'15 Ram 1500, PP 5w20, 6k miles

[fijicorey]

Posted this on Ramforum, but I figured here would be good too. Here's my most recent. Another good showing for PP 5W20. I'm sticking with 6-7k miles per change. Went with 5qts of PUP 5w30 and 2qts PP 5w20 this time. Used up some old stock is the reason for mixing.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Looks great .. Good to Go 7500-9000 miles NP. New oil and over changing causes MORE wear. I have been cured of this disease - you can be too. I've done a couple UOA on my wife's car and I've extended my OCI by over 50%. Saves some time, aggravation ( especially for Me in the Winter! ) and money. Oops I see you put no miles on this rig. So 1x per year now makes sense. _________________________ I Just noticed some potassium - have you had any repairs that would put coolant in the oil?

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

What?!? A really good looking UOA on a Hemi without using Redline, and 20 weight no less?? There must be some reason other than those sexy yellow bottles that causes FCA to choose Pennzoil for factory fills. Keep on keepin' on, and like Arco said, stretch your next OCI some, maybe 25% longer, get the UOA, and check the wear averages to ensure they are staying similar rates per thousand miles traveled, and as long as viscosity, dilution, and insolubles don't drift excessively, you just saved yourself money on oil, filters, and UOAs!

 

[Triple_Se7en]

You're right! The newest recipe analysis seems to be way-back on 6-2-18. Happy New Year

 

[fijicorey]

The only repair it had during this time was made under warranty. It was the common issue of the exhaust manifold leaking due to broken bolts. I noticed the potassium increase but didn't see a noted increase in sodium and silicon. I have a UOA from my Jeep 4.0 that shows high potassium, silicon and sodium levels with just a few hundred miles on the oil when I had a coolant leak (google 0331 head crack). Most of my day-to-day driving is very short distance (1 or 2 miles). Some road trips were mixed in as well. Didn't do any towing this time, but did plenty of hauling. One haul was at payload capacity. Overall, I don't work this thing that hard nor drive it hard either. FYI filter was a Purolator BOSS. Went with Wix XP this time (Wix XP was on the first two).

 

[Slick17601]

Looks real good , however, Burla will be along to tell you to switch to Redline.

 

[jimbrewer]

Similar driving habits and somewhat similar engine. 3.7L Ford. 7.5K is plenty. I deliberately ran it down to 6% on IOLM and tested. (9.2K miles). Guess what? The oil was worn out. I had good wear numbers—-the IOLM was accurate. But the oil was just about done. I don't know about you, but there's no way I want to cut it that close. If nothing else, the "change oil" light means in effect " Cancel your Saturday morning plans." No doubt for a hundred dollars or so in UOAs you could refine the magic number to 8,200 miles or something like that. You might make back the cost of the tests during your ownership of the car. You might not. Save your money and buy an early change of the transmission fluid instead.

 

[tiger862]

Looks like once a year as per manual is perfect.

 

[irv]

Good to see! I am currently using PP 5W-20 with a Fram TG-2 and although I have never got a UOA done it, I feel comfortable, based on similar UOA's with the Hemi engines, to also leave my oil in for a full year. My OLM currently reads around 60-65% with just over 8,000 kms on it and I debated changing it this fall/early winter to have fresh oil in there for the winter but I thought better of it. I will change it out this coming April and will likely stick with that routine going forward as the truck doesn't get the miles put on it like it use to since I retired.

 

[OilReport99]

Nice report! Hemi's are not oil prima donnas. I'm running VME 5W-20, and I will OC at 1-2% OLM. No UOA will be done.

 

[Dragon44]

"New oil and over changing causes MORE wear." Really? Is this true? I haven't heard this before. This is sincere I'm not being sarcastic.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by Dragon44

"New oil and over changing causes MORE wear." Really? Is this true? I haven't heard this before. This is sincere I'm not being sarcastic.

There is a SAE study backing this up but it is a miniscule uptick in wear metals. It's still better to change a little early than late.

 

[fijicorey]

FYI I email Blackstone about the uptick in potassium and they didn't seem worried about it. They said if there were a coolant leak that the levels would be much higher.