Green Thunder Oil Analysis Thread...

Jump to post #18 for my transmission fluid analysis!

8/8/23: Added my 6th sample. When reading these cycles, they're right-to-left in the report below.

Cycle #1-3: Castrol Magnatec 0W-20
Cycle #4-6: Schaeffers Supreme 9000 0W-20

• Cycle #1: 189 days, no towing. A solid Covid cycle, either driving 5 miles to the grocery store (barely getting the engine warm) or a 110 mile cycle to where we occasionally escape from the city.
• Cycle #2: 161 days, 1,500 miles of towing. I don't speed when I tow, but I don't baby the truck either...
• Cycle #3: 223 days with only 154 miles towing (one weekend). To describe this cycle in one word, I’d say “grind”. There were a few 100 mile weekend trips, but the average week was 1-3 days of driveway posing and then 5-15 miles of city driving. I’m not surprised, nor worried, about a bit of fuel in my oil. The truck is not getting driven enough and there's no notable wear increase from fuel dilution.
• Cycle #4: 145 days, 1,116 miles of towing. No surprises with the Schaeffers. This was a pretty normal cycle giving the summer months of towing my 4,000lb trailer. Many hours of the towing was done at 2,700-3,000 rpm in 90+ degree heat. Seems like I had a headwind every where I went. One of my 200+ mile tows averaged 7mpg. The truck was drinking!
• Cycle #5: 178 days, 448 miles of towing. This is an easy cycle. Limited towing and lots of average weeks where I'm commuting 32 miles a day (mostly highway) and then lots of short city driving on the weekend.
• Cycle #6: 147 day, 754 miles of towing. Nothing special about this cycle. Most of the 5,100 mile cycle was easy local driving. I put on all the towing in the last 4 weeks of this oil. The slight increase in AL wear is interesting, but I'm not worried.

Final thoughts on Castrol: It is a great oil and I'm glad I have a bunch remaining in the garage. I bet it will be hard to beat at any price point. The 5qt bottles were about $17 when I bought them back in 2020, so that oil was a great deal at $3.xx/qt.

Final Thoughts on Schaeffer's: I'm a Schaeffer's fan-boy, but I'll be the first to admit it's not worth the price at $10.xx/qt. I've used it in multiple rigs (gas and diesel) and while I love the small-company vibe and yes, their oil does hold up...I've never had it provide better UOAs than the big-name cheaper stuff. I will admit, now that I'm back to running the Castrol oil, I swear my engine's knocks and sounds are louder...strange.

So what's next? This thread is going to go dormant for a few years as I've got a bunch of Castrol just sitting in my garage waiting to be used. Coincidentally, my driving habits are going to be changing soon and I'll be putting fewer miles on the truck. Maybe 50 miles a week at the most. So I'll be changing my oil every 6 months instead of 5,000 miles and that makes comparing samples pointless. But, after I know my driving cycle I will try to get a sample in here and there. I'm very curious how a 5W-30 oil will perform and I might try a few other brands I've never bought before...So stay tuned...


Nerd Notes:

• If you want some help figuring these reports out, check out https://bobistheoilguy.com/engine-oil-analysis/. Be warned...BITOG is a black hole of OCD. You might get sucked into a level of nerdship that has no known cure.

• I run my oil for 5,000ish miles and typically do 3 runs per oil brand for these reports. Other than my Ford Ecoboost, I've never seen one oil perform better than anything else. Our motors are not hard on oil, so I don't expect to see any difference. This is for fun only (well, until it isn't).

 

Here's my Schaeffers uoa using 5w30, I have one in 0w20 as well if you wanna see it. I run Schaeffers front to back, except the transfer case. They make some great oil

 

Heck yeah, post your 0W-20 results. Then I’ll have something to compare against.

 

The reason it wasn't full on the dipstick on this report is because I put 8qts in, but my truck takes 8.5 to get to the full mark. So disregard that part. The 5w30 is much better imo, but im I the south, and tow my 8k camper alot.

 

Your wear metals are the same as mine, but you run a full 10k miles. Interesting. Okay, that settles it. I’m running Schaeffers next. See how it does with my rig.

Thanks for the inspiration!

 

No problem! I also have tons of miles on my truck, and it loves this stuff. I run a toyota filter as well

 

Added latest UOA with my third and final Castrol sample.

 

Added first cycle with Schaeffers. @Sumo91

 

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

 

Good deal! It's great oil. I made the switch to High Performance Lubricants back in December.

 

I was going to do it last oil change. Took it to the dealer for a dead battery and they took it upon themselves to change my oil under the toyocare. I am interested by what comes back. I personally just switch oils all the time. Castrol, Valvaline, Penzoil, etc, whatever is on sale. I went down the Bob is the oil guy rabbit hole and quite frankly it was too much. I personally believe if a bearing is going to go it’s because of manufacturing issue and not oil related. I stick to 5k oil changes and 30w oil. Engine sounds so much better with 30w. Next oil change I will send it in and it will be Toyota 5-20 oil that gets tested.

 

BITOG is a crazy rabbit hole. One with no bottom. I might try a 30w at some point, but the 20w holds up just fine for my application.

Some swear to always use the same oil. In my mind, changing oils introduces different cleaning agents into the engine which in theory could be better over the long haul. At least, in theory.

 

Your are correct on BITOG. I will say that for me living in Miami, I figure that the thicker oil hold up better and doesn’t thin down like a 20. I did an oil change on my wife’s NX300 the other day and I use 20, that oil looks like water. And now they also have 16 oil. Besides the quieter engine I also noticed higher oil pressures at all rpm ranges, so it’s a win win for me. Not to mention the 5.7 can use up 15-40, 5-20 is because of EPA/Cafe standards here in the US. I never thought of different oils having different formulas and doing a better cleaning job, in theory.

 

A little bait… finally got a tranny sample pulled. Just drained enough to fill the jar and then backfilled an equal amount with fresh fluid
New fresh transmission fluid is the pink splash on the left; my fluid is on the right. It had a "used smell" but nothing bad.

 

From the color on the paper towel, it doesn't look bad. It should come back with a good report. I always mail my Blackstone samples with 2 or 3 day mail, the return system they have takes forever, it's worth paying a couple bucks to get the results faster IMO

 

Yeah, I don't expect there to be any problems. I tow a lot but watch the temps closely. Going to see if I can go another 20-30k or if I should start doing changes sooner.

My last oil sample got to Blackstone within 3-4 days. They just take forever to process.

 

I try to do a complete fluid exchange every 40-50k miles, usually takes around 14-16qts, 4 qts from the pan, and the rest from draining it from the trans cooler line till it looks exactly like the fluid going in. (I realize yours is a 2020 and doesn't have a trans cooler, unless you added one) I'm gonna be changing mine a little early this time at 250k miles(around 35k on fluid), I've been REALLY hard on this current fluid, and I feel like 250k is a fun number to change it at anyway.

 

Miles on fluid: 30,946
Miles towing: 4,289

I have a Scan Gauge II and monitor my temps anytime I’m driving. As a general summary, here what my notes look like for sustained pan fluid temps:

• 210's: Everyday normal city driving or easy extended freeway drives
• 220's: Easy with lots of stop-and-go in the city. This is also a normal temp range after an hour or so of freeway driving when towing.
• 230's: Running forest service roads, towing into the hills or with a headwind.
• 240's: Seen when towing and not using S*D mode, or using S*D mode on long hill climbs with the trailer in hot ambient temps.
• 250's: Seen when towing and not using S*D mode.
• Highest Pan Temp: 254
• Highest Torque Converter Temp: 265 (once), in the 250's a lot of times.

Overall, the fluid has seen quite a few extended trips into 230s and even into the 240s maybe a dozen times. Things are always warmer at the torque converter, sometimes as much as 20 degrees higher. I start to back down when it looks like the pan temps are going into the 240's. Otherwise, I just add more fuel and let the engine wail. I don't think I abuse my truck, but I do make it work.

I didn't think the S*D mode in our trucks was needed for my lighter trailer, but it made a huge difference. The temps drop a good 15-20 degrees just by using this mode and keeping the truck out of 5th and 6th gears. I ran at 3,000 rpm in 90 degree ambient temps into a headwind for well over an hour and the transmission temps never climbed out of the 220s. The truck draaaaank, think I got 6-7mpg during that run.

The analysis below suggests all is good. I'm not surprised to see some of the wear metals a bit high since this is the OEM fill. I was ready to pull the trigger on a cooler, but unless I get a bigger trailer it isn't needed.



The "how often and how much" question always comes up about service intervals. Contrary to the Blackstone notes, I didn't change my fluid when I pulled this sample. Given the report and my OCD for early fluid changes, I think I'll do a pan drain and fill every 40k miles. That will change about 1/3 of the fluid. Since folks run much longer and then just do a pan drain/fill, I think every 40k seems very reasonable given my use.

Finally...don't turn my thread into an argument for or against the transmission cooler. There are plenty of other threads to have that conversation. We deviate too far from a healthy dialog and I'll have the mods start nuking your posts.

 

That looks great! Did you add the aftermarket transmission cooler by chance?

 

Nope. Not needed according to the evidence. Just saved $1k for other mods!

 

This is awesome stuff! I am really interested in doing this test on my Tundra. My engine has 66k on it at the moment. Just bought it about a month ago and got the oil changed done at the dealership before I took it home.

 

Maybe Toyota knows what they are doing!?

If I'm not mistaken, you tow and off-road (slow/crawl) a lot as well. No?

 

btw, what ATF did you change it with?

 

Yes, I tow a fair amount. Offroading I do a few times a year. Mainly just running around forest service roads. No crawling…

I didn’t actually change the fluid (Blackstone read my note incorrectly) i just too out a sample and replaced with new OEM fluid.

 

Just updated post #18 with my transmission temp notes.

 

Thank you for the info! As for the drain/fill, is it hard to do on a 2020? I also have a 2020 would like to do a drain/fill.

 

You are welcome. Glad someone else is being helped with my info.

I haven’t done the fluid change yet, but have read a lot of threads here and it looks easy. If I remember correctly the pan will have 4.x qts in it. Guys then put 5qts in, bring the temp up and drain the overflow.

 

Just 4 quarts not 5, done it a few times now, you'll waste a quart if you put in 5. Unless you were low.

 

So, I’m at 66k. I’ll check with the dealership to see if the previous owner did it already, if not, I’ll get it done.

 

Thanks for the great details below, that is very helpful. However, I have a dumb question.....what is S*D mode? Also are you using Tow/Haul when towing?

Thanks again

Pete