Which oil would you choose? Seeing specs only

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bherriman

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Jun 26, 2025
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Which of these oils would you guys choose based on these specifications alone? For reference I have a ‘23 half ton with the little 3.0 duramax. I’m going to be taking 7 hour trip pulling a smallish camper (well within towing limits with camper, family, and all our gear) through the hills and curves of Missouri. Ambient temps will be mid 90s and humidity will be all of it. Looking for the best protection I can get beings these trucks aren’t scared to see 260° oil temps. For some back ground on the truck, I bought it brand new and dumped the factory fill at 800 miles and put in a 30 weight oil and did oil samples my next two changes. They looked good after break in washed out. I change oil every 5k, fuel at 10k and all drivetrain fluids at 50k. Truck currently has 50k on the clock, I am also currently using in of the oils I’m going to list. Left out name brands on purpose and I’m sure there’s info I missed that I should have included.


CST at 40 - 72.3 - 94.5 - 71.7 - 67

CST at 100- 12 - 15.4 - 12.2 - 11.9

Viscosity idex- 162 - 173 - 169 - 175

HTHS- 3.5 - 4.3- 3.52- 3.5

Noack- 8.6 - 9.2- 8.3- ??

Sulfated Ash- .91- .99- .8- .8
 
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Looks like the 4.3 HTHS is an hdeo. Do you live in cold environment? I would want to see the additives in the oil too. Any VOA you can share?
 
fantastic said:
Looks like the 4.3 HTHS is an hdeo. Do you live in cold environment? I would want to see the additives in the oil too. Any VOA you can share?
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I live in Missouri so the temperature varies drastically from below 0°to over 100°. I do not have any VOA. I do have a used on the oil in the third column, truck was still brand new and breaking in so wear metals are probably little off

IMG_2254.webp
 
bherriman said:
I live in Missouri so the temperature varies drastically from below 0°to over 100°. I do not have any VOA. I do have a used on the oil in the third column, truck was still brand new and breaking in so wear metals are probably little off

View attachment 286758
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Hello fellow Show Me state neighbor! (I'm around the lake of ozarks). Anyways, the UOA is helpful & It seemed to work just fine. I would stick with an emissions reduced oil & if you're using a 30 or 40 grade it seems better than the OEM 20. However, we've had another staff member @wwillson that recently had some elevated wear rates on this engine. I would say that a 40 grade while towing you can't lose outside of a very small MPG reduction. Since we don't really have "Mountains" like in other states even a stout 30 grade could suffice. Perhaps others can respond that they are more familiar with this engine. If you can send future UOA to a lab that you can have them test for fuel dilution via the GC method would help out too but since you're only going 5k miles each interval it's really not an issue.
 
I'd go with the highest HTHS oil. To me, anything below 1% SA is "low" and as long as you're not burning oil, your DPF should be just fine.

For reference, I run a 4.2 HTHS rated HDEO oil and I'm tuned, so I like the extra protection a slightly thicker oil provides me. My EcoD doesn't burn oil and it does a DPF regen every 1K miles.
 
Dr_Dr3i said:
I'd go with the highest HTHS oil. To me, anything below 1% SA is "low" and as long as you're not burning oil, your DPF should be just fine.

For reference, I run a 4.2 HTHS rated HDEO oil and I'm tuned, so I like the extra protection a slightly thicker oil provides me. My EcoD doesn't burn oil and it does a DPF regen every 1K miles.
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Dang, my truck doesn’t even come close to 1k regens and it’s factory stock outside of some tires. I’ve heard some of the earlier LM2 guys say they get 600 miles, but mine and a lot of the LZO guys I’ve heard from are drastically less. Almost spends more time in Regen than not.
 
Me being me i'm taking the second one to use in that 3.0 as it looks like a boutique 5w-40. Most off the shelf 0/5w-40 hdeo's are 3.8-4.0 and even the best ots being xsp 5w-40 is 4.2. But since almost all euro 30's are dual rated for diesel use you could use any of them but that aspect needs to be checked.
 
Mobil ESP 5w-30.

For your engine, performance at 120 C is more relevant than at 100 C.

Don't get sidetracked by the punters that worship miles between regens. Most regen strategies are driven by soot load OR running hours since last regen, whichever comes first. If your average MPH is low, your average miles on regen will also be low.
 
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johnmyster said:
Mobil ESP 5w-30.

For your engine, performance at 120 C is more relevant than at 100 C.

Don't get sidetracked by the punters that worship miles between regens. Most regen strategies are driven by soot load OR running hours since last regen, whichever comes first. If your average MPH is low, your average miles on regen will also be low.
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That tracks exactly with how my CTD regens. If I can keep avg speed up to 40 mph, I get only 24 hr regens but I know less than nothing about the 3.0 Duramax regen strategy.
 
I did find some VOA on the second and 4th columns. I will attach them. I wanted to keep brand bias out of this but, I guess to clear things up the first column is Amsoil 5w30 (DHD) second is Amsoil 5w40 (DEO) Third column is Amsoil “dexosD” 5w30 (DP530) which is also what my UOA came from and the 4th column is Mobil esp 5w30 which is what I’ve been running for the last 20k or so

IMG_3253.webp


IMG_3255.webp
 
johnmyster said:
Mobil ESP 5w-30.

For your engine, performance at 120 C is more relevant than at 100 C.

Don't get sidetracked by the punters that worship miles between regens. Most regen strategies are driven by soot load OR running hours since last regen, whichever comes first. If your average MPH is low, your average miles on regen will also be low.
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Mostly interstate driving at 72 mph uploaded. I do mix in some towing and city driving but it’s probably 75% highway
 
bherriman said:
I did find some VOA on the second and 4th columns. I will attach them. I wanted to keep brand bias out of this but, I guess to clear things up the first column is Amsoil 5w30 (DHD) second is Amsoil 5w40 (DEO) Third column is Amsoil “dexosD” 5w30 (DP530) which is also what my UOA came from and the 4th column is Mobil esp 5w30 which is what I’ve been running for the last 20k or so

View attachment 286780

View attachment 286781
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The UOA aren't going to show what's best here, you can't do comparative quality assessments with a $35 spectrographic analysis. That isn't the tool for the job.

What recommendation does Amsoil give for this vehicle and engine? That's what I'd use.
 
kschachn said:
The UOA aren't going to show what's best here, you can't do comparative quality assessments with a $35 spectrographic analysis. That isn't the tool for the job.

What recommendation does Amsoil give for this vehicle and engine? That's what I'd use.
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Those are VOA, couldn’t find VOA for the other oils.
Owners manual states 0w20, which I am not interested in.
 
bherriman said:
Those are VOA, couldn’t find VOA for the other oils.
Owners manual states 0w20, which I am not interested in.
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Either way it doesn’t matter. They are still spectrographic analyses and that doesn’t determine the “best” oil here.

It’s not an issue to increase the grade. If Amsoil recommends a reduced SAPS oil then use that in any grade you want as long as the winter rating is appropriate for your starting temperature. Any oil with a 5W rating is appropriate down to about -30 or so. Below that use one with a 0W rating.
 
kschachn said:
Either way it doesn’t matter. They are still spectrographic analyses and that doesn’t determine the “best” oil here.

It’s not an issue to increase the grade. If Amsoil recommends a reduced SAPS oil then use that in any grade you want as long as the winter rating is appropriate for your starting temperature. Any oil with a 5W rating is appropriate down to about -30 or so. Below that use one with a 0W rating.
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How much of a difference is there truly between a .8 to a .9x when it comes to ash content?
 
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