Castrol Syntec 5w30 12k mi 2002 Dodge Dakota QC4x4

[Gilberttribe]

The pickup is driven approximately 12k per year, so the oil is changed once per year. Driving is 65/35 hi/city with a lot of construction material hauling this past year and a little towing. No oil was added over this period. Note that there are gaps over this entire history as I don't do an analysis every oil change.

I think the decrease in wear metals may be due to the engine aging and the reduced silicon. The oil seemed to work well none-the-less. However, unlike every other oil I have used, Castrol leaves a yellowish-white film under the oil cap. I decided try use other oils simply because the Castol was on sale.

Blackstone was a little concerned about the copper, but since other metals are okay, they don't think it is a problem. They suggest 13k miles per oil change, but I'll likely stick with once a year.

Castrol Syntec 5w30

2002 Dodge Dakota QC 4x4
EQUIPMENT MAKE: Dodge
EQUIPMENT MODEL: 4.7L V-8
FUEL TYPE: Gasoline (Unleaded)
OIL LAB: Oil Analyzers (left 4 columns)/DysonAnalysis/BlackStone
Code:


Oil Brand Mopar Mobil1 Mobil1 Mobil 1 Mobl1EP Castrol

Oil Weight 5w30 5w30 5w30 5w30 5w30 5w30

Oil Filter Mopar Mobil 1 Mobil 1 Mobil 1 Mobil 1 Bosch

Sample Date 10/4/02 2/15/03 6/26/03 3/08/04 9/15/07 4/20/10

Miles Oil 1201 4140 5300 7737 13,362 12,010

Miles Eng 1201 5509 10800 18537 62,918 102,200



Iron 18 22 22 31 36 24

Chromium 0 4 3 6 5 2

Lead 0 2 1 0 0 0

Copper 10 6 7 20 11 10

Tin 1 0 0 0 0 0

Aluminum 3 8 6 11 8 6

Nickel 0 0 0 4 2 2

Silver 0 0 0 0 0 0

Silicon 16 21 20 8 16 11

Boron 34 138 234 242 72 43

Sodium 1 19 15 25 25 43

Magnesium 0 40 44 19 83 1

Calcium 1124 3038 2859 3025 2195 3220

Barium 0 0 0 0 0 0

Phosph. 887 1055 1022 975 741 662

Zinc 1098 1108 1156 1140 929 944

Moly. 0 73 107 147 98 89

Titanium 0 0 0 0 0 0

Vanadium 0 0 0 0 0 -

Potassium 0 0 0 0 0 2

Fuel 1.1
VIS 40C - - - - 69.9 65.3

VIS 100C NA 8.9 10.13 10.41 11.0 11.68

TAN - - - - 4.37

FLASH - - - - 360 395

Oxid 6.7 4.0 8.0 6.7 37

Nitr 5.7 3.0 5.0 5.7 19

KF - - - - 350

TBN 6.9 7.37 7.89 6.9 2.0

Soot N/A N/A N/A N/A 0

Water 0.05 0 0 0 -

Sulfate - - - - 34

Insolubles - - - - - 0.3

 

[calvinnnnnnnnn]

how is your 100c higher than when its unused?
syntec has a 100c of 9.x i believe, definitely not 11.68

 

[Nederlander75]

Oxidization?

 

[hate2work]

As hard as I try, I don't think I will ever understand the logic behind pushing any oil right up to/past it's uncle point. If you're going to continue using this oil, it should be changed twice a year, IMO.

 

[addyguy]

Mobil and Castrol don't use Sodium in their synthetic oils, so I don't like the rising number, although Potassium is still low.

The oil thickening up a full 2cst shows it was severely stressed at this interval. Since Si and insols. are low, it's purely from oxidization, which isn't good.

Even with all this, I'd say actual wear metals aren't bad for 1 year of severe service. If it were MY truck, I'd use a HDEO 10W-30, and change every six months, but that's just me.

 

[saberz]

Decent amount of Sodium in the UOA(across multiple UOA's through the years). Not sure if Mobil uses a Sodium add pack(at least not in Regular M1 5w30, but maybe in EP?).

 

[lotoboy21]

Originally Posted By: hate2work

As hard as I try, I don't think I will ever understand the logic behind pushing any oil right up to/past it's uncle point. If you're going to continue using this oil, it should be changed twice a year, IMO.


Isn't it the point of doing an UOA among other things?

 

[Gilberttribe]

That is my point exactly. I do an analysis once in a while to verify the change interval seems appropriate. From the numbers, one year seems appropriate.

There are three reasons I like changing the oil once a year instead of 2 or more times. First, I don't like changing oil. Second, I like my maintenance schedule of changing the oil, oil filter, air filter, and replacing 4 qts of transmission fluid once a year. Third, an additional oil change is an additional cost of at least $30 per year and 6 more quarts of used oil dumped into the environment. You may consider this trivial, but I don't.

I realize there are some on this board who look at a 6,000 mile UOA with a 12 for iron, and think that is great. The same person looks at a 12,000 mile UOA with a 24 for iron and thinks it is too high. I disagree with that line of thinking. Furthermore, I would wager that if I had tested the oil at 6000 miles, the FE would have been at least 12. In other words, as long as the oil is holding up and the amount of wear material in the oil is small, the wear does not accelerate as the oil is used over this time span. I do think there is a very short period of time when the wear does accelerate right after the oil has been changed. Therefore, I suggest that if I took 4 3-month UAOs with an oil change each time, and added up each wear metal, those numbers would be higher than a single 12-month UAO assuming the oil held up over the year. I have not run the numbers or conducted a test, but that is my suspicion based on seeing many UAOs over the years.

 

[Gilberttribe]

Im sorry, mistyped the sodium value. It should be 8. Is there a way to edit it?

 

[webfors]

10k max with this combo. Wish there was a tbn.

I agree with 2 oil changes per year, but your engine will probably last longer than you want with the current routine.