Mobil-1 5W-30 Extended Performance, 2003 Ford 4.0L SOHC V-6, 4999 miles on oil

[chucky2]

Previous oil changes were:

575 factory fill changed out with Castrol GTX 5W-30 and Mobil-1 M1-209 oil filter.

3010 Castrol GTX 5W-30 changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 SS and Mobil-1 M1-209 oil filter.

6025 Mobil-1 5W-30 SS changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 SS and Mobil-1 M1-209 oil filter.

9025 Mobil-1 5W-30 SS changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 SS and Mobil-1 M1-209 oil filter.

12029 Mobil-1 5W-30 SS changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 SS and Mobil-1 M1-209 oil filter.

15057 Mobil-1 5W-30 SS changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 SS and Wix 51372 oil filter.

19928 Mobil-1 5W-30 SS changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 SS and Wix 51372 oil filter.

25000 Mobil-1 5W-30 SS changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 SS and Motorcraft FL-820S oil filter.

30000 Mobil-1 5W-30 SS changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 SS and Motorcraft FL-820S oil filter.

35036 Mobil-1 5W-30 SS (SM I believe) changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 EP and Motorcraft FL-820S oil filter.

40050 Mobil-1 5W-30 EP changed out with Mobil-1 5W-30 EP and Motorcraft FL-820S oil filter. This was the first run of M1 Extended Performance.

45049 Mobil-1 5W-30 EP changed out with Mobil-1 4 Qt. 5w-30 EP + 1 Qt. 15W-50 EP mix and Motorcraft FL-820S oil filter. VOA is located here for that mix: 4 Qts. Mobil-1 5W-30 EP + 1 Qt. Mobil-1 15W-50 EP mix

Results:

code:

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M1 5W30 type: EP-SL EP-SL SS-SM SS-SM SS-SL SS-SL SS-SL SS-SL

Sample Date 06/05 05/05 03/05 01/04 09/04 06/04 03/04 10/03

Truck Milage 45049 40050 35036 30001 25000 19928 15057 9025 Universal

Oil Milage 4999 5014 5036 5000 5072 4871 3028 3000



Aluminum 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 5

Chromium 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1

Iron 8 11 16 12 11 14 19 16 16

Copper 2 3 4 4 4 5 3 3 6

Lead 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 4

Tin 1 1 2 1 1 3 2 3 1

Molybdenum 90 85 66 60 77 59 69 77 44

Nickel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Manganese 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1

Silver 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Titanium 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Potassium 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 2

Boron 199 160 98 120 163 138 157 155 50

Silicon 10 9 9 9 12 11 10 9 9

Sodium 6 8 5 5 8 6 4 7 17

Calcium 3276 2833 2417 2412 2860 2938 3120 2887 2065

Magnesium 15 12 15 6 14 13 14 20 195

Phosphorus 880 750 678 608 761 756 730 799 751

Zinc 1005 900 694 677 893 909 825 910 896

Barium 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1



SuS@210F 63.9 62.4 60.1 59.8 61.0 60.9 59.3 61.3 should be 53-63

Flash_F 425 410 400 370 410 410 385 385 should be >365

Fuel %
Antifrz% 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 should be 0

Water % 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 should be
Insoles% 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.1 should be
TBN 5.3 5.4 4.4 5.7 5.7 5.8 5.4 8.5

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Blackstone Comments: This oil was in use for about the same miles as the last sample and wear dropped slightly. Wear still beat universal average levels (which are based on 4,370 miles oil use) and looks especially good in the bearings (copper, lead and tin). If you stay with this type oil, we think you can easily add more miles to your oil use. Try 6,000 miles for the next sample. We are betting wear will stay below average. Air and oil filtration look okay. No gas or coolant found. You haven't hurt this oil any in 4,999 miles use. The TBN was 5.3, vs 5.4 for the last sample.

My comments: I drove the truck on the highway at high speeds a lot. This was the second run of straight Mobil-1 5W-30 Extended Performance (EP). It looks like based on this UOA, the Mobil-1 EP oil is finally showing some better numbers than the old GF-3 SL Mobil-1. Since the new Mobil-1 EP oil filter wasn't out yet, I decided to see what a thicker Mobil-1 EP 30 weight would do in my engine...so what I did this time was mix 4 quarts Mobil-1 5W-30 EP and 1 quart Mobil-1 15W-50 EP together - VOA is linked above. This gave me a mid-range 30 weight instead of the low 30 weight that is the normal Mobil-1 oils. The reason I went this route instead of a German Castrol, Pennzoil Platinum, etc. is that the chemistry will be the same, only the weight of the oil will change. I'm hoping the new Mobil-1 EP oil filter is out by the time my mix has 5,000 miles on it...what I'll do then is either do another mix of Mobil-1 EP like I have now, or just go back to straight Mobil-1 5W-30 EP...that way we're just testing the Mobil-1 EP oil filter and should be able compare how it does against a regular Motorcraft. After that, we can start trying other oils...I'm interested in the German Castrol (but which kind?), Pennzoil Platinum, Havolin dino, and Pennzoil dino...all in 5W-30 - except the GC of course, that'd be 0W-30. Whichever I switch too, I'll do at least 2 runs of...although ideally it'd be 3 to make sure the trend is legit.

Chuck

 

[SSDude]

This is a pretty good UOA. If you are using Mobil 1 EP, why did you change it so soon. It defeats the purpose of using this oil. The TBN was still strong. You could have gone 10,000 miles on this oil.

 

[chucky2]

SSDude- I completely agree...I can go much longer than the 5,000 mile intervals I've been doing with the Mobil-1 products...however I'm still under my extended warranty with Ford (5 yrs./100,000 miles, whichevers first)...so until I hit one of those 2 milestones, I'm staying with 5,000 mile OCI's.

Once past my extended, I'm immediately going to bump up to 7,500 OCI for a change or two (probably 2, just to get a trend), and then on to 10,000 and beyond OCI.

One thing I'm not so sure of is Mobil's claim that this is a 15,000 mile oil...looking at the TBN in the VOA I linked to above for my mix I did, and the TBN's for the two Mobil-1 EP UOA's I have, I don't see how those OCI's could have been stretched to 15,000 miles...

...maybe the oil drops TBN very fast and then platue's or something...not sure on that...

Chuck

 

[drive it forever]

quote:

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Originally posted by chucky2:
SSDude-
One thing I'm not so sure of is Mobil's claim that this is a 15,000 mile oil...looking at the TBN in the VOA I linked to above for my mix I did, and the TBN's for the two Mobil-1 EP UOA's I have, I don't see how those OCI's could have been stretched to 15,000 miles...


Chuck

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Maybe Mobil is taking marketing ideas from Amsoil.

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by drive it forever:
Maybe Mobil is taking marketing ideas from Amsoil.

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chucky2, nice spreadsheet. Thanks for sharing. Everything at or below universal averages. BEAUTIFUL! (Although I'm sure someone will say it could be lower.)

Which model truck is this?

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by chucky2:
...maybe the oil drops TBN very fast and then platue's or something...not sure on that...

Chuck

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3MP's study substantiates that theory:

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/mobil1.html

 

[buster]

Looks very good. TBN is fine. BS Labs shows low TBN numbers. Wear looks great.

 

[TooSlick]

The 3MP study only shows that BS labs doesn't know how to do the ASTM D-4739 test protocol correctly...

This looks very good, but the EP still isn't lasting any longer than the older, garden variety Mobil 1. However at least in these past two analysis, the valvetrain wear is significantly lower than before.

Of course, this is 5000 miles in a month of driving, whereas some of the previous 5000 mile totals tooks 3-4 months to complete. So you'd see more corrosive iron wear with those runs...

TS

 

[pbm]

Chucky: I am a fan of Mobil 1 but if I were changing my oil as often as you I would be using
Pennzoil dino, Havoline dino or Motocraft semi-syn and a Purolator PP filter and saving myself some money. I doubt your UOA would show any more wear using one of these quality dinos and the less expensive filter.

 

[chucky2]

Thanks for all the replies!

drive it forever- Now, now, now...if you don't have anything nice to say....

427Z06- Short of linking the image in there, it's the best format I could come up with.

My truck is a red 2003 Ford Ranger FX4 Level II, automatic. Been really good to me so far, although it has some small things I wish Ford would have done a better job on.

At work right now, I'll read 3MP's link when I get home tonight though.

buster- The drop in Iron was nice...and looking at the other adds like Boron, Calcium, Phosphorus, and Zinc, their all much higher this time around too.

Possibly the first run of Mobil-1 EP the add pack gets used up faster...cleaning perhaps?

TooSlick- I agree, the EP does not seem to be lasting any longer than the old Mobil-1 SL...although the EP add pack is a little stouter it appears than even the Mobil-1 SL so that's a good thing.

I don't have the report in front of me here at work, however this was probably like 2 months of driving...ain't no way I did 5,000 miles in a month. I'll post back later tonight what the exact timeframe these 5,000 miles occured in.

pbm- I agree, my OCI interval while I've been under warranty doesn't really justify synthetic usage. I did this mainly because I plan on keeping the truck very long term - until there's nothing left of it - and I also wanted to see a long-term trend of Mobil-1 usage starting with a new vehicle....that's not something I've seen before, so I wanted to do what I'm doing to get some type of trending.

The cost of a 5 quart jub of Mobil-1 is like $23 at Walmart, versus like $9 for a jug of Havoline. That's a whole $14 over 5,000 miles...not really anything that's going to break me. This is one of my only hobbies, and really the only one I spend any money on...so it's like my one splurge (OK, we won't count the $2,000 in camera equipment I bought 3 weeks ago for my vacation...that's a one time cost.

).

Chuck

 

[Don Stevens]

I think the numbers look great. I have a couple of questions 1) Did Blackstone do the VOA? 12.3 is a great starting TBN but it sounds more like an OAI value rather than a Blackstone value.
2) How did you get the columns on that spread sheet to come out so nice? Everytime I try the columns always get screwed up?

With those numbers and that evidence, I think you could run the interval out to 7500 and not hurt your warranty.

Don

 

[TooSlick]

The baseline TBN and ZDDP levels of the 15w-50 have always been the highest of any M1 formulation, as it's their defacto racing lubricant....

A VOA will illustrate this point nicely.

 

[chucky2]

Don Stevens- Blackstone did do the VOA in the link above in my post that started this thread.

I have a .txt file that I setup that I just add to each time I do a UOA on my truck. If anyone would like it, just e-mail me at (edit - mod; OP request) and I'll send you it. You can edit it however you'd like to make it look like you want.

I agree on the interval...however I'm not going to have an engine chunk on me and then have Ford come back and say they won't warranty it because I went with 7,500 mile OCI's instead of 5,000

That's all BS and we know it, but my cousin was a service writer at a stealership for a while, and said Ford - not the dealer - denied warranty on a brand new Mustang because the guy had put an aftermarket exhaust on it. Problem: Warped/Bent/Whatever rod on his 5.0 (yes, this was back in like 93-94). Was apperantly making noise since day 1 but the stealership told him to break it in a little. Nice going Ford...

TooSlick- I think in one of the VOA threads, Butler labs had a VOA - and maybe TBN, can't remember - of the Mobil-1 15W-50 EP.

I'd think being what it is, it'd be the stoutest in the lineup...but that's just a guess.

Chuck

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by TooSlick:
The 3MP study only shows that BS labs doesn't know how to do the ASTM D-4739 test protocol correctly...

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I won't comment on BS Labs competence, but the 3MP study closely mirrors TBN depletion rates we see here.

 

[TooSlick]

The method that BS Labs uses has good precision, but poor accuracy. That is to say if you did "round robin" testing of dulplicate used oil samples using a number of accredited labs, the Blackstone TBN results would consistently be about 2.0-2.5 points lower than the others....

For example, one of these last two samples tested by AvLube or OAI would come back with a TBN in the 7.0-7.5 range. A conservative lower limit from AVLube or OAI would be 4.0, using the ASTM D-4739 test protocol.

You could safely extend the service intervals in this application by at least 50%, given the total solids, viscosity and TBN's of these multiple samples....