M1 0w-30 TriSyn @ 7200mi in Acura RSX

[Jay]

The lab work was done by Oil Analyzer's Inc. The car is a 2002 Acura RSX with 12,250 miles total, 7250 on this sample. The car is stock except for Mobil 1 oil filter and Comptech/UNI dual-stage foam air filter. The miles are 70% city, 30% highway. I'm showing the first analysis results of the factory-fill 5w-20 dino oil for comparison. The M1 is on the right.

code:

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Physical Properties:



glycol neg neg

% water
% fuel
viscosity 7.6 9.8



Oil Degradation



soot na na

% oxd 13.3 26.7

% nox 18.6 31.4

TBN 4.2 10.8

TAN na na



Spectrographic Analysis



Fe 22 18

Cr 1 0

Pb 8 2

Cu 5 5

Sn 3 1

Al 25 24

Ni 1 0

Ag 0 0

Mn 4 1



Si 95 28

B 36 31

Na 13 8

Mg 42 1566

Ca 2310 698

Ba 0 0

P 1083 1075

Zn 1174 1289

Mo 982 126

Ti 0 0

V 0 0

Cd 0 0

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Questions? Thanks for your comments.

 

[Al]

Not the expert, but pretty good numbers for M 1 . Some sheardown-not surprising with 0W-30. So much for the latest VI's not
shearing

. I assume the first fill went some 5K miles?? Is that Moly from mobil, the first oil or the rings??

TBM is almost too high (analysis mistake??) I assume the engine is all aluminum?? Thanks for sharing

 

[Brad]

Pretty good numbers. Especially considering there is only 12,250 total miles and the engine is probably still braking in.

 

[Jay]

I'm happy with all the numbers except aluminum and iron. I'm surprised that they are still elevated. M1 TriSyn 0w30 starts out at 9.7 cSt @ 100 deg C so I don't see the shear-down that you see, Al. I did leave the factory-fill oil in 5,000mi at Honda's recommendation. They say it's special break-in oil and must be left in till the first recommended change interval. I suspect that moly may be the break-in oil's special ingredient, or it could be grease from assembly. I don't know. The engine is all aluminum with steel cylinder liners.

The TBN does seem high as do the oxidation and nitration numbers.

 

[Idrinkmotoroil]

thanks for the info. I've got some oil ready to be sampled from my 2002 Civic SiR(K20 engine) which would be a good comparison. But it would be from my 3rd and 4th oil changes, not factory fill. They sure do dump a lot of Moly in the factory oil for Hondas. I would say your numbers look decent. The silicon still seems a bit high, not sure if it is the air filter or residue from the factory fill. The high silicon in factory fill sample is normal, but I would expect it to be lower by the second oil change. I would probably run the oil a lower amount of miles next time out, just my guess. thanks again for the info.

 

[TooSlick]

Jay,

What I find most surprising in this comparison is that the 5w-20 petroleum, factory fill oil performed comparably to Mobil 1, 0w30 in this application. You would normally expect to see much higher wear rates with the initial analysis of a new engine. The initial TBN of the factory fill oil is probably in the 6-8 range, so the EOT TBN isn't as high.

This is a normal wear pattern for an Aluminum Honda/Acura engine ....I would not expect to see much reduction in the iron and aluminum levels. You have to keep in mind the # of miles on the sample and look at ppm/1000 miles, ie the wear rate rather than the absolute number.

 

[Jay]

I was impressed with the factory-fill oil as well, TooSlick. It was killing me to leave it in 5,000 miles as the manual suggested, but the oil held up very well. My oil consumption was very low on the factory-fill 5w-20. In 5,000 miles I only used 1/4 qt. My consumption with the M1 0w30 was 3 times higher in the same interval. I have some M1 5w30 to try this time and I'm hoping my consumption will be lower.

JSIR, nice car! About the silicon--it's too bad a $20. analysis can't distinguish between silcone and silica, but if it could I'd bet the silicon would be single digits. The seals are still leaching.

 

[Spector]

Excellent point that we often ignore is that the wear metals (though not alwasy the case) are somewhat proportional to the change the oil at 1000 miles you should see very little wear metals, for example 3 ppm of iron. If we go 7000 miles and see 21 ppm we may get upset that the oil is not protecting properly. Lab flags it, posters calim it is too high etc. Well, it really is the same gradual wear isn't it? 3/1000=.003 and 21/7000 is still .003. Labs and individuals need to consider this in looking at an analysis. Granted, you don't want too high a percentage of solids in the oil but just because a number is high does not mean the oil is not protecting. Again, this is not absolute but is just part of the evaluation of an analysis.

 

[deepsquat]

what I find supriseing is how bad your calcium level got hammered...why would it be so low at only 5000 mile s??? It can't be disappering due to cleaning of the engine ...the engine is brand new ...anyone have any ideas??

 

[Jay]

Why do you say calcium got hammered? I don't know what it was to start with but I think Mobil 1 used mostly magnesium and only a little calcium as detergent/dispersants. The TBN doesn't indicate that any of the bases got hammered.

 

[TooSlick]

Deepsquat,

You didn't read closely enough ...this is the tri-synthetic formula, not the supersyn. The older tri-synthetic additive chemistry did use much more Mg than Ca as detergent/dispersant additives. So this profile looks fine, as does the TBN ....

TooSlick