Blackstone Results In

Jagd_44 · Jul 14, 2004

Hello all! I just got back my oil report on my car. Its a 1999 Nissan Maxima with around 73000 miles on it. The oil was 10W-30 Valvoline Durablend. The oil was in use for 3000 miles and no extra oil was added. Anyway this is what they had to say --

We can't say wthat with lead reading in excess of iron wear, there is any sort of problem with your bearings, but it does look a little unusual in this first sample. Universal averages show typical wear in minerals for an oil from this type of engine after about 5170 miles run on the oil. Your oil was in use fewer miles, and we found all wear except lead at around average levels and in the correct balance to show normal mechanical parts inside. Air and oil filtration look okay. This was 10W-30 engine oil with no gas or anti-freeze in it. Stay at 3000 mi next sample to recheck lead.

(element/my car/universal averages)
aluminum/1/5
chromium/0/2
iron/3/15
copper/3/15
lead/9/10
tin/2/1
molybdenum/2/65
nickel/0/0
manganese/0/1
silver/0/0
titanium/0/0
potassium/0/1
boron/0/41
silicon/4/15
sodium/2/9
calcium/2033/1928
magnesium/5/374
phosphorus/737/785
zinc/887/924
barium/0/0

(properties/values should be/test values)
sus viscosity @ 210 deg F/58-64/60
Flashpoint in F/>365/420
fuel %/0.5
antifreeze %/0/0
water %/0
insolubles %/0.2

Everything looks fine except for the lead, but its still less than the average. Should I be concerned? Feel free to offer any advice or comments.

dropitby · Jul 14, 2004

Im no expert but the Fuel, insolubles& lead are not good I would dump it. Do you do a lot of stop & go driving and have you put in any type additives perhaps one of the smart guys can chime in to help.

Geoff · Jul 14, 2004

What is your warm up routine like? Do you take off immediately after startup or give it 15 seconds or so? Curious.

Jackpot01 · Jul 15, 2004

Im no expert but I also have a Maxima.....I do know that they have Moly coated components inside the engine....that might be why you see Moly in your report.

Eric

haley10 · Jul 15, 2004

The Durablend has no Moly, no Boron, to make up for the standard level to low zddp. It has stayed in grade, but any barrier additive are not apparent.

Everything else looks good. Even if you are a very aggressive driver, I think lead should not be quite this high.

You may have to switch brands to improve the situation.

Sorry guys, my flame suit is on, but all I see is that the Durablend ain't cuttin' it.

The Maxima is wanting a bit more robust (thicker) 30wt. with a better additive package. You can do better than Durablend. Not a bad oil, but it's not quite a fit for you and your Maxima.

[ July 15, 2004, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: haley10 ]

Jagd_44 · Jul 15, 2004

Thank you everyone for your replies. Unfortunately, I changed my oil at the same time I got an oil sample. I had several quarts of durablend left and bought more until I had the 4.5 quarts I needed to change the oil. This time I used their 5w30 weight.

I'm a bit disillusioned with valvoline. I've been using thier brand of oil for over 9 years now, but never realized their oil was of questionable quality. I've never heard of Blackstone Laboratories until I found Maxima.org and learned about sending in oil samples. I've heard alot of discouraging aspects about valvoline, since I've been visiting several sites.

The car I had before the Maxima was a 1993 Nissan Sentra. It had around 150,000 miles on it when I finally sold it. The oil I used was durablend for virtually all of its oil changes (9 out of the 11 years I owned it). Fortunately I changed the oil every 3000 miles even though it was a semi-synthetic oil. The only noticeable defects in the Sentra when I sold it were rear brake noise (the brakes still worked of course) and an oil leak coming from the cylinder head seal (not a bad leak, just had to wipe it down every oil change). Unfortunately, I have no oil report to show what was going on in the engine.

Unfortunately, the last 3000 miles I put on my Maxima went to both extremes of driving a car. In two months I put 3000 miles on the car. In four days out of the two months I put close to 1500 miles on the car. During other times the car would sit in my garage for several days unused.

Traffic here in the Atlanta area is bad. Sometimes I think the oil companies, brake repair shops and the D.O.T. (for traffic lights) are collaborating. Unless you travel on the highways around Atlanta at night, sadly there is no such thing as highway driving. I generally start the car and drive, but lay off the excessive rpm's(under 2500 rpm's) until the engine warms up.

Hopefully the next oil report will be more favorable. If not I'll probably switch to amsoil. I'll post the next oil report from the next oil change. Heh, this time I'll post it properly. Thanks again.

Dominic · Jul 15, 2004

The Valvoline Maxlife is a far better product IMO than durablend, and I run it instead of durablend. I will be posting a second 10W-30 analysis of it soon. Keep looking for it next week.

haley10 · Jul 15, 2004

Look at the voa section for the "Valvoline Engine Protector."

kwikrnu · Jul 16, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by dropitby:

Im no expert but the fuel,insolubles...are not good I would dump it.

I'm no expert but I think that .2 insolubles and .5 fuel dilution was okay...

Spector · Jul 16, 2004

That's peanuts. My 95 and 98 Maximas were throwing over 20 PPM of lead in 7500 mile UOA. the 95 is well over 120,000 and going strong. Many samples even higher then that, 30 and 40 ppm of lead. Trend is the key, not necessesarily the amount of a wear metal.

Al · Jul 16, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by kwikrnu:

quote:

Originally posted by dropitby:

Im no expert but the fuel,insolubles...are not good I would dump it.

Click to expand...

I'm no expert but I think that .2 insolubles and .5 fuel dilution was okay...

I assume that your insulubles are .6 which is somewht high. The 2% (if right) for fuel is high and is a problem. It (fuel dilution) did seems to adversely affect the flashpoint, viscosity and (probably)lead.

The Maxima V-6 is known for high lead (normal) so I wouldn't be even slightly concerned. I'd consider switching oil perhaps but the 2% fuel needs to be addressed.

kwikrnu · Jul 18, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Al:

quote:

Originally posted by kwikrnu:

quote:

Originally posted by dropitby:

Im no expert but the fuel,insolubles...are not good I would dump it.

Click to expand...

I'm no expert but I think that .2 insolubles and .5 fuel dilution was okay...

Click to expand...

I assume that your insulubles are .6 which is somewht high. The 2% (if right) for fuel is high and is a problem. It (fuel dilution) did seems to adversely affect the flashpoint, viscosity and (probably)lead.

The Maxima V-6 is known for high lead (normal) so I wouldn't be even slightly concerned. I'd consider switching oil perhaps but the 2% fuel needs to be addressed.

Maybe I just read the first post wrong or something, but according to the information in that post the fuel dilution was only 0.5 and the insolubles were only 0.2......??????

Steel Blue Wind Rider · Jul 19, 2004

Sorry, kwikrnu, the numbers youve ref. here according to the post are averages.

kwikrnu · Jul 22, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Steel Blue Wind Rider:
Sorry, kwikrnu, the numbers youve ref. here according to the post are averages.

(properties/values should be/test values)
sus viscosity @ 210 deg F/58-64/60
Flashpoint in F/>365/420
fuel %/0.5
antifreeze %/0/0
water %/0
insolubles %/0.2

Where does it state averages? It says test values, not test vlue averages.
This shows test values for insolubles as 0.2 and fuel as 0.5.

Steel Blue Wind Rider · Jul 23, 2004

kwikrnu, sorry your right, I was looking at the data above> Thanks for correcting me.

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