Seeing the logo just made me think of it and how everyone seems to talk about it on other online forums. Seems like most treat it like some kind of 100 year old bottle of wine (yuck) and didn't know if it lived up to all of the hype. I'm using it in my rear diffs in both the Envoy and Sierra. Since you said it was one of the first synthetic oils that explains why it's talked about so much and is still used.
The first time I used synthetic engine oil was maybe 8 years ago or so. I think at the time I used Penzoil in a 98 Blazer. I still changed the oil at 3000 miles and noticed it still looked somewhat new. It still had some of that golden color to it. Regular oil would've been black after 3000 miles. After seeing that I was hooked and have used it ever since in all of my vehicles. I figured if the oil was still clean after 3000 miles then the engine probably was too. Too bad I've never owned a brand new vehicle so I could use it from day one.
One other question HT. There's an Envoy forum I've visited a few times. There are a bunch who swear by using seafoam in the engine. Some of said that their vehicle ends up running better and getting better mpg's. They say it smokes like crazy, which is supposedly the carbon burning off and is suppose to clean up the engine. I've never had the balls to attempt it cause I'm afraid it may screw something up. What are your thoughts on that stuff? I trust the advice given here so don't do anything without asking first. It just seems like it would be a good way to really mess an engine up.
If we head south for vacation again I'll be sure to swing by and buy you a beer (or two, or three, or twelve). Nick's sol on that one. My wife likes the beaches in the sunshine state, not cheese in the cheese head state. As long as I can fish I don't care what direction we go.
Thanks for all of your honest, solid, and straight forward advice. It's always appreciated.