1st time running the No VII Euro, so I figured I'd take an in-service sample from the Stahlbus valve I installed at last oil change. How convenient! Going to roll these out to all my other vehicles even though it's essentially $50/per.
Anyways, back to the sample. Looks like just under 2ppm Fe/1k, and we know from @RDY4WAR that this oil has Al in the virgin form (I'm going to get the OA from my specific batch if possible), and that viscosity has crept up just a little; it's on the lower edge of a 40 grade now. Still have plenty of TBN at 7.8. Also of interest, AFAIK WearCheck uses GC for fuel %, and my sample was <1.0% with 0.1% soot. This result is even with a 5 Star Tuning tune on it... I generally run at least E15 (UNL88) when available, and when I'm near a Casey's or Sunoco, I will mix up something close to E30. Not sure what the copper is, and if it's even a concern, since older UOAs were in the 8-10 range and the Universal Average for Cu on Blackstone is 16ppm.
Where I need some advice, @wwillson or @dnewton3, is the nitration, oxidation & sulfation. They are all slightly above the "limits" but were not flagged- I colored them yellow for visibility; at what point is the actual concern? Also, I see my silicon is a little high (but was at 21ppm 50k miles ago with the same filter); this will be remedied at next OCI since air filter now has about 58k and 3.5 years on it. I will be going with the S&B dry filter for my CAI.
Still waiting to hear back from @High Performance Lubricants on a couple questions, but what's the consensus? Continue to run this oil & re-sample at 20k, or drain now at ~15k? Last note, my very first Fram Endurance 10575 is still along for the ride; now over 22k miles. It will change with the oil, and C&P once that's done. Anyways, hoping this and future UOAs can help to change the (false) mentality that 3.5 EcoBoosts are a "5k or else" affair...
Post Script: Here's some nuggets for everyone who thinks that lower mileage OCIs are a holy grail... Everyone remembers Navi, who enjoys 3-5k maximum OCIs because otherwise, his EBs are going to die a horrible death, right? Well, I grabbed a couple of his older UOAs and my old Ravenol UOA and crunched some numbers. At the bottom, I also summed up Navi's 4 runs since they came out in almost identical mileage to this single HPL run as a comparison.
Even with the Al "skew" from the virgin HPL, on a per 1k mile basis, my engine is making 12% less aluminum, 30% less iron, and 35% less copper. Or, to look at it another way, four oil changes (cost, time, inconvenience, etc...) vs. one and you'd still end up with more average wear. Thoughts?
Anyways, back to the sample. Looks like just under 2ppm Fe/1k, and we know from @RDY4WAR that this oil has Al in the virgin form (I'm going to get the OA from my specific batch if possible), and that viscosity has crept up just a little; it's on the lower edge of a 40 grade now. Still have plenty of TBN at 7.8. Also of interest, AFAIK WearCheck uses GC for fuel %, and my sample was <1.0% with 0.1% soot. This result is even with a 5 Star Tuning tune on it... I generally run at least E15 (UNL88) when available, and when I'm near a Casey's or Sunoco, I will mix up something close to E30. Not sure what the copper is, and if it's even a concern, since older UOAs were in the 8-10 range and the Universal Average for Cu on Blackstone is 16ppm.
Where I need some advice, @wwillson or @dnewton3, is the nitration, oxidation & sulfation. They are all slightly above the "limits" but were not flagged- I colored them yellow for visibility; at what point is the actual concern? Also, I see my silicon is a little high (but was at 21ppm 50k miles ago with the same filter); this will be remedied at next OCI since air filter now has about 58k and 3.5 years on it. I will be going with the S&B dry filter for my CAI.
Still waiting to hear back from @High Performance Lubricants on a couple questions, but what's the consensus? Continue to run this oil & re-sample at 20k, or drain now at ~15k? Last note, my very first Fram Endurance 10575 is still along for the ride; now over 22k miles. It will change with the oil, and C&P once that's done. Anyways, hoping this and future UOAs can help to change the (false) mentality that 3.5 EcoBoosts are a "5k or else" affair...
| SAMPLE INFORMATION | Unit of Measurement | Reject Limit | Result |
| Sample Date | 03 May 2024 | ||
| Machine Age | miles | 82988 | |
| Oil Age | miles | 14394 | |
| Oil Changed | Not Changed | ||
| CONTAMINATION | |||
| Fuel | >4.0 | <1.0 | |
| Water | >0.2 | NEG | |
| Glycol | NEG | ||
| WEAR METALS | |||
| Iron | ppm | >150 | 29 |
| Chromium | ppm | >20 | <1 |
| Nickel | ppm | >5 | 0 |
| Titanium | ppm | <1 | |
| Silver | ppm | >2 | 0 |
| Aluminum | ppm | >40 | 15 |
| Lead | ppm | >50 | 0 |
| Copper | ppm | >155 | 11 |
| Tin | ppm | >10 | <1 |
| Vanadium | ppm | 0 | |
| Cadmium | ppm | 0 | |
| ADDITIVES | |||
| Boron | ppm | 200 | 53 |
| Barium | ppm | 3 | |
| Molybdenum | ppm | 85 | 732 |
| Manganese | ppm | 4 | |
| Magnesium | ppm | 525 | 1162 |
| Calcium | ppm | 4300 | 2381 |
| Phosphorus | ppm | 1000 | 862 |
| Zinc | ppm | 1100 | 991 |
| Sulfur | ppm | 20200 | 7511 |
| CONTAMINANTS | |||
| Silicon | ppm | >30 | 25 |
| Sodium | ppm | >400 | 10 |
| Potassium | ppm | >20 | 1 |
| INFRA-RED | |||
| Soot % | % | 0.1 | |
| Nitration | Abs/cm | >20 | 21.6 |
| Sulfation | Abs/.1mm | >30 | 55.9 |
| FLUID DEGRADATION | |||
| Oxidation | Abs/.1mm | >25 | 48.1 |
| Base Number (BN) | mg KOH/g | 11.0 | 7.78 |
| VISUAL | |||
| White Metal | scalar | NONE | NONE |
| Yellow Metal | scalar | NONE | NONE |
| Precipitate | scalar | NONE | NONE |
| Silt | scalar | NONE | NONE |
| Debris | scalar | NONE | NONE |
| Sand/Dirt | scalar | NONE | NONE |
| Appearance | scalar | NORML | NORML |
| Odor | scalar | NORML | NORML |
| Emulsified Water | scalar | >0.2 | NEG |
| Free Water | scalar | NEG | |
| FLUID PROPERTIES | |||
| Visc @ 100°C | cSt | 11.19 | 12.7 |
Post Script: Here's some nuggets for everyone who thinks that lower mileage OCIs are a holy grail... Everyone remembers Navi, who enjoys 3-5k maximum OCIs because otherwise, his EBs are going to die a horrible death, right? Well, I grabbed a couple of his older UOAs and my old Ravenol UOA and crunched some numbers. At the bottom, I also summed up Navi's 4 runs since they came out in almost identical mileage to this single HPL run as a comparison.
Even with the Al "skew" from the virgin HPL, on a per 1k mile basis, my engine is making 12% less aluminum, 30% less iron, and 35% less copper. Or, to look at it another way, four oil changes (cost, time, inconvenience, etc...) vs. one and you'd still end up with more average wear. Thoughts?
