how often do you see bad UOA?

[greystone]

I have been lingering around the forum for a while now. I never see any bad uoa's. It seems that it doesn't really matter what oil I use.

Currently I am using MC syn blend 5w-20 on my 2.3 duratec. I would like to switch to a full synthetic but having a hard time justifying it.

 

[HTSS_TR]

There are few not so good UOA from not so healthy engines, if the engine is in good shape and the oil is used within reasonable mileage/time then they will have good UOA.

One of the benefit of synthetic oil is longer OCI, the other benefit is extreme temperature. Most German engines, BMW or MB or Porsch ..., are spec'd with synthetic only and the OCI is usually 10k miles or longer. If you like to do 5-6k OCI then synthetic is not needed for your car(s).

 

[cchase]

Part of it is likely the type of people who do UOA's and the condition they keep their engines in, in general.

 

[greystone]

So if I do 4k oci will I see any benefit whatsoever from going to say PP over MC?

 

[jorton]

Most uoa here are on synthetic oil, and many of them have only 4 - 5000 miles on oil so most of these uoa are good.

There have been dino runs where tbn checked only 1.0, and there are 1 or 2 that checked 0.0. Those can leave a little sludge. Synthetic keeps engines cleaner.

Sometimes uoa shows low flash point and fuel diluted oil and low viscosity. This can leave coking on rings, and increased bearing wear. Some synthetic oils are more resistant to the effects of fuel diluted oil.

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: greystone
So if I do 4k oci will I see any benefit whatsoever from going to say PP over MC?


I doubt it. 4k over six months or less is a very easy interval for any decent quality modern oil.

 

[Oregoonian]

Originally Posted By: greystone
So if I do 4k oci will I see any benefit whatsoever from going to say PP over MC?


Stay with MC with a 4 to 5000 OCI....

PP.... you can stretch it out to 7500 easily.
______________________________________
03' Ford Focus (2.3L Duratec) / 95,000
M1 5w20EP / OCI: 1 Yr. or 10,000 +/-
Filter: M1 102 EP

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Oregoonian
Originally Posted By: greystone
So if I do 4k oci will I see any benefit whatsoever from going to say PP over MC?


Stay with MC with a 4 to 5000 OCI....

PP.... you can stretch it out to 7500 easily.
______________________________________
03' Ford Focus (2.3L Duratec) / 95,000
M1 5w20EP / OCI: 1 Yr. or 10,000 +/-
Filter: M1 102 EP



+1

 

[ZZman]

Rarely do you see a bad one.

They are best used for trending purposes or to find an issue like a coolant leak or major mechanical issue.

They are not super reliable indicators of wear.

Stick with the MC for that OCI.

 

[JimPghPA]

I once talked to someone who had twice saved a very big industrial engine because coolant was in the oil, and UOA showed the beginign of the problem before it totaled the engine.

 

[Cristobal]

Pardon me for being obtuse, but what is a UOA?
Used Oil Analysis?

 

[unDummy]

UOA used oil analysis
VOA virgin oil analysis

There are bad UOA's here but truly are NOT common enough. This is good. But, we BITOG'ers are usually a proactive group. We need to hunt around the neighborhood or workplace convince someone into a UOA so that we can get those 'bad UOAs' here.