GC 0W30 7,975 miles Honda ST1100

[Rick_A]

1999 Honda ST1100
Water-cooled V4
Shared engine/trans. oil, wet clutch

Blackstone Labs

Oil...............Delo15W40....GC0W30
Filter............PL14610........3423 Bosch
Total Miles....65,033..........73,008
Miles on oil....8,070...........7,975
Time on Oil.....3 1/2 mo.......5 1/2 mo
Make up oil......0................0

Aluminum.........11.............13
Chromium.........1................1
Iron................27.............41
Copper............4...............4
Lead...............3...............2
Tin.................0...............0
Moly..............231..........36
Nickel.............0.............0
Manganese......0..............1
Silver..............0...............0
Titanium..........0.............0
Potassium........0.............3
Boron..............74...........11
Silicon.............13............14
Sodium.............5..............175
Calcium............3471.........2290
Magnesium........10............456
Phosphorus.......1211........906
Zinc.................1499.......1140.
Barium.............0............0
Flashpoint F......405...........410
Fuel................ Antifreeze........0............0.35
Water.............0.............0
Insoluables......0.1............0.3
SUS [email protected]
TBN.................5.4............7.2

Comments:
GC0W30 oil (German Castrol)
3423 is a Bosch automotive oil filter
No oil additives used. FP60/FP3000 in the gas.
TBN looks good.
Iron is way up from Delo.

Blackstone is worried about the silicon and I'll try a new air cleaner soon.
They are also worried about the sodium and antifreeze. I haven't noticed any drop in the coolant level
during the 8,000 miles so I'll just keep an eye on this.

I put Honda GN4 10W40 oil in it this time so we'll see how that holds up. So far, the Delo looks pretty good.

 

[Reg# 43897]

Yesh, that previous Delo was the dog's dangles. Thank you for posting up on the GC. I am interested in giving it a run in the FJR - lord knows I have enough green kicking around. Would have been curious to see how the Fe fared with a couple of back-to-back runs of GC but I can understand your reluctance to do that. You using a normal paper air filter element in the ST?

But back to the Fe... Those intervals are pretty long, in my humble opinion. Given the great TBN's I would not say too long. But considering the fact that this oil is transmission lube as well, the Fe levels may not be outta line, really. I grant you that the Delo did better with the Fe than the GC but maybe it ain't that much of a concern, really? I dunno - just thinkin' out loud here. So far I am not deterred from giving it a whirl.

John.

 

[sunruh]

very interesting results!
i ran batch M0507 through the MMoD on 2/10/06.
there was no antifreeze in my sample of gold.
my flash was 405 and my viscosity was 61.3 and Fe was 24
but i also only put 3.1 hours on it as well!

i also saw a big jump up in Fe from the previous run of Havoline 10w40 SL that saw 3.2 hrs where Fe was 7 and a sus of 60.7.

basically, your Fe spike mimics mine

 

[JAG]

Antifreeze for sure judging by sodium. It makes comparison to Delo irrelevent. Maybe the leak will go as fast as it came. If not, action should be taken.

 

[Rick_A]

John,
No reluctance to try the GC again but no reason to either. I have used HDEOs most of the time (Delo and RTS) with good results and I usually changed oil at 5,000 miles. However, I saw lots of posts questioning long OCIs on this site so I decided to "play around" with different oils.
Yes I am using a paper element made by Emgo in the original filter housing. I have another Emgo ready to go in but I may want to try an original Honda filter for grins. I would also like to try a few more oils but I am looking at new bikes so I am not sure how many more 8,000 OCIs I will do on this bike.

Sunruh:
Don't know how significant the FE is on this run but it will be interesting to see how the Honda GN4 oil does.

Jag:
The sodium bugs me a little and I don't know if that is effecting the FE. I can't detect any coolant loss but I am not sure how much it would take to show up in the analysis?

 

[TeeDub]

The increase in insolubles is most likely due to a very slow coolant seepage into the oil. I'd have the cooling system pressure checked, or at least monitor the situation through used oil analysis. These things tend to worsen over time and you'll start to see elevated Pb and Cu when that happens, due to a buildup of acidic sludge in the oil pan.

The GC held up well here, but an SAE 15w40, HDEO is probably better for MC use....

TS

 

[fuel tanker man]

It's good to see the vaunted GC come in second to a good dino HDEO.

 

[Rick_A]

I may have figured out my high sodium content.
My exhaust valve clearance has been getting tighter every time I check the valves and I figured that I have some valve-recession occurring so I decided to try running some ‘Lead Substitute’ to see if that would help.
The Red Line lead substitute that I am using is Sodium based and maybe that sodium is finding its way into the oil. I forgot that I had been using that stuff until I started to add some to my fuel today!
Any opinions?

 

[sunruh]

rick,
that is HIGHLY plausable.
the lead from my race fuel certainly finds its way into my oil samples. you can almost determine the hours on the motor by the lead in the oil. did you start using it after you had switched to GC?

 

[Rick_A]

Yes, Sunruh this OCI is the first time that I have been using the lead substitute. It's a pain in the neck to change the valve shims on this engine so I thought that I would try the additive. I won't use it for a while so that the next few oil tests won't be affected.

 

[Steve S]

I would say the Delo oil has higher additives and that is what is protecting the valvetrain. Besides Delo is about if not the best over the counter oil on the market. Redline valve stuff Lead subsitute is a sodium bases.

 

[nicrfe1370]

I think a couple folks here are a little quick to claim defeat for GC, when in fact an argument could be made for it performing much better than the Delo. The GC was in the bike for a longer time period (yes, not terribly significant) and possibly had some coolant/fuel additive contaminant to deal with. The GC maintained a high TBN, too. I'd like to see another run of the GC once the sodium problem has resolved. Does anyone know how Blackstone tests for antifreeze?