Mobil 1 0w-20 - 02 Honda Civic Si K20A3, 7500 miles + comparison vs M1 5w30

[Surprise]

code:

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Date out: 3/13/03 6/21/03 11/29/03 11/29/03 5/1/04

Lab: OG OG OG Black Black

Brand: Chevron M1 M1 M1 M1

Supreme

Weight: 10w30 5w30 5w30 5w30 0w20

Miles on unit: 10170 15056 22476 22476 30067

Miles on oil: 5072 4886 7420 7420 7591

Gallons: 188.4 182.3 277.1 277.1 284.9

Filter: Honda Honda Honda Honda Honda

Fram Fram Toyo-Rki Toyo-RkiToyo-Roki

Make up: 0 0 1/3 1/3 1/4



Al- 8 5 3 3 3

Cr- 1 0 0 0 0

Fe- 8 2 0 7 6

Cu- 15 5 6 5 3

Pb- 4 0 0 3 3

Sn- 0 0 0 1 3

Mo- 76 82

Ni- 0 0

Mn- 0 0

Ag- 0 0

Ti- 0 0

K- 5 0 0 0 1

B- 135 149

Si- 40 15 14 10 9

Na- 10 11 17 8 8

Ca- 3517 2666

Mg- 18 22

P- 798 778

Zn- 894 929

Ba- 0 0



Sus@210 61.0 57.7

Flashpoint 385 445

Fuel -
Glycol- none none none 0.0 0.0

water -
Insolubles 0.2 0.2

Oxidation - 6.3 10.8 13.5

Visc@100- 13.7 13.0 13.3

Nitration - 4.3 4.9 5.3

Sae-
TBN 4.0 5.8 5.5

OG=Oil Guard/MTM Black=Blackstone

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I am still very new at this, any information, insight or general comments are appreciated. I wanted to compare 5w30 and 0w20 myself

I do show my age sometime (21) and drive in central California where I can go 300+ miles in 100+ heat for 4+ hours with my engine doing 4000+ rpm doing 80-90 with the ac on for that time, I also have fun on the weekends driving local backcountry roads with a lot of wot time and 8 autox runs. The rest of my driving consists (50%) is my daily commute of 4 miles, twice sometimes four times a day. I live in a valley and work in the valley next to mine, so I am always going uphill on a cold engine.

Oil ran from 12/2003-5/2004 in 40-105 degree weather.

I was expecting to see an increase of gas mileage and an increase of oil consumption over 5w30. But in actuality I lost fuel economy (26.7 vs. 27.4, epa is 27 city-30 hwy) and used less oil. I replaced the factory Michelin tires known for their low rolling resistance with some high performance tires that, even thought they are the same size, appear to have a much larger contact patch. I believe that I drove the car much harder with this interval, do I think the combination of the two explains that phenomenon.

Overall I am very happy with the report and liked the decrease of iron and copper. I used 0w20 again and plan to extend the OCI, any suggestions?

 

[Bror Jace]

surprise, it appears that Mobil 1 0W20 is probably the best choice for these new Honda engines calling for a 5W20. That's not really a surprise to me.

Unless you want to try Chevron 5W20 or Pennzoil 5W20 for shorter intervals, I wouldn't change a thing.

--- Bror Jace

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bror Jace:
surprise, it appears that Mobil 1 0W20 is probably the best choice for these new Honda engines calling for a 5W20. That's not really a surprise to me.

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I'll agree that the Honda 4 cyls seem to love M1 0w20, but I'm not yet convinced it's the best choice for Honda V6s in strenuous situations. Hopefully my next few UOAs will provide a few more data points. Heck, maybe I just happen to get a Honda V6 that throws out a lot of wear metals whatever I put in it.

On the other hand, it looks like there isn't much of a difference between the M1 0w20 and the M1 5w30 in this application.

[ May 08, 2004, 05:50 AM: Message edited by: 427Z06 ]

 

[JohnBrowning]

Your engine appears to be really consistent. You should consider testing M1 SUV 5W40 for comparison. I doubt that you will see any difference. Your numbers look realy good and are really low as is. It would be interesting though to see if they go up any with the thicker oil! Seeing how you have already tried 0W20 and 5W30 the 5W40 seems like alogical progression. It would either confirm assumptions of 0W20 being best choice or dispell it.

I know I would love to see this type of comparison. We have so much talk about 5W20 just being a C.A.F.E. oil!

P.S. Thanks for doing the 10W30,5W30,0W20 testing!!

 

[jthorner]

I am impressed. Both versions of Mobil-1 held up very well. The amazing thing is that the 0W-20 had a higher flashpoint than did the 5W-30.

7,500 mile interval and the oil had lots of life left in it with low wear metals, high flash point, high TBN, etc. It looks like you could go a lot longer if you so chose.

John

 

[Tones]

Oops, meant 0W-20 in previous post instead of 5W-20.

 

[Tones]

I agree both reports look excellent. I guess Bror liked the 5W-20 report better, but I don't see any advantage. I know it is probably statistically insignificant, but the tin readings are actually worse with the 5W-20. Throw in the (even remote) possibility of fuel dilution and I will take the 5W-30.

 

[Jay]

I did the same test in my Acura RSX with the same engine (K20A3) over about the same interval with about the same results. I found wear to be about the same or slightly less with M1 0w-20 compared to M1 5w-30. I found, however, that my gas mileage did improve noticeably with the 0w-20 and my oil consumption is slightly higher with 0w-20.

Thanks for the corroboration, Surprise.

 

[HOndaGuy]

Stick with the m1 0w20, you can't go wrong with how well this oil holds up in our civics. Im on my third run of m1 0w20, and my engine is cleaner than a mofo. Also am getting 37-39mpg with zeroooooooo oil consumption(comparing that to castrol 5w20 with 34-36 mpg).

 

[dustyjoe1]

To the guy that suggested chevron 5w20. In my honda (2002 civic ex 5 spd) I was very dissappointed with it in terms of how the car ran seat of the pants. So much so I dropped it out after 1000 miles. The m1 0w20 ran well in my honda also. I have been tracking oils with business card blotter tests and although not as good as uoa's it does give an idea. When I dropped out the M1 at 6k miles it still had a nice ring in the blotter and indication that it still had plenty of life left. You all might want to check out torco sr1 5w20, for my application its stacking up well to m1 and better mileage.

 

[quadrun1]

Right on, I agree with most of the comments here, including your own assessment that the slight decrease in fuel economy is probably due to the switch from energy-efficient tires to sticker performance rubber.

My friend's '03 Corolla 5-spd has low-rolling resistance Goodyears on it, and the car can get 38+ mpg on the highway (and never less than 30 city) but the traction is terrible!

In the rain, the weakling engine can spin the tires even in 3rd gear... and 1st gear is almost useless in wet conditions. Such tires are not worth the MPG benefit, IMO.

 

[MikeySoft]

Very nice. I’m impressed (jealous) with your flashpoint!

It is interesting that the two UOAs for the same M1 5w30 have different iron.

 

[MikeySoft]

quote:

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Originally posted by HOndaGuy:
... Im on my third run of m1 0w20, and my engine is cleaner than a mofo. ...

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Do you have any UOAs?