Extended OCIs Causing Oil Leaks?

[camrydriver111]

I stumbled on an Eric the Car Guy video where he is saying extended OCIs will cause oil leaks. Yet the engine he is working on and using as an example looks super clean.

I think it has more to do with the type of rubber they use to make the seals. The black gasket in the video looks like a natural rubber type gasket. The replacement blue gasket looks like silicone type gasket which does not become brittle as easily. I know some BMWs have a lot of oil leaks due to the original gaskets being made of buna rubber. A lot of the replacement aftermarket gaskets are upgraded to viton.

Maybe he just picked a bad example to illustrate his point?

Do you think extended OCIs will cause oil leaks or is it just [censored]?

Looking forward to a great motor oil discussion.

 

[zorobabel]

There are plenty of leakers that had their oil changed at 3000-5000 miles.

 

[Revving2Redline]

More likely with coventional,improper weight or with TBN completely destroyed as to the additives in the oil just arent there to protect.Then you get crud and varnish and thats what starts it all. Many here have high miles UOA but they also us great oil,filters and their driving style makes for ease on oil.AKA is not rode hard and put away wet. I think this is where Motul/Liqui Moly crankcase flushes might have some merit. Use a good oil and change it and do uoa sometimes will tell all.

 

[WobblyElvis]

Wow, I'm afraid to say my respect for Eric just dropped considerably.

 

[SOHCman]

maybe something like the seal conditioners wearing out over longer OCIs??? Just quessing

 

[SirTanon]

Well, this should be interesting.

 

[wemay]

Originally Posted By: Marco620
More likely with coventional,improper weight or with TBN completely destroyed as to the additives in the oil just arent there to protect.Then you get crud and varnish and thats what starts it all. Many here have high miles UOA but they also us great oil,filters and their driving style makes for ease on oil.AKA is not rode hard and put away wet. I think this is where Motul/Liqui Moly crankcase flushes might have some merit. Use a good oil and change it and do uoa sometimes will tell all.


Why would Conventional oil cause leaks due to extended OCI?
Made bold by me for emphasis.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: Marco620
More likely with coventional,improper weight or with TBN completely destroyed as to the additives in the oil just arent there to protect.Then you get crud and varnish and thats what starts it all. Many here have high miles UOA but they also us great oil,filters and their driving style makes for ease on oil.AKA is not rode hard and put away wet. I think this is where Motul/Liqui Moly crankcase flushes might have some merit. Use a good oil and change it and do uoa sometimes will tell all.


How does ANY of this relate to oil leaks?

For example, how does crud and varnish cause oil leaks? Explain.

I've never had a UOA, but I dont remember any of the ones posted on here "telling all" (or anything) about how much was leaking. That'd be a good trick.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: zorobabel
There are plenty of leakers that had their oil changed at 3000-5000 miles.


A leaker gets its oil changed all the time.

 

[Ducked]

Extended oil changes may shear oil more and possibly increase cumulative fuel dilution.

Sheared, diluted oil is thinner,

Thinner oil has a greater tendency to leak past seals.

So this could sometimes be true, but I'd say there are probably too many variables to make it a general truth.

For example, oxidative thickening over time would tend to produce the opposite effect. While "crud and varnish" are unlikely to promote leakage (see tosh above) they might prevent or slow it.

 

[Revving2Redline]

Gonna run conventional 12 to 15k miles? Doubt it and if you did it would not fair very well. Especially in a Turbo GDi/Ecoboost or even in a new economy car. I say it might leak after the flashpoint on dino is exceeded enough. Could be said for synthetic to do the same, but my faith in conventional has been minimal at best and we all see how conventional flows in the winter after a good 10k miles. I like synthetic enough that I posted 150k miles driving today in 27 months ran only synthetic.Dino isnt need unless you got a Rotary Wenkel 13B.

 

[PimTac]

“I like synthetic enough that I posted 150k miles driving today in 27 months ran only synthetic.”



You should clarify that statement since you keep posting about using Ceratec and other additives.

 

[Jake777]

I think you could make the argument that as TAN increases and TBN decreases you might end up with times where acids are high enough to take a toll on seals. Now the risk isn’t likely to be high with people who are ocd about oil changes but you get people who start extending oil changes because a friend told them all oil can go 10,000 miles now so don’t worry and they go 10k at the least! with oil changes only done at quick lube shops. They say oh I always get my oil changed on time but then when you dig in they might say well i sometimes go a little longer. What’s a little longer I ask? Anyway you get the point. By the way. What happens when one of those trips to the quick oil change place results in a skipped filter change or two or God forbid a fake oil change. Not to mention they never let the oil drain out completely. I have noticed with my friends around my age “early 30s” the myth of the 3,000 mile oil change has turned into the 10,000 mile myth. Again I say it’s not an issue with people who are mostly precise but when things start getting to the edge of safety and things go too far too often you get trouble.

 

[FermeLaPorte]

Long oci's are for total know-it-alls.

 

[TheLawnRanger]

Originally Posted By: FermeLaPorte
Long oci's are for total know-it-alls.


I agree. However, medium oci's are fine. It's true, it's true.


All because you wanted to save a few lousy cents!

 

[4WD]

Then writes book

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted By: TheLawnRanger
Originally Posted By: FermeLaPorte
Long oci's are for total know-it-alls.


I agree. However, medium oci's are fine. It's true, it's true.


That’s where the OEM’s OLM will probably take you …

 

[SonofJoe]

It works the other way around...

It's FRESH oils that are most aggressive to seal elastomers. It's always the additives in the oil's DI package that are the guilty culprits; commonly used base oils & VII polymers are always benign towards seal materials. Specifically, additives which contain active nitrogen sites (like Ashless Dispersant & Moly Dithio Carbamate) will attack fluorelastomers like Viton while additives which contain very high levels of active sulphur will attack Butadiene-type rubbers.

You can take steps to reduce the aggressive nature of these chemicals (a process known as capping) but the easiest way to make any oil less seal aggressive is to use it! Within a few hundred miles, all of the the most reactive sites will have reacted with something (probably something acidic in the blow-by) and you're good to go.

Sorry Eric. Stick to your spanners mate and leave the speculation about oil quality to them wot know wot they're talking about...

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: zorobabel
There are plenty of leakers that had their oil changed at 3000-5000 miles.


^ This! Back in the day of rope/graphite crank seals no need to do extended OCI they would pizz brand new on the lot. All 2 piece rear seals regardless of material had a habit of marking their territory.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: SonofJoe
It works the other way around... It's always the additives in the oil's DI package that are the guilty culprits; commonly used base oils & VII polymers are always benign towards seal materials. ...


Confused. Or maybe you are.

The bit after the colon appears to directly contradict the bit before it. Specifically, the word benign (my bolding in the above quote)

Suggest either changing "benign" to "malignant", or changing "always" to "hardly ever" (latter better)

Or I don't know wot you're talking about.

EDIT..Oh wait..er..missed the additive/base oil distinction thing, so I was definately confused and didn't know what you were talking about.

Apologies and thanks for the informed comment.

ENDEDIT