G-Oil 5w-30 ~ 7180 mi ~ '00 Bonneville

[Ken_W]

2000 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi
Series II 3800 supercharged engine
G-Oil 5W-30 synthetic with PureOne PL10111 oil filter
Previous run used regular Valvoline MaxLife (red bottle)
7180 miles on oil sample (oil was in use for almost exactly 6 months -- mid Dec to mid June)
177,398 miles in engine
OLM was down to 3% at time of sampling
UOA was done at Blackstone Labs
Added 3/4 qt make up oil, 3300 miles into run
Was down 1qt at time of sample (1.75 qts burned in total over 6 months)
Driving is around 70% hwy / 30% city
Driving style is gentle-to-moderate, I rarely gun it


I bought the car in Dec 2010 at 152K miles and have been keeping maintenance up to date. Got this G-Oil for free and thought I'd put it to the test with a longer interval. Air filter was replaced with a WIX at same time as oil. Any feedback is appreciated.

Code:
G-Oil MaxLife

OIL 5w30 5w30 Univ Avg

MILES IN USE 7180 4874 4600

MILES 177398 170,218

SAMPLE TAKEN 6/14/12 12/17/11



ALUMINUM 4 4 3

CHROMIUM 1 1 1

IRON 13 10 18

COPPER 12 13 23

LEAD 22 4 10

TIN 0 0 1

MOLYBDENUM 79 144 69

NICKEL 1 0 0

MANGANESE 1 0 1

SILVER 0 0 0

TITANIUM 0 0 0

POTASSIUM 4 3 8

BORON 40 5 56

SILICON 28 24 13

SODIUM 153 348 21

CALCIUM 2082 2060 2240

MAGNESIUM 8 9 155

PHOSPHORUS 655 741 733

ZINC 779 826 847

BARIUM 0 0 0



INSOLUBLES % 0.3 0.4
WATER % 0 0
FUEL %
ANTIFREEZE % 0 0 0

FLASHPOINT ºF 430 365 >365

SUS VIS 210ºF 55.7 57.4 56-63

cSt @ 212ºF 8.99 9.47 9.1-11.3

TBN 0.8 3.2



Comments from Blackstone:
Quote:
KEN: Thanks for the notes. Most of the wear metals are looking good in this sample, lead (bearings) saw a
noticeable increase. Of course, the other metals look good, so the lead could just be a harmless particle
streak. Silicon is a touch higher, but as long as the air filter is clean and the intake itself is free of cracks and
loose connections, it's probably just a harmless sealant. The viscosity was a little thin, but that's not a
problem. The TBN was down to 0.8 showing very little active additive left. Try just 6,000 miles on the next oil
and check back to monitor lead.

 

[dparm]

Seems like it will work just fine for you, but agree that your interval needs to be shorter.

 

[ABerns]

Interesting that G-Oil's TBN didn't outlast your OCI given you followed the OLM. I don't think the OLMs of this vintage were as accurate as they currently are, but still -- you would think G-Oil would be better than anything they would be expecting from 2000.

 

[zanzabar]

Iron and copper much lower than universal average, but lead is up? Silicon level slightly troubling as well. Hard to say whether to be worried about that lead or not. Did you put G-Oil back in? I don't know that your interval is too long, given that all the metals other than lead look very good, but I don't think I'd push it any farther. I'd be interested in seeing another 6k OCI with G-Oil and find out whether the silicon and lead go back down.

 

[SLCraig]

I see you're in MI. Where do you get your G-oil? I want to buy some at some point but I don't know where to get it.

 

[Doog]

This report is not good at all. Makes me believe G is for Garbage.

 

[Ken_W]

Originally Posted By: SLCraig
I see you're in MI. Where do you get your G-oil? I want to buy some at some point but I don't know where to get it.


Walmart. Not every Walmart carries it; but over half of them do. It will be right in there with the other oils. You can check at walmart.com to see if your local Walmart carries it.

If your local Walmart does NOT carry it, you can order it at walmart.com for in-store pickup (and get free shipping that way, I think).

 

[Ken_W]

Originally Posted By: Doog
This report is not good at all. Makes me believe G is for Garbage.


That's a pretty harsh statement -- can you be more specific about what you don't like there?

 

[jeepman3071]

What kind of air filter are you running?

 

[Ken_W]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
What kind of air filter are you running?


WIX

 

[Zako2]

Originally Posted By: Doog
This report is not good at all. Makes me believe G is for Garbage.



I would think that you can't generalize and label something as "garbage" only after one UOA.. ignoring something like a half dozen perfectly good G-Oil UOAs from the past. At the full retail price of $26 I do think that G-Oil is not exactly a value proposition in an OCI short enough to retain a good TBN.

 

[tstep]

IIRC, G-Oil is much closer to the traditional calcium addpacks similar to the Sopus products rather than the sodium addpacks of Valvoline. Given the high sodium level (153 or roughly 1/3 of the previous oil Maxlife 490 virgin sodium levels) of the UOA I would seriously question the validity of the UOA as 100% G-Oil. I don't think a G-Oil VOA has ever shown sodium in those quantities. So either up to 1/3 spent Maxlife oil mixed w/ G-Oil or another source of sodium from the engine.

 

[OVERKILL]

The Ashland product obviously held up much better to your OCI. I'd be extremely hesitant to use this lubricant again at this interval.

 

[cptbarkey]

Originally Posted By: Doog
This report is not good at all. Makes me believe G is for Garbage.


go away troll.

 

[Highline9]

particle streak +1

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: tstep
IIRC, G-Oil is much closer to the traditional calcium addpacks similar to the Sopus products rather than the sodium addpacks of Valvoline. Given the high sodium level (153 or roughly 1/3 of the previous oil Maxlife 490 virgin sodium levels) of the UOA I would seriously question the validity of the UOA as 100% G-Oil. I don't think a G-Oil VOA has ever shown sodium in those quantities. So either up to 1/3 spent Maxlife oil mixed w/ G-Oil or another source of sodium from the engine.



Mine shows sodium also
My G-oil UOA

I think some of the sodium in my report came from the LubroMoly MOS2 that I added.

Another possibility is that the sodium additive builds up as layers on the inside surface of the engine, and G-oil cleans it off.

 

[tstep]

http://www.pqiamerica.com/January2012A/January2012R2/goil.htm

As a comparison, the link is for a PQIA analysis of a bottle purchased December 2011. It shows 10 ppm sodium, much lower than the 153 of this UOA.

What is strange though is the much much lower Boron level of this UOA @ 40ppm vs PQIA results of 215ppm on the VOA. Does Boron somehow depleat w/ use? Is G-Oil changing the formula lowering the Boron and using sodium in the addpack?

I know there is a newer formulaton of G-Oil out there. I assume the UOA here was out of hte old SM bottle, but maybe they switched to the newer formulation and stuffed it in the old bottle. Time will tell when the new formulation gets a VOA.

 

[JAG]

Originally Posted By: tstep
What is strange though is the much much lower Boron level of this UOA @ 40ppm vs PQIA results of 215ppm on the VOA. Does Boron somehow depleat w/ use? Is G-Oil changing the formula lowering the Boron and using sodium in the addpack?

Yes, boron concentration somehow significantly decreases when the oil is used in engines. I'm not sure what the mechanism is.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: tstep


Time will tell when the new formulation gets a VOA.


Wait a week. I sent one in on Tuesday.

 

[tstep]

The boron depletion is interesting. Did not know that. Also looking forward to the newest VOA.