gas mileage down with gf-4 Drive Clean

carpy · Oct 23, 2004

Since I publicized to this board the fact that we are making the new drive clean gf-4 with predominately gp.III base oils, I felt compelled to report that over the first 1000 miles that the gas mileage on my Chevy Colorado 4X4 ext cab. 4 cyl., actually decreased from ~23 mpg. to ~21.5 mpg. Not sure if this is because of the gas being switched to the winter formulation ot not in my area. I have consulted our lab, but have not been given an answer,... yet.

Can everyone please start posting fuel econmy changes with comparisons from gf-3 to gf-4, dino oils only, no synthetics or blends. This can be useful data. Can the moderators start a poll on this forum?

[ October 24, 2004, 10:10 AM: Message edited by: carpy ]

Steve S · Oct 23, 2004

I don't think it is the oil cause that is a large drop. Must be the gas.

blupupher · Oct 23, 2004

I posted a similar question on Mobil DC. Not sure if it was the gf-3 or 4, it was a free Oil Change from the dealer. I noticed a 2-3 mpg drop, but it has come back almost to normal. I will know more next week with the switch to synthetic.

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008186#000000

Patman · Oct 23, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by carpy:

Can everyone please start posting fuel econmy changes with comparisons from gf-3 to gf-4, dino oils only, no synthetics or blends. This can be useful data. Can the moderators start a poll on this forum?

The polling feature of this software is turned off, so people can post their results in this thread if they've noticed a difference.

Brons2 · Oct 25, 2004

The new Drive Clean is mostly Group III?!?

How can Castrol get away with charging $4.49 a quart for Syntec then?

Patman · Oct 25, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Brons2:
The new Drive Clean is mostly Group III?!?

How can Castrol get away with charging $4.49 a quart for Syntec then?

There is more to an oil's cost than just it's base oil though. We've been told that even though the new Drive Clean uses group 3 for it's base oil, it also doesn't use a very expensive additive package. So perhaps Syntec does use a more expensive one. We've seen some good reports from US made Syntec, so it's not like the oil is terrible. It is slightly overpriced, but it certainly isn't a $2 oil. Perhaps it should be $3.50 maybe.

Al · Oct 25, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Brons2:
The new Drive Clean is mostly Group III?!?

How can Castrol get away with charging $4.49 a quart for Syntec then?

Ohhhh noooooo..last time these comments started up carpy went away for a week

Well-I switched to the Drive Clean+ one quart of RedLine. I'll check milage.

carpy · Oct 25, 2004

No going away this time, but I did get some conflicting reports from our lab regarding my gas mileage questions. It seems that there are two different additive pacts used on the new GF4 stuff. The stuff botlled by Consolidated Container (3 C's inside each other on bottom of bottle) use boron as the Anti-Wear booster. The stuff bottled with the G on the bottom of the bottle use organic Moly as a combined friction reducer and anti-wear booster.These are both used to replace lower levels of ZDDP. In my experience of 24 years as a lubrication/fluids engineer, boron is better. I had always used the stuff bottled by Consolidated, but I'm wondering if I ran into bottles of the other stuff.

C4Dave · Oct 25, 2004

Carpy, Do you know if the gas changed from 100% gasoline to a 10% ethanol blend? A gallon of alcohol has about 1/2 the BTUs of gasoline, so that could explain the difference.

brianl703 · Oct 25, 2004

I wonder if the 10% ethanol blend gasoline would show a difference, compared to 100% gasoline, on the long-term fuel trim PID on an OBD-II vehicle?

Blue99 · Oct 25, 2004

So the lighter color Drive Clean oil in the CCC logo bottles is a boron anti-wear formulation? And the darker color in the box G (Graham Packaging) logo bottles is from the organic moly?

Any comments on the GF-4 10W-30's that supposedly are to be launched next spring?

haley10 · Oct 25, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by carpy:
In my experience of 24 years as a lubrication/fluids engineer, boron is better. I had always used the stuff bottled by Consolidated, but I'm wondering if I ran into bottles of the other stuff.

Looks like M1 is taking a bit more of this approach lately.

I still bet it's fuel related. Gasoline can be such a big factor, but it's such a commodity item, you never know when the source will change.

I was excited about this truck until I saw the price and mpg numbers.

gas mileage down with gf-4 Drive Clean

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