2018 Lexus GS350 9822 mi total, 4096 mi on Valvoline 5w40 MST + Redline break in

[FlyNavyP3]

Good morning BITOG faithful,

For my very patriotic 1776th post I present to you a UOA for the longest run yet on our 2018 Lexus GS350. This run ended with 9822 vehicle miles and 4096 on the oil, the sample was taken through the dipstick right before taking the car in to Lexus for it's first free oil change. Oil in use was Valvoline Syn Power 5w40 MST 6.5 quarts with a half bottle of Redline Break In additive to boost the add pack a little. Why 5w40 in an engine that specs 0w20? Well for starters it's an acceptable grade in Australia, and I had it laying around from a clearance sale 3 years ago. Filter was Genuine Toyota this go round so as not to raise any suspicions at the dealership when they pulled out a Fram TG9972. Current fill is TGMO (bulk) from the dealership and a Toyota oil filter. This fill will get run until just before I leave on deployment and I will change it prior to leaving to have Lauren all set to not need any maintenance while I'm gone. It will probably have ~6,000 miles on it when it gets changed out. Engine seems to be breaking in nicely and the early short changes leading up to this run give us a little better look with the early break in junk flushed out. Iron is up 1ppm despite the run being almost 2x as long, which is good to see. Viscosity is a touch low, but since factory fill is a 0w20 it surely didn't hurt anything. No idea what oil I will use next for the upcoming oil change, have lots to choose from, but will save my M1 AP 5w20 for a full 10k run later.

Enjoy!

 

[zorobabel]

It looks really good for only 10k on this car.
I'm surprised at how much P and Zn this oil has.

 

[oil_film_movies]

That might be the lowest ever iron ppm on the factory fill side of things.
Odd how the lab put a "caution" flag on a high TBN 7.2 (?) That's plenty of TBN. 2 is low.

M1 AP is a good choice of yours for the future. There are so many good ones to choose from. Any dexos1 0w20 I'd say.
Castrol gold jug "20,000-mile" 0w20 is a good competitor now to the M1 AP.
The highest-spec'ed 0w20 these days is the MB 229.71 oil (i.e. LIQUI MOLY Top Tec 6300 or Mercedes dealer oil or Mobil 1 ESP x2 0W-20, have to mail order possibly).
VW 508 & BMW LL-14FE+ may be close to the MB spec. I think all the German specs beat dexos1 toughness.

 

[oil_film_movies]

Originally Posted by zorobabel
I'm surprised at how much P and Zn this oil has.
That is due to the Redline break-in zddp additive he put in. Valvoline MST 5w-40 actually has about 750 ppm P by itself.

 

[PimTac]

Those iron and aluminum numbers are extraordinarily low for a engine breaking in. Looks like a keeper.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted by zorobabel
It looks really good for only 10k on this car.
I'm surprised at how much P and Zn this oil has.


As mentioned above the boost in P and Zn is from the Red line additive. Early multiple changes certainly helped get the break in junk out faster. Very pleased how it it wearing for the low miles.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted by oil_film_movies
That might be the lowest ever iron ppm on the factory fill side of things.
Odd how the lab put a "caution" flag on a high TBN 7.2 (?) That's plenty of TBN. 2 is low.

M1 AP is a good choice of yours for the future. There are so many good ones to choose from. Any dexos1 0w20 I'd say.
Castrol gold jug "20,000-mile" 0w20 is a good competitor now to the M1 AP.
The highest-spec'ed 0w20 these days is the MB 229.71 oil (i.e. LIQUI MOLY Top Tec 6300 or Mercedes dealer oil or Mobil 1 ESP x2 0W-20, have to mail order possibly).
VW 508 & BMW LL-14FE+ may be close to the MB spec. I think all the German specs beat dexos1 toughness.


Caution flag is for viscosity, indicated by the box. The flag just goes at the bottom of the report. It will get some 5w20 M1 AP for a few changes because I already have it from the 2018 clearance stash @ $2/quart. After that is gone it may well get 5w30 10w30 from the stash as I have a bunch of M1EP in 10w30.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted by PimTac
Those iron and aluminum numbers are extraordinarily low for a engine breaking in. Looks like a keeper.


And people say there's no benefit to early changes.

Maybe there's not, but it makes me feel better to get the break in junk flushed out early. Having fewer wear particles circulating around can hardly be a bad thing.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3
Originally Posted by PimTac
Those iron and aluminum numbers are extraordinarily low for a engine breaking in. Looks like a keeper.


And people say there's no benefit to early changes.

Maybe there's not, but it makes me feel better to get the break in junk flushed out early. Having fewer wear particles circulating around can hardly be a bad thing.



There isn't because wear numbers trend with miles driven. One might as well say "I change my oil every 1k miles and cut my iron in half !! (8ppm to 4ppm)."

 

[kschachn]

Plus with just a standard UOA one does not know how much damage causing particles there are in the oil, metallic or otherwise. The metals that show up on the UOA are not the ones causing damage, if any. Emission spectrography is a particularly poor indicator of wear-inducing particles.

 

[zorobabel]

Originally Posted by oil_film_movies
Originally Posted by zorobabel
I'm surprised at how much P and Zn this oil has.
That is due to the Redline break-in zddp additive he put in. Valvoline MST 5w-40 actually has about 750 ppm P by itself.

I missed that...

 

[PimTac]

Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3
Originally Posted by PimTac
Those iron and aluminum numbers are extraordinarily low for a engine breaking in. Looks like a keeper.


And people say there's no benefit to early changes.

Maybe there's not, but it makes me feel better to get the break in junk flushed out early. Having fewer wear particles circulating around can hardly be a bad thing.



There isn't because wear numbers trend with miles driven. One might as well say "I change my oil every 1k miles and cut my iron in half !! (8ppm to 4ppm)."




The point here which I agree with is to change out the initial fill early on. The idea being that those microscopic particles aren't left to circulate for 10k or whatever thus reducing wear.

 

[Trav]

That looks really good for almost 5K. Surprise, the VVT system and the engine didn't blow up,

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted by Trav
That looks really good for almost 5K. Surprise, the VVT system and the engine didn't blow up,


Lol Trav, no big surprise especially in Florida where 5w40 is still thinner than 0w20 up north on a cold winter day. Previous 2 changes were SAE 30 which amazingly no one freaked out about.

15w40 is an acceptable oil in the other markets.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3
Lol Trav, no big surprise especially in Florida where 5w40 is still thinner than 0w20 up north on a cold winter day. Previous 2 changes were SAE 30 which amazingly no one freaked out about.

Yes, that always does crack me up, too. 0w-20 for the last month and a half here for startup and short trips would have been significantly thicker than your SAE 30 or 5w-40 in the same usage pattern. As usual, that doesn't mean that the spec should be ignored immediately, but the dire warnings are hilarious.