2016 Ford Taurus - 3.5L V6 (NA) - Pennzoil Platinum 5w-20 - 7,269 mi

[mdtaylor86]

Flashpoint is much higher than I was expecting from Pennzoil Platinum. I've usually seen much lower than that, usually around 380F to 400F. Nothing too concerning here other than aluminum more than doubling. The notes indicated that hard use or frequent idling could cause that result. Last fall I started idling the engine for about one hour at a time 4 days a week waiting to pick my son up from school. Any thoughts?

Previous two oils are QS 5w-20 (10/29/22) & PPHM 0w-20 (3/14/21), just for reference.

 

[dnewton3]

Typical of the n/a Cyclone engines; nothing unexpected and generally desirable.
The Al may just be a spike; don't draw any conclusions just yet.

Stretch out the OCI to 10k.

 

[twX]

Insolubles are trending up as well, which could be from blowby during all of the idling. I wouldn't be surprised if TBN tested lower on this OCI than on the previous ones if had it tested, given the added idling time. I certainly wouldn't extend the OCI, and might even shorten it a bit. Oil life monitoring systems monitor idle time and adjust OCIs downwards accordingly. It would be better for your engine if it were shut down instead of idling for an hour at a time.

 

[mdtaylor86]

Insolubles are trending up as well, which could be from blowby during all of the idling. I wouldn't be surprised if TBN tested lower on this OCI than on the previous ones if had it tested, given the added idling time. I certainly wouldn't extend the OCI, and might even shorten it a bit. Oil life monitoring systems monitor idle time and adjust OCIs downwards accordingly. It would be better for your engine if it were shut down instead of idling for an hour at a time.

I agree. Good catch on the insolubles, btw. I am back and forth on shutting the engine down. It gets quite hot this time of year and I am sitting in direct sunlight. I plan to keep the OCI right around 7K at the most and test the next two in a row, which I don't normally do.

 

[dnewton3]

The insolubles is a visual reference test at BS; I'd not worry about it and you're giving it too much credence. BS even states that anything under .6 is fine, so you've got plenty of headspace in this regard.

The wear metals are well within standard deviation expectations. All engines will show some elevated results when idle times are high; this is normal and nothing to worry about. These engines when used in taxi service see worse abuse, and still run a long time.

The only concern to truly be on watch for is the coolant; you want to catch the water pump before going out as it contaminates the lube and ruins the engine.

 

[fantastic]

I agree. Good catch on the insolubles, btw. I am back and forth on shutting the engine down. It gets quite hot this time of year and I am sitting in direct sunlight. I plan to keep the OCI right around 7K at the most and test the next two in a row, which I don't normally do.

Don't worry about shutting down the engine if you can't. I don't like to idle anymore than I have to either but when you're sitting there cooking in the sun it's necessary to fire it up & crank the A/C. This oil can go further so there is no issue that I see other than this 1 time spike of Al. It's nothing crazy just something to keep an eye on in future testing. IMO well worth the extra few PPM Al to run it when it's hot if that is the case. Solid Oil choice.

 

[92saturnsl2]

I see nothing wrong with your results, they look great. I agree with the above posters that the increase in metals is so small, it likely has nothing to do with the change in oil.

 

[mdtaylor86]

Thanks everyone for your input. I'll most likely just keep running it the way I've been and keep an eye on the aluminum.