GC and energy conserving

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Most all new cars recommend energy conserving oil as stated in the api donut on oil bottles. I recently switched from GC to synpower 5w30 because of mpg issues. Immediately i noticed the motor was smoother and seemed to rev faster and MPG shot up. I did a little snooping and noticed that 40*/100* celcius visc. were not all that different between the two oils. Obviously the GC was developed for european specs. I did notice that Gc does not have the energy conserving verbage in the API donut on the bottle. What are the characteristics of this oil that make it so. Gc in fact to me seems almost like an early to mid 30 weight oil not the almost 4 weight everyone portrays it to be.
 
Speedtc, shouldn't you be running 5W20 in your Ford Focus? Blaspheme running a 5W30! Just run your API approved "energy conserving donut" oil and be happy already. Have you ever run the same oil for two FULL consecugive OCI's in a row?
 
To clear it up i had removed GC form my 3.5 altima and used 5w30 synpower.
SWheat.. It was the first fill of GC and probably had 3500 miles on it.
AndyH.......12.1 to 10.9, it doesn't seem too much of a difference.
 
What do you think of 5w30 synpower? It was going to be my next choice after I ditched Mobil 5w30 - but then I saw this place and GC 0w30 and was quickly converted
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I really liked Valvoline before I found GC
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I would like to stick with an oil so i may use synpower from here on out. The GC experiment seems to have not gone in my favor. The only time i have not used synpower was 1 fill of M1 5w30 and the GC that just came out. Both the GC and M1 were right after eachother. The M1 fill i noticed alot of valvetrain noise so i used GC. With GC and synpower the engine is silent.
 
quote:

With GC and syn-power the engine is silent.

OK speedtc in your other post you said GC was just as noisy as M-1 was and now you say GC quiet your engine down? so which is it. did GC made your engine quiet or not? here is the quotes I pulled from your other post.

quote:

Synthetic nectar of the gods you say? Uhmmm no! It has not quieted down the motor compared to the Mobil1 5w30 i had been using. No smoother during commute either.

quote:

I switched from Dino at 11,000 miles to mobil1. I used Valvoline syn-power once when mobil1 was out and it did quiet down the mechanical sound of the motor. I tried gc and so far i haven't noticed any quieting affect and the motor felt somewhat sluggish. It has smoothed out some the past week. I will go 5000 miles and do an UOA to see if i will continue.

Your post saying GC did not quiet down your engine none.

so which is it did it quiet down your engine or not. sounds like you don't know whats going on with your engine.
 
Dark Jedi.....I stand corrected! I guess i got used to the sound and it didn't bother me anymore or when Gc was new it needed a few cycles.
Dark Jedi...i do know what the engine is doing. It was losing MPG with GC.
 
quote:

Originally posted by OriginHacker21:
Is the energy conserving award given to an oil because of a formulation it has to give more MPG?

Info from API's web site:

quote:

ENERGY CONSERVING DESIGNATION

The bottom of the Donut tells whether the oil has energy conserving properties when compared with a reference oil in an engine test. Oils labeled as "Energy Conserving" have passed this test. Widespread use of engine oils with this designation should result in an overall saving of fuel in the vehicle fleet as a whole, but a particular vehicle operator may not experience a fuel savings as a result of using these oils.

 
Thanks for the info AndyH!

So it looks like those Energy Conserving Designation are just given to those oils that work for some cars in general. I like that last sentence
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"may not experience a fuel savings"
 
quote:

It's my altima 3.5.

Whew. Excellent. Again, the question: Have you ever run the same oil for two FULL consecugive OCI's in a row?

The reason I ask is that you seem to change brands a lot and don't give an oil a chance to have its own chemistry run solo for a good run (without having residual left overs from previous oil). It just may be the impression I got when you dumped GC early.

BTW, I'm on my second run with GC in my #2 1ZZ-FE and now the MPG is up (the last two tank fulls) to 33.5-34.2 while the #1 1ZZ-FE is holding steady at 32.5 with M1 5W30. Kinda weird. Maybe I just had excellent gas as the price went up again.
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I've got a 2.2L ecotec and have had a smoother engine (sound/feel) with the 0w30 GC than with Mobil 5w30.

Something to realize - All oil is slippery. You can put 15w40 in a 4 cyl toyota pickup (which I know a guy who does and hes running good at 250k). The difference of "energy saving slipperiness" of one oil to another is hardly different.

So - in "energy saving" terminology - the lighter the oil the better the gas mileage. So a 5w20 is going to give you BETTER mpg than 5w30.

BTW... 5w30 is the same weight as 0w30 once hot. In fact 0w30 starts out as 0 (lighter) so it should get better MPG than 5w30 if I got my weights down right.
 
quote:

Originally posted by speedtc:
I did a little snooping and noticed that 40*/100* celcius visc. were not all that different between the two oils.

Huh? GC specs out to 12.2 cSt @ 100°C (if memory serves). That is almost a 40-weight oil according to this viscosity chart:

 -


Valvoline SynPower 5w-30 is 10.9 cSt @ 100°C according to the product data sheet found on their site.

GC is clearly thicker than SynPower 5w-30 @ 100°C.
 
10.9 cST and 12.2 cST?

I don't know if that is a huge difference though... But I don't know much so about all this (just doesn't seem that different to me - like say a 5w20 with a 6.0cST and a 10w30 with a 10.9cST).
 
I have the same engine SWheat and my MPG dropped about 2 mpg running with GC...put Chevron in and back up to 31-32
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Goose
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quote:

Originally posted by OriginHacker21:
10.9 cST and 12.2 cST?

I don't know if that is a huge difference though... But I don't know much so about all this (just doesn't seem that different to me - like say a 5w20 with a 6.0cST and a 10w30 with a 10.9cST).


Another datapoint...Valvoline SynPower 5w-20 spec'd at 8.65 cSt @ 100°C.

Which 5w-20 are you looking at that is 6.0 cSt @ 100°C?
 
That was just a random guess - as you can tell I don't know much about the specs for different oil (still waiting to get the kit from blackstone labs for my first UOA).

I used to work at an oil change place and to me all oil was slippery. I come from the place where I don't understand how a different oil will effect MPG that much. (Maybe from a 0w50 to 5w20 yes...).

Now - engine noise - yes, some oils are a lot better at helping/hurting that.
 
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