Confessions of a Recovering Thickie

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Deposits are the elephant in the room. Engines aren't wearing out. Engines are outlasting the rest of the car these days. Which raises an interesting question, why is GF-7 still using a WPD rating of only 4.6?

I had previously laughed at that Nissan GT Engine builder guy that suggested changing the oil every 3k miles, but maybe he had a point. His suggestion could have been based on deposit formation rather than wear/TBN etc. Just a thought....

That's unlikely to reduce deposits and could actually make it worse. It's the quality of the base oil and additive chemistry (in terms of cleaning and oxidation resistance) that is more important. Piston and valve deposits are linked to volatility with formation occurring from burning oil vapors. Volatility rears its ugly head quickly, not over thousands of miles. The first time the oil splashes on those 450°F cylinder walls, the light ends will evaporate. This is happening 5 miles after the oil change, not 3k or 10k. Changing the oil more frequently could just mean evaporating more light ends and burning more oil vapor more frequently.
 
Describe what it means for an engine to wear out as well. Is it a damaged VVT system? Is it scored cylinders? Is it a stretched timing chain that throws codes? Is it cam damage from cylinder deactivation failure? PPM of metal in oil analysis has too few inputs. Failure isn't described. It's like describing a human based on the fact they have two legs and disregarding everything else.
 
That's unlikely to reduce deposits and could actually make it worse. It's the quality of the base oil and additive chemistry (in terms of cleaning and oxidation resistance) that is more important. Piston and valve deposits are linked to volatility with formation occurring from burning oil vapors. Volatility rears its ugly head quickly, not over thousands of miles. The first time the oil splashes on those 450°F cylinder walls, the light ends will evaporate. This is happening 5 miles after the oil change, not 3k or 10k. Changing the oil more frequently could just mean evaporating more light ends and burning more oil vapor more frequently.
Thanks for stating that.

I wasn't planning on listening to those who say I need to change the oil 3 times earlier than the intelligent OLM says it needs to be changed given I only run HPL or Amsoil SS and do 90% highway driving ( and no fuel dilution problems ).

Edit: I think the member who did a UOA and checked for fuel dilution was very smart, but I don't have fuel dilution problems because of my type of driving. If I did, I would change it earlier.
 
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Engines aren't wearing out. Engines are outlasting the rest of the car these days. Which raises an interesting question, why is GF-7 still using a WPD rating of only 4.6?

I had previously laughed at that Nissan GT Engine builder guy that suggested changing the oil every 3k miles, but maybe he had a point. His suggestion could have been based on deposit formation rather than wear/TBN etc. Just a thought....
More proof that oil is not just oil.
 
That's unlikely to reduce deposits and could actually make it worse. It's the quality of the base oil and additive chemistry (in terms of cleaning and oxidation resistance) that is more important. Piston and valve deposits are linked to volatility with formation occurring from burning oil vapors. Volatility rears its ugly head quickly, not over thousands of miles. The first time the oil splashes on those 450°F cylinder walls, the light ends will evaporate. This is happening 5 miles after the oil change, not 3k or 10k. Changing the oil more frequently could just mean evaporating more light ends and burning more oil vapor more frequently.
Exactly what I've been saying for years and why I run an oil with high quality base stocks and add packs. My vehicles are kept for a long time and a lot of miles, so keeping the internals clean to me is paramount. @RDY4WAR made the point perfectly and points out why I don't run oils that meet spec. I want the oil I run to far exceed the API requirements.
 
Base oil selection, oxidation resistance, strong detergent dispersant package, detergents, VM type and solvency are all important. The solvency from esters really helps keep internals clean and I often think that is what separates the good from great oils when it comes to cleanliness. Some of the newer oils are using solvency boosters that are not ester. I'm not sure what those are (Mobil 1 ESP 5w30 ex).
 
Base oil selection, oxidation resistance, strong detergent dispersant package, detergents, VM type and solvency are all important. The solvency from esters really helps keep internals clean and I often think that is what separates the good from great oils when it comes to cleanliness. Some of the newer oils are using solvency boosters that are not ester. I'm not sure what those are (Mobil 1 ESP 5w30 ex).

Alkylated naphthalene is also a big help in cleaning internals and keeping them clean.
 
within the realm of modern fuel-injected gasoline cars with more than ~40k miles on them, you will see about 1ppm/1k miles of iron, which is the primary wear metal.

If you are a fan of thin oils and run 0w20, you'll see about 1ppm/1k miles of iron.
If you are a fan of thick oils and run 5w40, you'll see about 1ppm/1k miles of iron.
You cant make this generalization as different engines types shed at different intervals and its all considered normal.
Contrast a Cummins or a Hemi or a Pentastar vs a Toyota and you'll see this pattern.
 
I also left out diester, which is a good cleaning ester. HPL uses those I believe.
 
Which synthetic brands use Alkylated naphthalene other than HPL?
Upper pic is api and lower pic is euros. For M1.
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EC2EE322-30E3-45E1-A764-966A7FBAD7E2.webp
 
When I first joined this site back in 2002 there was a guy named George from AV Lube (something like that) who was an XOM distributor. When they switched from TriSyn to SuperSyn, it was said (by him) that XOM was trying to get rid of the ester component ($). The thinking was they were going to rely more on oxidation resistance and leave out the high solvency esters. This may or may not be true but it's what he said back in the day.

I've heard some refer to oils like that as dry oils - lacking solvency but relying heavily on oxidation resistance and detergents to keep things clean. I don't know how true or not true this is but I could see that being the case.

Price is usually somewhat indicative of oil performance. Look at all the most expensive oils and they all use ester/AN. Amsoil leaves them out for their XL and OE line, but uses a good slug in the SS.

Maybe that is what separates that real clean looking metal that @wwillson has shown in his engine pics vs the typical yellow varnish look you often see.
 
When I first joined this site back in 2002 there was a guy named George from AV Lube (something like that) who was an XOM distributor. When they switched from TriSyn to SuperSyn, it was said (by him) that XOM was trying to get rid of the ester component ($). The thinking was they were going to rely more on oxidation resistance and leave out the high solvency esters. This may or may not be true but it's what he said back in the day.

I've heard some refer to oils like that as dry oils - lacking solvency but relying heavily on oxidation resistance and detergents to keep things clean. I don't know how true or not true this is but I could see that being the case.

Price is usually somewhat indicative of oil performance. Look at all the most expensive oils and they all use ester/AN. Amsoil leaves them out for their XL and OE line, but uses a good slug in the SS.

Maybe that is what separates that real clean looking metal that @wwillson has shown in his engine pics vs the typical yellow varnish look you often see.
This makes sense as TriSyn produced some of the cleanest high mileage engines I’ve ever seen.
 
You may be right....I'm not sure. I just remember being surprised at the results.
Also wear isn’t the main discriminatory between synthetic and conventional base stocks. In fact PAO exhibits slightly increased wear. But that’s just for the stock.

After that there are anti-wear additives plus the fact that today’s Group III synthetics are structurally the same as a conventional.

Synthetic stock gets you better cold weather performance and things such as better oxidation resistance and less deposit formation. Some also allow the use of less VM to achieve a specific winter rating.
 
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