Recent content by BananaStand

I actually live in the mountains, but they do salt a bunch up here in the winter. The one UOA I've done on the Cobalt was after we drove it to the OBX and back (that's when it had the sodium). So you may be on to something there. The Forester has never been to the beach at least with me. I...

Yeah I've not seen many turbo Subarus with blown head gaskets. That usually the open deck NA's territory. This Forester is on its second TD04, but the old one didn't catastrophically fail. Seals just went out according to the previous owner's paperwork and it started throwing oil out the down...

Thanks! It is a good bit above Blackstone's universal averages of 1 for this car. They seemed concerned about it. But a UOA is just one tool of many in determining an engine's health so I was going to check out a few other things too.

OK, thanks! I've never done a UOA on Castrol so I didn't know if it had any or not. The M1 and Castrol are just what I have records for. It's entirely possible that they used some other brand of 5W-30 in there at some point too as they had it changed at a shop. FWIW I sent some oil from my...

I have a 2005 Subaru Forester XT. Relatively new to me, I bought it at 156K last year. Been through two OCIs since I've owned it. Both went to Blackstone. I've had high chromium and they flagged the sodium this time. The engine seems fine, no unexplained coolant loss, knocks or CELs indicating...