Amsoil S2K 0W30, 5,500 Miles, Volvo S 60 R 8,000 Miles

[DockHoliday]

This oil was put in at 2,500 miles and taken out at 8,000 miles. Car is a 2004 S60 R, 300 HP, 2.5 Litre, 5 Cyl, Turbo. The car sees a lot of highway miles (80 MPH, 3K RMP), and I also drive it hard frequently.

No make up oil needed as she was still reading nearly full. Oil was in from approv Nov thru Feb, and it was a cold winter, many near zero starts.

Volvo OEM oil filter.

From Blackstone:

We found a little gas in this oil, about 1.8%, which is not more than you can pick up from in-town driving. Universal averages show typical wear metals for an oil from this type of engine after about 4,135 miles run on the oil. Your oil was in use 5,500 miles, and we found all wear at better than average levels and in the correct balance to show normal mechanical parts inside. Air and oil filtration look okay. This was 0W/30 engine oil with no moisture or anti-freeze in it. The oil could have stayed in use longer. Try 6,000 miles for the next sample.

Car/Universal Avg
ALUMINUM 4/6
CHROMIUM 1/1
IRON 14/21
COPPER 10/14
LEAD 5/4
TIN 1/2
MOLYBDENUM 2/24
NICKEL 0/0
MANGANESE 1/1
SILVER 0/0
TITANIUM 0/0
POTASSIUM 0/1
BORON 24/45
SILICON 6/11
SODIUM 4/38
CALCIUM 2117/1982
MAGNESIUM 671/298
PHOSPHORUS 910/837
ZINC 1037/1006


VISCOSITY @ 210 ºF 58.9 Should Be 56-64
FLASHPOINT F 330 Should Be >365
FUEL % 1.8 Should Be ANTIFREEZE % 0 Should Be 0
WATER 0 Should Be 0
INSOLUBLES .4 0 Should Be
They did not include TBN, although I thought I ordered it.

The fuel is probably from me letting my car idle while I am running quick errands and/or warming up in extreme cold.

The comment "Try 6,000 miles for the next sample." is disappointing given that Amsoil claims this oil is good for 3 times the mfg recommendation for turbo cars. Note that Volvo recommends an OCI of 7,500.

The Alum, Iron, and Copper seem low for a new engine, but I am a novice here.

What do you experts think?

[ March 10, 2004, 01:38 AM: Message edited by: DockHoliday ]

 

[Gary Allan]

I'm no expert ..but this is a fairly new engine ..and I would not term you operating conditions all that "typical". You also don't yet know if the numbers would increase a whole bunch if the mileage was extended.

I'm uncertain if an engine "driven hard" can be made to show no wear. Those who flog their engines and do UOA tend to show higher wear metals and their goal appears to be "less wear" more than "wear-less" operation.

 

[Quattro Pete]

That 1.8% fuel content would worry me (or is this considered normal for these engines?). Even warming up a car while idling should not result in such high figure, IMO. Next time you're at the dealer, have them read the ECU for any possible fault codes related to fuel injection, although any such code should really be a serious enough issue for it to make the check-engine light come on, but who knows... There was a guy with a TT here that had high fuel content in his UOA and after scanning the error codes, the dealer agreed to fix something in his fuel system, IIRC.

Nevertheless, you can easily cut down on your idle time just to see if it has any effect on the fuel content. You don't need to idle it while you're running errands (unless you're just cooling down the turbo). Also, you don't need to idle it for more than a minute before you take off in the morning - I mean it's just Chicago, not Anchorage, Alaska.

[ March 10, 2004, 07:20 AM: Message edited by: Quattro Pete ]

 

[TooSlick]

You are getting too much fuel dilution here, which increases oxidation, nitration and the total solids level and reduces the TBN ....

Amsoil recommendation for gas turbos is a max of three times the "normal" drain interval or six months - whichever comes FIRST. The longest I'd ever go in a turbo with conventional oil is perhaps 4000 miles. So the max drain is more along the lines of 12,000 miles or six months and NOT 22,500 miles. A little common sense is required when interpreting these drain recommendations.

I'd recommend using the less expensive, but significantly thicker Amsoil 10w-40 in this application - mainly due to the degradation effect of the fuel.
The current spec sheet for "AMO" shows a HT/HS vis of 4.3 Cp, vs 3.4 Cp for the 0w-30, so it's 25% thicker. A thicker oil will be very beneficial here and will help control bearing wear, even with this excessive fuel dilution. The 10w-40 also uses an SL/CI-4, diesel formulated additive chemistry, which I also prefer in these situations.

You clearly have an oil supplier, but I'd be more than happy to discuss your application anyway. I think I can get you even better, more cost effective results ....

regards,

Ted K.
(256) 882-0768, eves after 7 pm CST

 

[VeeDubb]

My wife's 95 850 turbo also had around 2% fuel in the last sample that I took. I thought it was because the car was in the body shop and they were moving it around a few feet here and there without letting the engine warm up. But the other day, the car sputtered like it had fuel in the cylinders again and this was after a fairly normal trip around the city (not much idling but not much highway either). Maybe Volvos just run rich, I dunno. I'm going to have my mechanic check it out next time.

 

[TooSlick]

I wanted to add that this engine is still breaking in and you aren't getting a proper ring seal yet. Once you have 10,000 miles on the engine, the oil contamination will decrease significantly.

Running extended drains during the first 10k of engine life is a...

Tk

 

[Motorbike]

I thought this oil was supposed to have an abundent amount of zinc ? In older analysis's it showed around 300ppm more .

Has Amsoil reduced the amount of zinc purposely like the newer VOA's of the 10w-30 shows ?

 

[Patman]

That's one thing that bothers me about Amsoil lately. If they won't go after API certification, why are they reformulating their oils to the lower ZDDP standards??

 

[DockHoliday]

TooSlick - How would Amsoil's 15W40 Marine/Diesel oil work in this application? I stock that for my boat, and it would be nice to stock only one oil. Would this oil be too thick for winter? Or, what about vice versa, how would the 10W40 would in the boat [VP 5.0 270 HP, gets < 50 hours per year].

Currently, to do a mistake on my part, the car now has 4 qts 0W30 and 2 qts 15W40 [thought I had two jugs of 0W30, but one turned out to be 15W40, oops].

 

[quadrun1]

Fuel dilution seems to be more common in the winter months; two of the cars on which I've recently done UOA showed about the same amount.

Wear metals look great, especially considering this is a new engine. I'd be very comfortable going the full 7,500 mile interval recommended by Volvo, especially using Amsoil S2k 0W-30.

Go for it...

Jason

ps-how many quarts of oil does this engine hold?

 

[buster]

Ed Kellerman of Amsoil tech said Amsoil hasn't touched the ZDP in any of there oils in the last 2yrs or so. He said lab variations and equimpment are what most of us see. Who knows...

This is a good report, just not worth the $8.35qt to get it when $5qt oils will do as well or better.

[ March 10, 2004, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: buster ]

 

[DockHoliday]

7,500 miles is my target OCI because I get a free service every 7,500. Also, this is the reason I am no longer using the S2K since it does not make financial sense to change that oil so frequently. I will be switching to a lower priced oils, such as Amsoil (5W30, 10W40) or Mobil 1. I would like to give Redline a shot, but I am not motivated to spend that much on oil.

 

[TooSlick]

I'd run the 10w-40, which will work perfectly in both....

You'll see less fuel dilution with warmer weather and a fully seated piston rings, so the oil will hold up even better the next time around.

Blackstone is being VERY conservative in their recommendations, mainly due to the fuel dilution. Get that under control and you can go twice this long and see excellent numbers. I'd have expected the TBN on this sample to be in the 5-7 range, given the stable viscosity and total solids level of 0.4% ....The baseline flashpoint is +440F, so the drop to +330F does show lots of volatile components in the crankcase.

 

[Dick in Falls Church]

>>>The comment "Try 6,000 miles for the next sample." is disappointing given that Amsoil claims this oil is good for 3 times the mfg recommendation for turbo cars. Note that Volvo recommends an OCI of 7,500.
I
The lab can tell you if the oil is suitable for continued use at this point. Apparently Blackstone is comfortable recommending a 10% increase next time. If you had run 7500, they might have recommended 8500-9000 for the next drain. No way they will tell you to run double or triple the next time.

Would you have dumped this oil if you had the report before deciding to change??

Far as the 15W-40 use-- you aren't going to do any damage by running a couple qts in with the 0w-30, though it could skew the next UOA figures.
The 15W-40 has an extra dose of anti-corrosion additives, not really necessary in the Volvo turbo. Could, at least in theory, reduce the performance of the Volvo engine compared to the 0W-30, and it is not rated for as extended a drain.

 

[DockHoliday]

I contacted Blackstone about the missing TBN, and they replied that they forgot to include it in the report.

The TBN was 3.0.

Is this a reasonable value?

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by DockHoliday:
I contacted Blackstone about the missing TBN, and they replied that they forgot to include it in the report.

The TBN was 3.0.

Is this a reasonable value?

---

Seems kinda low for an oil that is supposedly good for 35,000 miles! Although fuel contamination, newness of the engine and other factors obviously play a big role here too. Besides, with a turbo engine Amsoil doesn't recommend going 35k anyhow.

 

[Pablo]

Blackstone of 3.0 is not that low.