I got distracted and forgot to post this UOA from January of this year. Used the Delo I got on clearance at WM. I currently have the same oil in my 2010 ScionXD. Sometimes next week I will turn 20K on that oil fill and will send it to Blackstone for UOA. This 3.7 has always been an "oil drinker". I think the low tension rings in a high revving, low torque engine in such a heavy vehicle just causes it to burn a lot of oil. No cylinder deactivation on this engine though. My wife now commutes about 2000 miles a month so we will be generating more UOA's from this car. Hope to get 300K out of it before we sell it.
09 Mazda CX-9,3.7, 222K miles, Delo Syn 15w-40, 14.8K OCI
- Thread starter Stumpy
- Start date
Looks like that Delo is the previous formulation? They have the new "XLE SB" which meets Ford's F1 Spec so it'll have 1000 PPM Phosphorus now. You may or may not take that into consideration on possibly damaging the Cat but I doubt that is your concern. Universal Avg's show Copper has higher than Fe on this engine.. Interesting. The Fe on this run was only 0.806018269747 PPM!! Wow!
Everything I run is at least SN and most of the HDEO's are now labled SP.
Rarely if ever gets that cold in Alabama.
This engine in my book requires UOA's. This the crappy Ford design of the water pump being hidden inside the engine. When the water pump does start to leak and the weep hole is blocked, the coolant backs up into the timing cover and mixes with the oil and you grenade the engine or spin the bearings.
Most of the HDEO's I see are SN not SP. There are only a couple I've found to be SP. The Delo 15w-40 I spoke about above is still SN as well.
https://www.chevronlubricants.com/en_us/home/products/delo-400-xle-sb-15w-40.html
dnewton3
Staff member
Wear metals are very good and contamination is low; a desirable state for sure.
Curious ... is this still on the OE water pump? If so, that's pretty impressive.
The downside to using a UOA to track the coolant contamination in this case is that you'd have to UOA about every 1k miles to catch the pump leak soon enough to know when to change it. If you're only going to do a UOA every 10k-15k miles, that pump leak will destroy the oil (and motor) long before you'll discover it in the UOA. When that internal seal starts to fail, it typically happens fairly quickly. Only if it coincidentally happened in the 11k mile mark of a 12k mile UOA would you be lucky enough to know of the impending doom.
You're left with two choices:
- change the water pump soon and just realize that expense is going to be high (very labor intensive); but the car should last another 100+k miles on the replacement
- do nothing; quit the UOAs and just wait for it to die suddenly after the milkshake oil seizes the engine (at some undetermined point in the future)
Curious ... is this still on the OE water pump? If so, that's pretty impressive.
The downside to using a UOA to track the coolant contamination in this case is that you'd have to UOA about every 1k miles to catch the pump leak soon enough to know when to change it. If you're only going to do a UOA every 10k-15k miles, that pump leak will destroy the oil (and motor) long before you'll discover it in the UOA. When that internal seal starts to fail, it typically happens fairly quickly. Only if it coincidentally happened in the 11k mile mark of a 12k mile UOA would you be lucky enough to know of the impending doom.
You're left with two choices:
- change the water pump soon and just realize that expense is going to be high (very labor intensive); but the car should last another 100+k miles on the replacement
- do nothing; quit the UOAs and just wait for it to die suddenly after the milkshake oil seizes the engine (at some undetermined point in the future)
I had the OEM water pump replaced around 200K. The car has always smelled like coolant under the hood with no visible signs of leaks. I have to add a bit of coolant every 3 or 4 month, a few ounces at a time. I believe the water pump may just weep as a design flaw. Of curious note, the 3.7's built in Japan seem to have longer water pump life than their US built Ford counterparts. Many Taurus owners have reported the waterpumps lasting only 75K miles.
I check the oil twice a week since it is an "oil eater". I'm looking for the tell-tell signs of oil contamination. The UOA's might let me know if I got the start of oil contamination.
You are correct. This water pump job is expensive! I paid $1650 from a local shop in East Alabama that specialzes in these jobs. They have it down to a science and stock lots of timing chain kits and water pumps. They drop the whole powertrain. There are hacks to leave the engine in the chassis but it makes it a knuckle buster affair. FOR SURE MY LAST PURCHASE OF A CAR I KNOW THAT HAS SUCH A DESIGN. NEVER AGAIN. Not one of Fords better ideas! Love the Mazda. Drives and handles like a much smaller and lower vehicle.
