Gary,
I'd like to thank you for your decision to evaluate Amsoil. We use Mobile1 in our 09 FEH and have been debating if it would be beneficial/cost effective to move to Amsoil or Royal Purple. I look forward to reading about your results.

 

Thanks Bob and Mike for your support.

Sort of can't wait to finish this tank and put Amsoil through the test. I've got about 600 miles left on my present tank so I should have time to get the Amsoil and report that experience. I'm reading that the Amsoil dealers try to sell everyone on getting in the business so they get a cut of your profits. I think I read to go to the Amsoil site directly to avoid that crap.

I'd love to see an 8% (even a 2%) improvement in my numbers and I will give a good assessment of what I find. If I wanted a great short term improvement I know dino Pennzoil is good for about 3,000 miles. Maybe I should give it a try in my '09 FEH and report those findings after the Amsoil.

GaryG

 

I listen to Sirrius Radio 147 "Road Dog" trucking station a lot.
They have some entertainment shows, and some very technical shows.

A lot of Big Rig Truckers use Amsoil products and even the "experts" on the show say it is just as good as Mobil 1. Not better for anything, but just as good. They go 100,000 miles between oil changes ( with sub-micron filters ) and usually have 1.5 to 2.0 million miles per engine.

They look for any chance to squeeze out 0.1 MPG ( say 6.0 to 6.1 MPG is a big deal for them ).

The truck experts agree. Synthetic oil does not wear out. It just gets dirty.

We need more data. I doubt Bill tests the fuel he buys at the pump. I do.
Pumps that are labeled E10 are sometimes plain gas. Pumps labeled as regular "regular" ( no ethanol ) are sometimes E10.

Sometimes E10 is as high at E13.

You really never know what you get at the pump.
There is a loophole in E10 states that says the fuel companies do NOT have to add ethanol if the price of ethanol is greater than the price of gas. Also, there is no one checking up on them (the retailers).

I drive for a living. ( customer service )
I have been to 42 states by car.
The variations in gasoline quality ( and price ) would shock most of you.
This could, ( not saying it did ) account for Bill's 8% increase.

Colorado ( who was one of the first to use E10 starting in 1988 ) just repealed that legislation last year saying the air was now clean, most of the "clunkers" were now off the road, and stations could now sell whatever they want. This occured without fanfare, and without notice to the public.

 

Regarding Royal Purple. Some time ago I pulled up its MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) that goes into specifics as to how first responders should handle such chemicals. Without specifically going into proprietary details it does tell one what's in a product.

My read of this document is clear: Royal Purple is not a full synthetic. It is a dino oil base with a synthetic additive package. I believe it is simply not a synthetic.

In order to get the true benefits of a synthetic it must be fully synthetic otherwise the dominant friction effect is from the base oil.

I won't use it

 

Regarding gpsman1's comments on what could & could not have explained my fuel mileage.

First I buy the lowest price gas I can find. While its true that the quality of fuel goes up & down, my measure of 15.5 mpg goes back over the last 100,000 miles on my Suburban. When you do such long time measurements such errors average out and most become insigificant. Sort of like if you use the pump click off as your measure of a full tank... you get the idea.

When I see a step change in something I measure and that step change is large enough to be well beyond random variation, then you have something. Well, I didn't report my fuel mileage until I had accumulated 7,000 miles across the western half of Wyoming.

Keep in mind that the bulk gasoline sold can be from any refiner as they trade back & forth. When ethanol became common in fuel I thought I might be able to see a difference in mpg if I paid attention. I didn't and eventually quit tracking ethanol content as there was no discernable effect on mpg long term.

I understand the math on energy content (eg at 10% ethanol there is 95% of the energy available as in straight gasoline) so spare me the tutorial on how the above can't possibly be true. I'm not trying to get into the classroom discussion on motor fuel & energy content. I'm just reporting my experience over 409,818 miles accumulated on my Suburban and the conclusions I drew from it.

Having spent a career driving nuclear subs to include chief engineer of one, I have sufficient background to draw the conclusions I have drawn. Don't take that to mean my conclusions shouldn't be real world tested and new conclusions drawn if appropriate. The key word is "tested."

 

Bill- Wyoming may have dropped ethanol for ALL of your last 7,000 miles.

Improbable, but possible.
If Colorado can change the rules without fanfare, so can WY.

I'm not discounting your report. I appreciate it.
Rule out the fuel factor, and your oil theory has more weight.

In general, I consider 7,000 miles, 7 tanks, a decent sample size.
But a long way from conclusive.
Which is why Gary G's tests will be very interesting.
I cannot do it for reasons already stated.
( I buy gas in a different state every tank. )

Have you checked your fan belt(s)? Maybe they are slipping and causing less load on the engine?

I trust your 8% improvement as accurate. It could be 2% from the oil, 2% from the fan belt slipping, 2% from fuel change, and 2% from weather.

It could also be from worn tires. It could be from new pavement surface in your area. Who knows?

 

Fan belts slipping? How many cars don't use a serpentine belt today? Mine uses a serpentine belt. These have a tensioner.

A whole state dropping ethanol? Come on. You're grasping at straws.

I frequently have driven to the east coast including over Christmas. The whole nation would have to drop ethanol. If you buy fuel over enough different places... And like I said in an earlier post I could discern no real difference in mpg with or without ethanol (at least as far as marked on the pump).

Over this 7,000 miles I saw calculated mpgs from 16.0 to 18.0. The average was 16.86. It was notable that there were no 15s in the numbers. A "15" was a common part of mpg previously.

It makes no difference to me whether you decide to use Amsoil or not. There's alot of scams out there and one should be skeptical. Log the datapoint, try it if so inclined, and report the results. For myself & my next oil change in my FEH, I'll put in Amsoil & see. If it follows the Suburban I'll stick with it. But it might not.

Of course, if Mobil One had been readily available, I'd never even have even tried Amsoil. Mobil One was just too hard to reliably find.

In the realm of try it and see: I just put in Bosch Plus 4 spark plugs. I see little difference in mpg from that change. But then I've only got 2,000 miles on them, so I'll continue to watch performance.

 

"A lot of Big Rig Truckers use Amsoil products and even the "experts" on the show say it is just as good as Mobil 1. Not better for anything, but just as good. They go 100,000 miles between oil changes ( with sub-micron filters ) and usually have 1.5 to 2.0 million miles per engine.
[del]
The truck experts agree. Synthetic oil does not wear out. It just gets dirty."

Hence my use of "Jaw Drop" in the title. I simply hadn't expected what I saw relative to Mobil One.

My filter system includes a 1 µ bypass filter. I take issue with the last statement. While its true that the base oil "does not wear out" the additive package does deplete. TBN is important because it tells you the reserves against acid formation, principally from moisture that gets in the oil. When its gone you either change oil or add a supplement.

Other additives deplete and should be watched also.

With dino oil the base oil does wear out. Since its made up of a far more random bunch of oil molecules the lighter fractions eventually boil off leaving a progressively thicker mixture. With synthetics the molecules are far more uniform, & smaller, with a much higher temperature stability. Unless abused with very high operating temps synthetics "don't wear out."

But the additives do deplete. So watch your chemistry.

Lets be clear: a small change in mileage for my Suburban means I get almost 200 more miles out of a fuel load. I'll take it. ...And that's where I first noticed the increase in mileage.

Don't forget that there are other factors on my Suburban: electric prelube pump since 40k, oil cooler, and fine filtration system. Until I put in the filtration system I changed Mobil One and the filter every 3,000 miles. I considered the trade off of cost versus engine life worth it. These could have set the stage for the recent results.

 

One minor correction; the Amsoil XL series are not blended; they are 100% synthetic oil. They use a different additive package to lower costs for those individuals who are more comfortable with changing more often than the extended drains available with the other oils. The XL series were originally designed for use in "quick change" oil change shops for customers who wanted to come back twice a year or whatever.

The XL is a "group 3" synthetic, and most of the other Amsoil products are a "group 4" synthetic. XL is API rated for those that want to stick with manufacturer recommended change intervals.

OK, hope that helps, gotta go.

 

where is the OP located that mobil 1 is hard to find? even walmart carries it now and it is so cheap that I even doubt it is from mobil 1