New Amsoil SSO 5w20 (LSPI reformulation)

[StevieC]

Since Amsoil has changed over to their new formulation which supposedly cleans much better and has 100% protection against LSPI I have noticed that the oil gets far darker and more quickly on the dipstick than before. I suspect it's this increased cleaning ability that is turning the oil dark and I wonder if it will slowly go back to the way it was once it's done cleaning up the engine ?!? Usually I would drive it to 10,000 miles (16,000km) and it would just be turning a light brown at that time and would drain out black. Now it's been 4500 miles (7200km) and it's already that colour. I'm not worried, it's more of an observation but I will be running a UOA to see if it tells anything or if there is something else going on in the engine that might be contributing to it. So far no consumption and no coolant level change so it has to be the new formulation reacting differently I would suspect. Just thought I would share.

 

[Bxnanaz]

Nice observation!

 

[benjy]

mineral oils aka group III refined CRUDES discolor much faster then real synthetics!! since Amsoil don't give any info on base oils after the "quietly" went away from their PAO touting days i trust them very LITTLE + will not pay $$$ for who knows what!!! there are a lot of good $5 a qt group III fake "synthetics" out there today!!

 

[JustN89]

Originally Posted By: benjy

mineral oils aka group III refined CRUDES discolor much faster then real synthetics!! since Amsoil don't give any info on base oils after the "quietly" went away from their PAO touting days i trust them very LITTLE + will not pay $$$ for who knows what!!! there are a lot of good $5 a qt group III fake "synthetics" out there today!!

Considering that he's run Amsoil before, and most tend to agree that LSPI changes have been simply with add-packs, I think we can rule out that the conspiracy around Amsoil going more GIII vs. PAO is not the root cause of his observations.

 

[wemay]

Looking forward to that UOA.

 

[StevieC]

I might just do the change tomorrow just to see what has caused it to discolour this quickly if it will tell anything. As for Group III, I would highly doubt that any Group III is used in SSO. OE or XL maybe but not signature series and not with the superior cleanliness and past UOA's I have seen.

 

[parshisa]

After my last change with SSO 0w20 after around 100mi or so I realized that I put a little too much oil. I had to pull through the diptick roughly 0.2-0.3 qts and guess what...it was dark brown, almost black. With that said, it has nothing to do with reformulation. Color on the dipstick will depend on the temp oil (the hotter the thinner oil film will be the lighter colored it will appear). Also, pretty annoying to listen to the people complaining about Amsoil without even running it themselves. If you don't like it or can't afford - just let it go

 

[StevieC]

Yeah but I have run SSO 5w20 in this engine for most of its life and it has never darkened this quickly. The only thing that changed is my stock which I know has been switched over to the reformulated stuff in September which is not in the crank case. I don't care that it's changing this quickly and I don't think it's going to grenade my engine. Just an observation I would share for other users in case others noticed the same thing or to inform others that also use it. Just for discussion is all. As for the naysayers there are these folks in every group best to hit 'em with facts and/or ignore...

 

[PimTac]

Didn’t amsoil use to have large doses of calcium additive? I’ll bet that had to be reduced to get the certificate. That shouldn’t affect the cleaning ability and this might be a trend we will see with all the gen 2 oils. Why change it out? That’s pretty expensive oil.

 

[parshisa]

Yes, they are almost 3 times less Ca then they were. I did VOA for 0w20 and 5w30 new formula - looks very different from what it was. Have some sitting in my garage and will go in on my next OCI.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: PimTac

Didn’t amsoil use to have large doses of calcium additive? I’ll bet that had to be reduced to get the certificate. That shouldn’t affect the cleaning ability and this might be a trend we will see with all the gen 2 oils. Why change it out? That’s pretty expensive oil.

There weather here is quite mild at the moment so today would be an ideal day to change it out and then it wouldn't be due until the mild part of the spring if I go the full 16,000km (10K miles) before changing it again. Plus I will get to see how the changes made to the new formula are doing in my engine. The OLM hasn't gone off yet so I'm sure the oil is just fine because it's calibrated for conventional oil but I'm curious to see.