How to calculate Total Wear Metals & LSJ oil analysis methodology

His biggest problem (in my opinion) is that he’s automatically correlating the observation to oil brand which is unwarranted. There are many uncontrolled variables that contribute to the UOA results and he’s somehow thinking all of them are accounted for - which they are not.

If my understanding is correct that this is his conclusion (as read above) then he’s making a fundamental error that calls into question any other conclusions he may draw.
He doesn't really. In his latest video he goes on how he used to be married to a brand but it's not about the brand it's about the formulation of the oil. The only reason he recommends to start with using the the oem-branded oil is that there's an assumption that it was that oil which was used to determine the wear rates that the automaker deemed acceptable.
 

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I was wondering what BobIsTheOilGuy members thought about this UOA methodology from Lake Speed Jr's live stream yesterday. Does this seem like a sound method? I think it does.

Does anyone know how to calculate a total wear metals per 1000 miles statistic from a blackstone UOA? Do you just add up all the metals I've put a red square on here and divide by the mileage/1000? So for instance here I got 23 ppm of all the red boxed metals, and 23/2.578 = 8.9 twm per 1k mi. I understand that a shorter OCI will skew the TWM number high as stated in the livestream, so I will go for a 5k OCI next time.

I wasn't sure about the the moly since the VOA for this oil had 70 ppm, so it seems like it shouldn't be counted as a wear metal.

I took a bit of flack on posting this first UOA since I was concerned about the oil viscosity even though the wear metals seemed fine.
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I also found the filter discussion in the video pretty interesting, I didn't realize I was sacrificing efficiency for capacity by going with the long endurance filters, like the Fram Synthetic Endurance I'm using. If I'm going to a 5000 OCI maybe it is not the best choice?

I'll hang up and listen.

With old filter tech you got flow, efficiency and capacity and the name of the game was "pick 1, maybe 2 of those".
Now with modern synthetics and synthetic blend media you can have high efficiency, maintain flow and have good dirt capacity.
Fram synthetic endurance are rated for 99% at 20 micron but when tested they deliver the 99% at 20 microns but further testing shows them doing in around 95% of 15 micron and 70% to 80% of 10 micron particles. It's one of the higher efficiency filters you can get. It used to be if you needed a 10 to 15 micron filter you had to get a royal purple which used old school glass media, you took a flow hit and had reduced capacity compared to paper filters plus the RP cost 3 to 5 times more.
 
He doesn't really. In his latest video he goes on how he used to be married to a brand but it's not about the brand it's about the formulation of the oil. The only reason he recommends to start with using the the oem-branded oil is that there's an assumption that it was that oil which was used to determine the wear rates that the automaker deemed acceptable.
Either way that’s the problem. There is a standardized test to measure comparative wear rates between oils. This is nowhere close to being that.
 
I only watched the filter part. Accent’s testing showed us you can have a high efficiency, high flow, high capacity filter. So Lsjr is incorrect. The problem is the less informed believe everything he says…
 
I only watched the filter part. Accent’s testing showed us you can have a high efficiency, high flow, high capacity filter. So Lsjr is incorrect. The problem is the less informed believe everything he says…

I had a conversation with him afterwards about that. He was referring to the material itself which tends to be true, with less open space between fibers comes less space for liquid to flow through, and didn't go into multi-layers, pleating, and so on as being factors. I wish he would have. He wishes he would have. He was doing this live and video running long, there's a lot of things he wished he'd clarified more on in that video. There are some things he generalizes or oversimplifies too much, attempting to make it understandable by the commoner, but doesn't come across well with those more knowledgeable. I wish he wouldn't do that, but it's his videos, his content.
 
I had a conversation with him afterwards about that. He was referring to the material itself which tends to be true, with less open space between fibers comes less space for liquid to flow through, and didn't go into multi-layers, pleating, and so on as being factors. I wish he would have. He wishes he would have. He was doing this live and video running long, there's a lot of things he wished he'd clarified more on in that video. There are some things he generalizes or oversimplifies too much, attempting to make it understandable by the commoner, but doesn't come across well with those more knowledgeable. I wish he wouldn't do that, but it's his videos, his content.
I do learn a lot with certain parts of his videos, especially when he’s on Lubrication Explained. He has a wealth of knowledge. I just randomly catch certain things that we know differently here at BITOG.
 
There are some things he generalizes or oversimplifies too much, attempting to make it understandable by the commoner, but doesn't come across well with those more knowledgeable. I wish he wouldn't do that, but it's his videos, his content.
This is what many here struggle with w/r to his videos, you aren't going to do well on YouTube being overly dry/technical like many here want, you have to make things easy/simple and much of what he is saying works in that context for the masses that likely have v. little knolwedge of how oil works etc. Folks here seem a bit pedantic w/r to anything they see on YouTube flexing their knowledge like a know-it-all...someytimes you just say "it's fine" and keep the details to yourself. Unless he is wildly off base which I haven't seen him be.
 
Does anyone know how to calculate a total wear metals per 1000 miles statistic from a blackstone UOA? Do you just add up all the metals I've put a red square on here and divide by the mileage/1000? So for instance here I got 23 ppm of all the red boxed metals, and 23/2.578 = 8.9 twm per 1k mi. I understand that a shorter OCI will skew the TWM number high as stated in the livestream, so I will go for a 5k OCI next time.
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I'll hang up and listen.
So one develops a statistical method or whatever. What does it tell about the source of the wear metals? You know absolutely nothing unless you know the detailed metallurgy of the engine's components.
 
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This is what many here struggle with w/r to his videos, you aren't going to do well on YouTube being overly dry/technical like many here want, you have to make things easy/simple and much of what he is saying works in that context for the masses that likely have v. little knolwedge of how oil works etc.
I agree with you; he's playing to the masses and YT is the proper forum for that.


TiGeo said:
Folks here seem a bit pedantic w/r to anything they see on YouTube flexing their knowledge like a know-it-all...someytimes you just say "it's fine" and keep the details to yourself. Unless he is wildly off base which I haven't seen him be.
Being pedantic is what BITOG is all about. We're not generalists; we're fanatics to varying degrees. Filters, oils, tires, serpentine belts, what have you ... we're here to debate the nuances of all things. Pedantic? Maybe so. We have people on this forum who are deeply involved in tribology as their line of work (current and retired). We have people here who are skilled at very detailed jobs which do have translatable skills (statistics, quality analysis, labs, etc). Hence, there are plenty of people here who have the ability to challenge others with a high degree of credibility, topically of course. I agree he's not been "wildly off base", but he certainly does a poor job at times defining the limitations of his comments and data. And because the unknowing gobble up his words without hesitation, they are sometimes led to poor conclusions by assumption.


The issue I have isn't with LSJr isn't so much, but the fact that many people drop his videos here on BITOG as if they discovered some golden nugget of sage wisdom, and yet most everything he has produced can be nitpicked with fair criticism. LSJr's videos exist on YT for good reason; you already noted that. They don't belong here IMO; they don't raise the level of understanding to any significant degree and often just add more confusion.
 
Either way that’s the problem. There is a standardized test to measure comparative wear rates between oils. This is nowhere close to being that.
In his video he seemed to lean into the premise that a standardized test for an oil can't tell how it would perform in the end-users specific engine, climate and driving conditions. It sounded like he was saying to start with the OE recommendation to understand a baseline wear for your personal behavior, then adjust as needed/desired.
 
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