M1 10W3...Infiniti G35.... 7,333 miles.. need feedback...

[chinee]

Here's my 4th UOA on this engine. A little history:
- The first three were done using 5W30, the latest 10W30.
- The oil was not changed when the 2nd UOA was performed, just sampled and topped off.
- Current fill is M1 10W30 once more.
- My driving habits have changed somewhat as well, I did 90% highway when I did my first UOA and have gradually sfifted to less than 50% highwy today. And although I rarely rev to the redline (6500rpm), the engine sees 5000 rpm regularly.

1. As you can see, Blackstone is concerned about the lead wear. However I see a trend where the lead is going down; I'd like to be pleased with this, but I need reassurance from you "oildheads" that this trend is a positive indicator.
2. Iron still seems high to me, 2.5ppm per 1,000 miles. Although the iron wear is more favorable than the universal averages, I still think it's high.
3. All other wear metal levels seem to be excellent, even silicon has gone down some. If not for the iron and lead, I'd be a very happy camper.
4. I've read on other boards that this engine takes a long time to fully break in, so I plan on continuing UOAs to see if the levels of wear metals continue its downward trend.

Here's the discussion about the last UOA UOA #3

Comments and feedback are both requested and welcomed! Thanks in advance.

 

[Terry]

Please have a look at one of my customers BITOG posted G35 VQ35de engine that has 0 lead wear, same engine for comparison.
I believe he posted it 3/16/04.

 

[chinee]

quote:

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Iron is probably not a problem at all as you have just been through winter.

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Unfortunately I have to disprove your reasoning... we have year-round summer here in Florida...

 

[haley10]

I assume you are using 92 or 93 octane premium gasoline?? Forgive the stupid question.

 

[Alex D]

In this case I would try a cycle on Redline. It always seems that Redline is especially beneficial to bearing preservation and wear.

 

[TooSlick]

These results are fine ....If you wanted to get really fanatical about it, I'd run an ACEA "A3/B4" rated, 0w-30/5w-30/10w-30. A slightly thicker 30wt would probably drop the iron wear down below 2 ppm/1000 miles and the lead wear below 1 ppm/1000 miles.

If you can find the ACEA A3/B4 rated, Castrol 0w-30, that would be worth running for several changes. It works better in engines that require thicker oils or operate in very hot climates.

Your oil is thickening a bit due to oxidation/nitration, but that's to be expected with long drains in a hot climate. You ARE running the best Mobil 1 grade for this situation, with the possible exception of their Mobil 1R, 0w-30.

 

[buster]

I'd agree wit Tooslick, however, you can't rule out the fact that it could just be the engine. Not all engines wear in the same, due to driving styles etc. I'd run Mobil 1 0w-40 or ASL/ATM Amsoil to see if thingss change. It might not be the oil but only switching will tell you.

 

[TooSlick]

This engine is showing a very consistent wear pattern from the time it had 15k on it. In fact, the wear rates of all your major metals are trending down and will probably drop the next time around as well. That's actually more important than small variations in wear rates.

The "do nothing" option will get you 200,000+ miles out of this motor, with very little drop in performance.

Note: Depletion of borate esters tracks very nicely with the # of miles on the sample. If you were smart, you could determine optimum oil change intervals, solely on the basis of FM depletion.

 

[quadrun1]

quote:

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Originally posted by Terry:
Please have a look at one of my customers BITOG posted G35 VQ35de engine that has 0 lead wear, same engine for comparison.
I believe he posted it 3/16/04.

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Here's the link:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=001181

Nice improvement in lead there, down to zero! (scroll down to see the improvement, in the second UOA)

 

[Al]

If you go over to Maxima.org you will see high lead numbers up the Kazoo. I think its a fine report.

 

[Tones]

Insolubles at 0.4 seems high. At least they are higher than last report. Could be an indicator. Did you do something different with the filtration this time? Have you looked at the PCV system yet given your at 30k?

 

[haley10]

I don't have much to offer on this one, other than the iron and lead should look better at this point. I personally wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it is the oil's fault or that it will get better over time.

I would get an "expert" opinion on this one, probably from Terry, now. The next uoa probably won't look too much different if you don't change anything.

 

[TR3-2001SE]

I think I would be happy with this report. All wear metals are very low for the milage except the lead/iron. Iron is probably not a problem at all as you have just been through winter. I would do another UOA just to check on the lead thing at the next change. I would think it is a break-in issue as it is trending down for sure.

 

[haley10]

True, the trend is downward. I'm concerned that the Visc. has moved up to 64. Seems a little uncharacteristic for this M1. It seems to have thickened a bit much.

 

[Bror Jace]

This is not a really bad report, but the one from silent06 shows there's probably some room for significant improvement. His looks much better ... but it might be because he's driving more gently.

Still, I'd try swtiching oils to something else ... Schaeffer, Red Line, Amsoil, German Castrol, etc ...

--- Bror Jace

 

[Terry]

Bror said; "but it might be because he's driving more gently."


06 can speak for himself but that car is NOT driven easy nor has a stable environment, dusty/hot/cold/stop/go/high speed on Dallas speedways!

 

[Motorbike]

My opinion is that adding the Schaeffers # 132 @ 1 oz per quart will help bring this lead down in this engine more than switching to a heavier vi oil or another brand .

The 132 and Mobil SS 30wt seems to be a match made in heaven in my testing/analysis in one car we own that gets driven pretty hard at times.

Another car with same engine seems to not need the 132 with same 30wt Mobil oil used through analysis .

Worth a try IMO .

 

[buster]

quote:

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Please have a look at one of my customers BITOG posted G35 VQ35de engine that has 0 lead wear, same engine for comparison

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Terry, it's not really an apples to apples comparison. Could the same "doctored" Mobil 1 do as well? Or is S2k simply better for this engine?

 

[TooSlick]

It's not fair to Mobil to compare an oil that sells nation wide for an average cost of $5.00/qt, to an ultra premium synthetic that is $8.25/qt. The S2000 will win this comparison > 95% of the time.

Look at the wear rates when this engine had 20k total miles back on 9/27/03, then compare them to Terrys' engine running the S2000 @ 20k total miles - that's the apples to apples comparison....

Wear rates after 20,000 total engine miles:

Ams. 0w-30/5000 miles ....Mobil 10w-30 /4330 miles

Fe .....6 ppm....................19 ppm
Cr......1 ppm.....................1 ppm
Al......1 ppm.....................4 ppm
Pb......0 ppm.....................9 ppm
Cu.....11 ppm.....................9 ppm
Sn......0 ppm.....................2 ppm
Ni......0 ppm.....................1 ppm

Silicon 13 ppm....................16 ppm
Air Filtration played no role here

"Nothing Beats Mobil 1"

 

[buster]

MI/HR ON OIL 2078
MI/HR ON UNIT 14,721
SAMPLE DATE 1/3/2004


Equipment Make Infiniti
Equipment Model G35 3.5L V-6 280 HP
Fuel Type Gasoline
Oil Use Interval 2,078 miles
Oil Type & Grade Amsoil Series 2000 0w/30
Make-UP Oil Added 0 quarts

Aluminum 2
Chromium 1
Iron 9
Copper 30
Lead 5

I agree that a $8 oil should perform better then a $5qt API oil, however, thats not always the case. In the engine above, if you doubled the miles to 8k, Iron would be 18ppm and pb 10. Terry added LC to the oil so my question was, could Mobil 1 be doctored up and give similar results?