prize for holding it's viscosity right on target VOA visc=12.1cst. The only thing that should be noted is this interval was done through the dead of winter. Lots of -30C weather and the van sat outside many nights without a block heater. I was expecting copper and iron to rise but they didn't.

Next UOA will be at 40,000km. I hope XD3 will pull through witha nother stellar UOA. At half the price of M1 and 1/3 the price of Amsoil S2K, Esso has a real sleeper in this oil!

[ February 01, 2005, 09:20 PM: Message edited by: olympic ]

 

[buster]

quote:

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Lead 2 4 2 10 4

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I'd go with the cheapest of the bunch if I were you. A wash for the most part. The 10ppm of Pb is strange. It was 2ppm with Mobil 1 5w-30, then 10 the next run then back to 4ppm. Sample error? OAI says you will sometimes see a 20% margin of error with oil analyis samples.

 

[pitzel]

XD-3 0W30 results are excellent! Non-existent viscosity thickening as well. I wish I was in a position to do this sort of 'research' but since I only drive 8000km/year.....

Can you add your overall operating protocol to the UOA? Such as top-ups, and any filter changes, if performed?

 

[pitzel]

quote:

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Originally posted by buster:

quote:

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Lead 2 4 2 10 4

---

I'd go with the cheapest of the bunch if I were you. A wash for the most part. The 10ppm of Pb is strange. It was 2ppm with Mobil 1 5w-30, then 10 the next run then back to 4ppm. Sample error? OAI says you will sometimes see a 20% margin of error with oil analyis samples.

---

Margin of error and look at the weather.

-40C starts, common where olympic operates that van, do occur. This winter has been fairly mild, but I think that explains the slight lead elevation (which, as you point, is barely statistically significant).

 

[olympic]

Sorry for the edit after you guys replied, I cleaned it up a bit so it's easier to understand. The previous version had other UOA's that wern't relavent at this point.

I hope I covered everything, I posted this quickly because I'm short on time. Any questions, just post'em here.

 

[buster]

The M1 and XD3 stayed in grade better. Not surprising. Something in Amsoil's formulations cause it to thicken more than it should for what your paying IMO. Wear numbers however, with the thickening are fine.

 

[pitzel]

Would be very interesting to see how GC stacks up under these conditions.

Maybe some real numbers would deflate pscholte's ego with respect to his fanatical worship of the green elixer delivered by German-residing elves.

Anyone interested, by any chance, in trading a case of GC for a case of XD-3 0W30?

 

[BlazerLT]

Nice!

Feeling better about my Esso XD-3 0w30 in my truck.

 

[railball]

How many miles on the truck total. Was Amsoil the first test and had you run Synthetic before these tests.

One more thing had you considered using Amsoil HD 5/30.

[ February 02, 2005, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: railball ]

 

[Greaser]

High iron with the Mobil again hmmm.Have to remember this XD-3 sample was done with the worst time of year for wear (extreme cold starts) and held up great at about HALF the cost of the other full PAO syns tested..good stuff!

 

[Greaser]

quote:

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Originally posted by pitzel:
Would be very interesting to see how GC stacks up under these conditions.

Maybe some real numbers would deflate pscholte's ego with respect to his fanatical worship of the green elixer delivered by German-residing elves.

Anyone interested, by any chance, in trading a case of GC for a case of XD-3 0W30?

---

The trade would be almost two cases of XD-3 for one GC case price wise

the vehicles I use the XD-3 in have run fantastic this winter and am saving big bucks by going this route instead of the Mobil 1.Great testing Olympic..keep em coming!

 

[olympic]

quote:

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Originally posted by railball:
How many miles on the truck total. Was Amsoil the first test and had you run Synthetic before these tests.

One more thing had you considered using Amsoil HD 5/30.

---

The van currently has 163,000km or roughly 100,000 miles. Amsoil was the first synthetic used, before that I was doing 10,000km OCI's with whatever dino my mechanic was putting in there. That may have affected the Amsoil results somewhat, but probably not by much from what I've seen. I ended up draining the Amsoil after 30,000km because the viscosity had moved up to 16.4 or a 50wt.

If XD3 had produced poor results, my next oils to test would have been GC and then Amsoil HDD 5w30. But it's looking like that won't happen, especially since I have 250L of XD3 stockpiled..lol!

I still continue to use Amsoil products like their air filters, oil/bypass filters, ATF, PI fuel additive and power foam with excellent results. And I'm sure one of the oils in their line-up could work well for me but the cost vs performance ratio of XD3 is too good to pass up.

 

[Force235]

I'm just diving into extended OCI and UOA ... one item missing from your comparison is TBN. Didn't your testing company provide that number?

Also, I haven't figured out what 'GC' is, at first I thought Grand Caravan

but that doesn't seem to fit.

Thanks
Very cool site.

 

[Gary Allan]

Force235 Go here

 

[Jon]

Did anybody else notice those oxidation numbers?

What's up with that?

Oxidation 0.19 11.52 5.14

 

[Force235]

Thanks Gary Allan! The U stands for Used. I guessed all kinds of things but not Used! to logical.

I heard of this site from a tractor forum. On there the big thing to compare two oils is the TBN. Would every UOA include TBN?

How important is the TBN as compared with the other numbers?

Sorry for the newbie questions ....i'm the guy who used to buy whatever oil was on sale. I'm really getting an education here. I actually went synthetic on my last change, and now I'm going to do my first UOA. Waaahooooo!

 

[olympic]

quote:

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Originally posted by Force235:
... one item missing from your comparison is TBN. Didn't your testing company provide that number?

---

TBN is listed as "base no.", fourth row from the bottom. All 3 oils did very well in regards to TBN.

quote:

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Did anybody else notice those oxidation numbers? What's up with that? Oxidation 0.19 11.52 5.14

---

I'm not quite sure what you mean but I can see that 0.19% for the Amsoil run seems really low. But in all my other testing, Amsoil did the best in terms of oxidation, apparently its very resistant to breakdown due to heat.

 

[Ugly3]

quote:

---

Originally posted by pitzel:
Would be very interesting to see how GC stacks up under these conditions.

Maybe some real numbers would deflate pscholte's ego with respect to his fanatical worship of the green elixer delivered by German-residing elves.

Anyone interested, by any chance, in trading a case of GC for a case of XD-3 0W30?

---

You want to trade? Let me know.

 

[jthorner]

Excellent information. I see several things here which are consistent with other posted data.

1) Amsoil thickens with age.
2) Mobil-1 seems to run a little higher iron wear in some engines than do most other oils.
3) XD3 is the bargain of the century!

John

 

[buster]

Notice in these 3 samples, the Amsoil was the oil that thickened most.