GOil 5W30-5159 Miles-Subaru Forester 2.5 Limited

[ChiefPilot]

BLACKSTONE COMMENTS: Very little in the way of wear metals showed up in this sample. The engine handled your road trip very well indeed. As we've mentioned before, highway use is normally easy on engines and that certainly appears to be the case here. The viscosity was a hair thin for 5W30 again, but that obviously did no damage. We're seeing more samples from G-Oil and it seems to work just fine. It certainly did the job here. The TBN was 2.0 showing some active additive left. No fuel or coolant to worry about and the air and oil filters got the job done. Try 7,000 miles on the oil.

MY COMMENTS: On this second consecutive G-Oil run, there is a 2,500+ mile road trip from Texas to South Carolina and back. As with most of my highway driving, speeds were 5-15 MPH below posted limits (I like MPG's what can I say). Highway/City driving on this run probably breaks down to 90/10% respectfully. Combined MPG for this oil run is a high 28 with one tank hitting a high over 31 and another hitting a low (AC ON and SPEED LIMIT) of 22. I have always been one to change oil every 3000 miles so this is new territory for me. I am inclined to change this oil @ 5,000 miles or less during the hot Texas summer months seeing how the viscosity falls off. Thoughts and Comments (intelligent or otherwise) are appreciated.

Code:
SAMPLE DATE 06/02/12 04/07/12

MI/HR ON UNIT 48,821 43,662

MI/HR ON OIL 5,159 2,187

MAKE UP OIL 0 0



ALUMINUM 2 2

CHROMIUM 0 0

IRON 3 1

COPPER 3 1

LEAD 0 0

TIN 3 0

MOLYBDENUM 73 57

NICKEL 0 0

MANGANESE 0 0

SILVER 0 0

TITANIUM 0 1

POTASSIUM 3 0

BORON 86 145

SILICON 8 5

SODIUM 4 3

CALCIUM 2652 1823

MAGNESIUM 13 9

PHOSPHORUS 811 605

ZINC 1008 694

BARIUM 0 0



SUS Viscosity @ 210F 54.2 53.8

cSt Viscosity @ 100C 8.54 8.41

Flashpoint in F 430 405

Fuel %
Antifreeze % 0.0 0.0

Water % 0.0 0.0

Insolubles % 0.2 0.3

TBN 2.0 5.6

 

[abycat]

Thats another one for g-oil. What a nice report! I would be super pleased with that. I cant see it any better. Your engine has to wear so the numbers cant be 0. But they are really close.

If I was you I would be a bulk g-oil buyer and change it at 6000. I would be not scared at all to try 6 or even 7. I would get a uoa done to confirm but it looks like hardly no wear and no air leaks at all.

I am curious as to what you use for air filters and oil filters. I didnt see a year what is it 2012 or 2011. I know squat about subarus.

I know a uoa doesnt tell everything but from what hints are available to us regular folk it looks great from where im sitting.

 

[bepperb]

5000 miles would be no problem. There isn't any wear here, certainly not enough to indicate that the low viscosity (or even lower viscosity) is increasing it. TBN is still up. 7000 miles shouldn't be a problem.

But personally, 5000 is easy to remember and if that's good for you it's obviously good for the car too.

 

[tstep]

Calcium and Zinc seem a bit higher than my recollecion of other G Oil UOAs.

 

[zanzabar]

Originally Posted By: tstep
Calcium and Zinc seem a bit higher than my recollecion of other G Oil UOAs.


Ca/Mg/P/Zn seem to be all over the map on the G-oil UOAs, they must be changing their formula quite a bit or (hopefully not) they have QC issues.

Regardless, the low wear metals and low viscosity seem to be very consistent across all vehicles where this oil is used. The viscosity drops to <9.0 in short order, but I haven't seen one where it was <8.4 so it does appear there is a bottom end - which is a good thing I suppose.

 

[Sonataman]

Report looks good, but that car must be extremely inefficient to only achieve what you are getting with the 'conservative' driving style.

 

[tstep]

I've been following the 1.8t runs with various oils. I am very interested in your results w/ G oil. I am strongly considering it for a winter change straight and maybe a summer change with a 60/40 blend of G Oil/Mobil 1 15w-50. That yields a viscosity curve more like a heavy 30 weight rather than a light 30 weight, very similar to Castol GC and would boost the HTHS a fair bit.

I've had it in my Chevy 5.3 and ran very well. Quieting the normal sounds in comparison to several others. It really fit my 5.3 that has over 180k on it.

 

[bluesubie]

If this is an n/a Forester I would go to 7,500 miles on basically any oil.

-Dennis

 

[fdcg27]

This looks like what is coming to seem a typical G-Oil UOA.
Very low wear metals, plenty of shearing and low TBN in not too many miles.
This looks to be a very good oil for those of us who don't mind 5K drains.
To the poster saying that the car is "extremely inefficient", fuel economy is not a Forester strong point.
Our best tank ever was around 27 mpg, while the worst was around 20 mpg.
Average has been around 23 mpg.

 

[ChiefPilot]

Originally Posted By: abycat


I am curious as to what you use for air filters and oil filters. I didnt see a year what is it 2012 or 2011. I know squat about subarus.


Abycat, G-Oil is the ONLY thing on my Subaru that isn't Subaru. All filters are genuine Subi. Thanks for your comments. Hope these numbers benefit you in some way.

 

[ChiefPilot]

Originally Posted By: bluesubie
If this is an n/a Forester I would go to 7,500 miles on basically any oil.

-Dennis


No turbo on this one bluesubie but, the next one very possibly. Thanks for the comments.

 

[ChiefPilot]

Originally Posted By: Sonataman
Report looks good, but that car must be extremely inefficient to only achieve what you are getting with the 'conservative' driving style.


Yep, I liked the report also. I didn't buy a Forester to be efficient. I bought it cause it dares to go places your Sonata can't and won't go. Check out to vids on offroadsubarus dot com.

 

[ChiefPilot]

bepperb, you trying to "push" me to 7K?

 

[Sonataman]

Originally Posted By: ChiefPilot

Report looks good, but that car must be extremely inefficient to only achieve what you are getting with the 'conservative' driving style.


Yep, I liked the report also. I didn't buy a Forester to be efficient. I bought it cause it dares to go places your Sonata can't and won't go. Check out to vids on offroadsubarus dot com. [/quote

I'll take my dual sport for off road work/play.

 

[Zako2]

Originally Posted By: bepperb
5000 miles would be no problem. There isn't any wear here, certainly not enough to indicate that the low viscosity (or even lower viscosity) is increasing it. TBN is still up. 7000 miles shouldn't be a problem.


I think 7,000 or more miles OCI should be no problem, if the run includes a big share of highway miles, such as in the OPs case. However, for a car that's used as a daily commute car and no long trips, I'd stick with 5,000-6000. That's what I am doing with a couple of cars right now.

 

[redbone3]

I have a 2002 Dodge Stratus with the 2.7 Liter V6. I have been using G-Oil 5-30 and topping off with Valvoline VR1 Synthetic Racing 20-50. It uses about 1 quart in 2500 miles, so I figure the 20-50 should compensate for the shearing in the G-Oil. So far I got 3 5 qt jugs free after rebate. Can't beat free. The Valvoline was free after rebate last year.

 

[FZ1]

Stay at 5,000 with that oil. I don't want my tbn to be below 2.0. Very good economy for a flying brick.

 

[dew]

Originally Posted By: tstep
I've been following the 1.8t runs with various oils. I am very interested in your results w/ G oil. I am strongly considering it for a winter change straight and maybe a summer change with a 60/40 blend of G Oil/Mobil 1 15w-50. That yields a viscosity curve more like a heavy 30 weight rather than a light 30 weight, very similar to Castol GC and would boost the HTHS a fair bit.

I've had it in my Chevy 5.3 and ran very well. Quieting the normal sounds in comparison to several others. It really fit my 5.3 that has over 180k on it.


It appears this oil is already a "heavy" 30 without mixing it with anything! The HTHS of 3.5 is similar to M1 0w-40 or GC 0w-30. In fact, I'm using it due to the rebates but think I may not be saving that much in the end due to excess HTHS for may application (which only requires a standard 30 grade). So for me, the more it shears the better. Hoping the 5w-20 becomes more available soon as I expect it is equivalent to a light 30 grade.

 

[CATERHAM]

Originally Posted By: dew
Originally Posted By: tstep
I've been following the 1.8t runs with various oils. I am very interested in your results w/ G oil. I am strongly considering it for a winter change straight and maybe a summer change with a 60/40 blend of G Oil/Mobil 1 15w-50. That yields a viscosity curve more like a heavy 30 weight rather than a light 30 weight, very similar to Castol GC and would boost the HTHS a fair bit.

I've had it in my Chevy 5.3 and ran very well. Quieting the normal sounds in comparison to several others. It really fit my 5.3 that has over 180k on it.


It appears this oil is already a "heavy" 30 without mixing it with anything! The HTHS of 3.5 is similar to M1 0w-40 or GC 0w-30. In fact, I'm using it due to the rebates but think I may not be saving that much in the end due to excess HTHS for may application (which only requires a standard 30 grade). So for me, the more it shears the better. Hoping the 5w-20 becomes more available soon as I expect it is equivalent to a light 30 grade.

You're right with a virgin HTHSV of 3.5cP this is a heavy 30wt oil but it does shear in service, in this case 15%.

 

[tstep]

My main concern is:

1) I have not been able to confirm that the HTHS is in fact 3.5 or greater as the VW 502 spec would require. I had asked G-Oil to confirm this and they replied with an indirect response that confirmed nothing; only stating that a soon to be released 5w-40 would be the recommended oil. So I'm a bit leary of the 3.5 HTHS value, especially when I asked G-Oil point blank w/out receiving a direct answer.

2) Also, even if the HTHS was 3.5, G-Oil has shown shearing to the under 9 cST100. This is a bit concerning if the expected HTHS reduction follows @ a 50% rate. I do not think I would be concerned if the HTHS dropped from 3.5 to 3.2 or 3.3 during an OCI of 5k, but not being able to confirm the initial starting HTHS is concerning.

However, at the end of the day, the wear trends in the various UOAs are very interesting and I'd like to give it a try for a 5k run.