2001 Montana Esso XD3 0w30 10,300km

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2001 Pontiac Montana
170,000km on engine
10,300km on oil ~6400 miles
no make-up oil added
99% hiway driving.
Esso XD3 0w30
Napa Gold 1036(oversized)
Amsoil TS air filter

Numbers are: left column=UOA, right column=VOA
Tin 0 0
Lead 2 0
Copper 5 0
Aluminum 3 1
Silicon 15 3
Iron 38 5
Chromium 0.7 0.4
Silver 0 0
Zinc 1200 1350
Magnesium 6 10
Nickel 0 0
Barium 0 0
Sodium 9 1
Calcium 2000+ 3800
Vanadium 0 0
Phosphorus 1100 1300
Molybdenum 2 0
Boron 2 3
Manganese 12 1

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
Viscosity @ 100ºC 11.58 12.07
Water 0 0
insoluables Glycol No No
Fuel Dilution No

I just bought this van a few months back and thought a UOA would be a good idea given the fact that these motors like to leak coolant into the oil.

I looked back through my past UOA's and they all show some sodium, so the 8ppm sodium here could be normal. If there was a coolant leak I would expect there to be more ppm than that.

The lab reports the iron and silicon as "low" which it probably is in the real world, but not here on BITOG, and not according to my previous UOA's on these engines. The van runs fine, nothing unusual, so I'm not too worried at this point. Like I said I just bought it a few months back with 112,000km and I have no idea on it's prior maintenance history. From what I could see through the oil fill hole it wasn't exactly spotless so I could have some cleanup action going on here. This is only the second fill of synthetic XD3, the first few changes I did were done free at the dealer with dino.

Here's my plan: I'm going to change the oil tonight and do a short OCI, probably 5000km, drain again and resample 10,000km after that. I'll also check for an intake leak, there's a breather hose at the back of the intake that likes to pop off sometimes. If the iron and silicon trend down next time I think I can write this UOA off to sludge clean-up.

I didn't bother with TBN or oxidation/nitration because they've never been an issue with this oil and service type, even with 4 times the kilometers on the oil.

 

[BlazerLT]

You need to start taking advantage of this oil more including not draining it needlessly for no reason when it is completely fine the way it is.

 

[Al]

I would get a blackstone or Butler analysis which shows up Potassium. You could have a very small coolant leak. I have noticed though that silicon, insolubles, iron and viscosity could be up a bit with a coolant leak. Lead shows up if it getting to be moderate.

 

[pitzel]

How long did this van sit on the lot, unused, before you picked it up olympic?

Maybe the Fe can be explained by that? Otherwise, its a beautiful UOA, another testament to the quality of XD-3.

 

[Cyprs]

You may also find this engine cleaning up nicely now that the XD3 has circulated a couple OCI's. Bet UOA gets better in future. My father's Sentra which he bought with 150K is now on it's 4th OCI with this XD3 now, his engine is quieter and more efficient, power, we suspect the sludge is gone or on its way out.

Did your XD3 darken more on these initial OCIs on this Montana than your Vibe on continuous XD3 syn usage? How are the vehicles you ran on XD3 at 40K OCI now doing Olympic, and are you still running them at 40k OCI?

Cyprs

 

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Cyprs, yes, the oil did seem darker tham I'm used to after 10k. Like I said, the parts of the valvecover and head that I can see through the fill hole have some deposits on them so the previous owner probably wasn't very diligent about oil changes. Iron and silicon are the only elevated elements so I'm guessing it's from XD3 cleaning things up. I'll cehck back after a couple more OCI's to confirm.

My other 01 Montana just passed 480k with 40k OCI's. But I've got three 1515 Napa Golds to use up and I'll be removeing the dual remote bypass systems and going with 20k OCI's without a bypass filter. The Amsoil bypass elements cost more than an XD3/Napa Gold oil+filter change so it doesn't make sense to keep using them.