Here is my latest report from our KIA Sedona, a 2012 model with Hyundai's wonderful 3.5 "Lambda II" engine. This was Castrol Synblend Dexos 5w30, which was drained/sampled hot. Two consecutive runs were done on this oil which I really liked how it ran. Filter used was a Wix made Napa Gold cartridge filter. I was planning to simply stick with it however now it is apparently discontinued so I am on the hunt for a new oil to use and stick with for this vehicle.
I had sampled a previous run about 20k ago with Gold bottle Edge 5w20. "Wear" numbers were a good bit higher in that sample but the engine only had 15k on it when the oil was installed, likely break in residual. I have not been a fan of 5w20's in general but the previous Gold bottle Edge held viscosity extremely well. My only disappointment if you can call it that is this Castrol 5w30 Synblend sheared more than I would have liked. It appears my wife's consistent short tripping is fairly hard on the oil, that and there is some fuel dilution too but not bad. Everything else looks fine to me. I guess this a good reason to continue to use a 5w30 since 5w20 is preferred by KIA my 5w30 ended up a very solid 5w20 anyway. The 5w20's that shear scare me to death.
There is another Castrol Synblend 5w30 posted here recently that has less shear over more miles so this engine and use appears to have something to do with the shear.
Anyway posted here for posterity and hopefully will be of some use to many who recently scored a lot of this Castrol Synblend on close out. Not sure where I am going from here but will likely pick another synblend 5w30 to stay solidly in 20 grade for this engine. This oil features a boron heavy add pack, no sodium and I thought a splash of moly but apparently I was wrong on that. Like most boron heavy add packs I believe the original boron ppm was around 200, measurable boron typically depletes throughout an OCI from what I have seen here.
Pennzoil Platinum 5w20 purchased on close out smoking deal at O'Reillys last year was put in after this drain. I am stuck with fairly short OCI's due to silly warranty requirements but as soon as that game is up at 60k I will likely be moving to a good full syn and simple 10k OCI's for this vehicle.
Blackstone's comments: "We had talked about aluminum and copper last time, so it's nice to see both of these elements reading lower in this sample. Aluminum comes from pistons or bearings and copper is from brass/bronze parts. Maybe some of this was just residual wear in or something similarly harmless. Engine wear certainly looks good at this point. All metals are within the average range and no contamination was found that would be cause for concern. The viscosity was low, but that's not hurting anything. The TBN still looks good at 2.7, so try up to 6,000 miles next time.
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Code:
OIL Castrol Synblend Dexos 5w30
MILES IN USE 4,004
MILES ON UNIT 42,000
SAMPLE TAKEN 01/01/2015
Make Up Oil Added 0 qt
ALUMINUM 7
CHROMIUM 0
IRON 7
COPPER 2
LEAD 1
TIN 0
MOLYBDENUM 3
NICKEL 0
MANGANESE 0
SILVER 0
TITANIUM 0
POTASSIUM 4
BORON 61
SILICON 11
SODIUM 2
CALCIUM 2059
MAGNESIUM 14
PHOSPHORUS 695
ZINC 709
BARIUM 0
SUS VIS 210ºF 55.0
cSt @ 100ºC 8.78
FLASHPOINT ºF 380
FUEL% <0.5
ANTIFREEZE% 0.0
WATER% 0.0
INSOLUBLES% 0.3
TBN 2.7
