Originally Posted By: rbarrios
With my Trailblazer- Ive been using the OLM since new. (well the factory fill + 2nd oil was changed with much less mileage)
Other than that- always followed the OLM.
Will continue to do so.
Very coincidentally,I drive an '06 Trailblazer, and my Blackstone report is dated 5-26-10, probably within hours of yours! I ran the OLM down to 10% @ 9,235 miles. The fill was probably "Mr. Grinch" - at least it was changed at a dealer.
The vehicle went through a half dozen or so sub-zero starts, and dozens of sub-freezing starts. Here are the results:
Al 7 (Always above average, was 11 on earlier 3,100 OCI)
Ch 1
Fe 21
CU 8
PB 1
Tin 0
Si 6 (1/2 Universal Av, with more miles & K&N air filter!)
Vis @ 210F 58.2
Vis @ 100C 9.71
Flash 395
Fuel less than .5
Insolubles .3
TBN 1.6 (same as 6,000 mile run on Mr. Grinch)
The OLM does indeed seem to work. Have analyzed oil on Cadillac DeVille at 10% OLM, and plenty of life was left. Blackstone suggested 11,000 for the next run on Trailblazer, which would exceed the projected OLM mileage of 10,261 if ran down to zero. So there is a safety margin built in. OLM runs down much faster in Caddy, with the high performance engine.
Also of interest, the Universal averages are updated with each Blackstone analysis for each engine type. In comparing the two reports made very close together, the averages stayed the same, except for Moly, which went from 58 to 59, calcium, from 2243 to 2245, and zinc, which went from 800 to 801 (or vice versa).
You can see how much tougher winter operation in a northern state is on an engine than operating in LA. More miles with less wear in LA. My aluminum is higher than normal, but this is the lowest on a per mile basis, and the trend has been down.
The viscosity was right in the middle of the range. As noted, the K&N did a good job filtering the air. I have seen them criticized on BITOG as a poor filter. Will probably go back to stock filter; I have no ax to grind either way.
