2005 Mercury Mariner, 3.0L V6 187K, Valv Syn 5W30 Hi Mile @ 4924

[crainholio]

Vehicle is our 2005 Mercury Mariner with 187K miles on the factory 3.0L V6. Bought new right off the car hauler still with plastic covers on the seats. Oil was D1G2 labeled Valvoline Synthetic High Mileage 5W-30, and Fram XG2 oil filter.

During this OCI, it overheated once due to a stuck thermostat and had one or more fuel injectors leaking gas during shutdowns at operating temp. Thus the reason for the lab analysis, checking for coolant in oil (head gasket damaged) and/or the expected fuel in oil. Any observations are appreciated.

Sodium: Existing UOA posts with Valvoline synthetics show significant sodium, so I presume the 252ppm reading is not abnormal. Potassium is within spec limits it seems. No coolant loss observed since the new water pump and thermostat went in nearly 900 miles ago.

Fuel: The lack of fuel detected is surprising. The vehicle was having hot start problems consistent with injector leakage: restart within a few seconds of hot shutoff was abnormally immediate upon cranking and accompanied by spark knock, restart after 30-60 minutes of hot shutoff took ~5 sec of cranking followed by a rough startup and puff of black smoke out the exhaust. Factory injectors (Deka 4L8E-A4A) were pulled and sent to a reputable shop for testing, cleaning, and re-testing...they passed all tests both before and after cleaning, including 100psi static leakdown test. Operating pressure is 40psi. I replaced them with the superseding Ford injectors (purple band at base of injector housing, 4B4 part # suffix etched)...and no further hot restart problems. I expected to see fuel in this oil.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

What oil was used previously? D1G2 Valvoline doesn't have sodium and the Valvoline products that did have it were closer to 400 ppm. Good chance the sodium is from a previous fill.

 

[crainholio]

Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3
What oil was used previously? D1G2 Valvoline doesn't have sodium and the Valvoline products that did have it were closer to 400 ppm. Good chance the sodium is from a previous fill.


Pennzoil Platinum High Mileage 5W-20 was the previous fill...not known to have sodium. Uh-oh. She overheated it last month hot enough to boil it over before pulling over and shutting down for a tow to the dealership for repair. The dealer replaced the water pump and t-stat, flushed it on their machine, and refilled w/ Motorcraft gold antifreeze. Receipt said thermostat stuck.

Of note, the 5quart jugs of Valvoline were the old regular cap version, bought on sale at Advance Auto in mid 2017 before the spill resistant cap came out. The labels have D1G2 markings, and I have a jug and a half left over. Might send a VOA for comparison. Ti and Mo on the UOA are lower than I'm seeing in current UOAs with variants of this oil, for example. Possibly a formulation change since this older Valvoline was bottled?

 

[53' Stude]

Looks very good. Nice write up, details and Thank You for UOA

 

[Imp4]

The information the OP provided here is informative and useful.

The comments provided by Blackstone are silly and amateurish, but maybe they're targeting a particular market segment...

 

[claluja]

Can't believe Blackstone fuel dilution values. They don't measure it. Have seen countless UOAs of oil with fuel over 5%, where Blackstone said "trace" or
If you want to know fuel dilution, send to a lab that measures it via gas chromotagraphy. Not saying there is fuel in there, just saying cant rely on Blackstone for fuel. Well documented on here.

 

[csandste]

Originally Posted by Imp4
The information the OP provided here is informative and useful.

The comments provided by Blackstone are silly and amateurish, but maybe they're targeting a particular market segment...

I guess I'm that segment.

 

[crainholio]

Originally Posted by claluja
Can't believe Blackstone fuel dilution values. They don't measure it. Have seen countless UOAs of oil with fuel over 5%, where Blackstone said "trace" or If you want to know fuel dilution, send to a lab that measures it via gas chromotagraphy. Not saying there is fuel in there, just saying cant rely on Blackstone for fuel. Well documented on here.


Interesting...wish I'd researched this before I sent the specimen, the rest of that fill was dumped at the county garage waste oil tank. Reading Blackstone's website, it looks like they infer fuel contamination based on flashpoint data rather than direct chemical composition analysis.

Replacing the factory injectors with new Ford (Siemens Deka) injectors cured the hot restart issue completely, and the injector shop that tested/cleaned/retested the factory ones had found that they did not dribble or otherwise leak at shop temperature and 100psi static pressure. The engine behavior confirmed this, as it started cold normally and restarted cold normally...only had problems when shut down at operating temp. I've never seen or read of injectors only leaking when hot, but that seems to have been the case.

So it's probably not surprising that there was not enough fuel contamination to show up on Blackstone's analysis given their indirect measurement method, nor enough to depress the viscosity or drive up the wear metals.

 

[dave1251]

The flashpoint and viscosity are enough to the point I would not worry about fuel. Maybe the hot leakage combusted just enough not to contaminate the fuel.

 

[dnewton3]

Be careful with the EGR in that engine application. My sister had a similar Escape and the EGR system malfunctioned and cost her big money as it burned out the cats! Very expensive to repair.

UOA looks good, but not unexpected. Generally, typical normal results. Don't need syns for 5k mile OCIs, but you probably are aware of that.

 

[crainholio]

Originally Posted by dnewton3
Be careful with the EGR in that engine application. My sister had a similar Escape and the EGR system malfunctioned and cost her big money as it burned out the cats! Very expensive to repair.

UOA looks good, but not unexpected. Generally, typical normal results. Don't need syns for 5k mile OCIs, but you probably are aware of that.


Good point on the EGR, I replaced it at ~140K miles while troubleshooting what seemed like a slightly rough idle. The valve wasn't sealing completely at that time (sounds like same issue as your sister's?), but replacing it with a new one didn't impact the idle...turned out to be a collapsed hydraulic engine mount.

I normally run ~7500 mile OCIs, but when I found and fixed the leaking injector(s) issue it made sense to change early at the time. Unnecessary, it turns out.