Frequent Change of Synthetic Oil Brands Cause for Increased Engine Wear ?

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Some have suggested that changing the brand of engine oils every 4K ~ 5K miles can result in the increase of engine wear . Supposedly , this is because the new brand of oil removes the protective layer from the previous oil in the engine while adding it's own protective layer with a different add pack . Is there any truth to reducing engine wear by staying with the same brand oil for multiple OCI's ?
 

 
The question I want to know is how long does the zddp tribofilm take to set, seeing that it’s heat activated

Sub compact and compact tractors can habitually see as little as 2.5 to 50 hours a year, which 50 hours is around 2,500-3,000 miles

They have annual oil changes and the oil still looks fresh.
 
Some have suggested that changing the brand of engine oils every 4K ~ 5K miles can result in the increase of engine wear . Supposedly , this is because the new brand of oil removes the protective layer from the previous oil in the engine while adding it's own protective layer with a different add pack . Is there any truth to reducing engine wear by staying with the same brand oil for multiple OCI's ?
I don't know how applicable it is today with the prevalence of DI engines but here is a study from Ford and an experiment by an enthusiast.


 
Some have suggested that changing the brand of engine oils every 4K ~ 5K miles can result in the increase of engine wear . Supposedly , this is because the new brand of oil removes the protective layer from the previous oil in the engine while adding it's own protective layer with a different add pack . Is there any truth to reducing engine wear by staying with the same brand oil for multiple OCI's ?

It increases wear on your oil drain plug and your wallet for sure.

… As for increasing wear in your engine, it is extremely implausible that you would notice any reduction in engine life by running shorter drain intervals. Any B10 increase in engine failure from changing in short drain intervals, would be from forgetting to put the plug in, or forgetting to put oil in. Or maybe something like hitting the garage on the way out.

But hey, as an oil distributor, I won’t speak for others… but I like money. Change it as often as you want.
 
The phenomenon certainly does exist; higher wear comes at the front end of an OCI. But to be very clear about this, we're NOT talking about massive detrimental wear escalation after the OCI. The shift is typically, it's about 1ppm higher or so. However, it's not associated with changing brands as you indicate. It's simply changing oil that causes the uptick in wear rate; the brand and base stock are not precipitator of the wear increase.

- Discussed here in detail:

- Also as noted, here:

I have 20k+ UOAs in my database (literally; so many that I've lost count). The data proves with no shadow of doubt that there is a slight uptick of wear after an OCI.
 
It increases wear on your oil drain plug and your wallet for sure.

… As for increasing wear in your engine, it is extremely implausible that you would notice any reduction in engine life by running shorter drain intervals. Any B10 increase in engine failure from changing in short drain intervals, would be from forgetting to put the plug in, or forgetting to put oil in. Or maybe something like hitting the garage on the way out.

But hey, as an oil distributor, I won’t speak for others… but I like money. Change it as often as you want.
Right, more ain't always better, especially as far as OCI's go. Like forgetting to reinstall your wallet drain plug.
 
The phenomenon certainly does exist; higher wear comes at the front end of an OCI. But to be very clear about this, we're NOT talking about massive detrimental wear escalation after the OCI. The shift is typically, it's about 1ppm higher or so. However, it's not associated with changing brands as you indicate. It's simply changing oil that causes the uptick in wear rate; the brand and base stock are not precipitator of the wear increase.

- Discussed here in detail:

- Also as noted, here:

I have 20k+ UOAs in my database (literally; so many that I've lost count). The data proves with no shadow of doubt that there is a slight uptick of wear after an OCI.

How long does it take for the ZDDP tribofilm to rebuild?
 
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Don't rely on the zddp. Join the MOFT religion.

And, new oil isn't iso filtered. It might not have any combustion ash/soot but it definitely has pipeline, bottling, storage tanks, and blending plant detritus debris whatever. Until its filtered out, its tearing into your engine.
 
Some have suggested that changing the brand of engine oils every 4K ~ 5K miles can result in the increase of engine wear . Supposedly , this is because the new brand of oil removes the protective layer from the previous oil in the engine while adding it's own protective layer with a different add pack . Is there any truth to reducing engine wear by staying with the same brand oil for multiple OCI's ?
It’s actually the detergents in the new oil that strip off the ZDDP tribofilm, then it re-forms under load when hot. I don’t worry about it, I just change it every 7500 miles or so, keep a good air & oil filter on it, don’t beat it until it’s fully warmed up nor idle too much. Then everything else breaks before the engine does…
 
Thanks for the replies - I believe there is some truth that a new oil change with a different oil will have a short period of new detergents stripping away the previous oil layer before replacing with its own new oil layer - not enough of a difference to be concerned with . Perhaps more interesting is measuring wear at the front end of a new oil change versus the back end of an OCI ( not linear as wear levels out on the back end of an OCI until the oil is no longer doing it's job ) . *A moot point for many GDI engines as I can't imagine running a 7,500 OCI in a Hyundai 2.4L GDI Theta II engine as by the 4K ~ 5K mileage mark the oil is really nasty . I'll continue to use what I have in my oil stash (D1 / Gen 2 , 3 synthetic oil) for 4K mile OCI's - if nothing else to clean soot out of the timing chain to prevent soot - induced stretch .
 
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