Motorcraft 5-20 semi 8.2K "zero" oil life monitor

[jimbrewer]

Can I trust the Intelligent Oil Life Monitor on my Ford?

That is why I took these two tests. One was at 5K. This one was at 8200 miles a couple days after the "engine oil change soon" light came on. This is still the first change after factory fill. Don't worry. I already changed the oil. (It was almost a year old anyway). This is the oil that was the subject of "guess my TBN" a few months ago, where the forum guessed my true TBN of 2.1 with incredible precision.

I would characterize the use for the first test as severe: less than four mile commute twice a day, almost no highway miles, sub-freezing temps many days. Afterwards was much easier: An occasional highway run of 100 miles every three weeks or so, commute of 7 miles or so, warmer weather. Consequently, oil that I expected to wink out at 7.2K or 7.5K went to 8.2K.

Bonus points: how in the world could it be that viscosity and insolubles improves from 5K to 8.2K? How is it that some add pack numbers could seemingly improve?

Per Blackstone:

"It might be a little early to launch into longer
oil changes, although all in all your F-150 handled the extra miles pretty well. There's still some break-in stuff floating around the system. And that and the longer oil run is the reason that most metals (and silicon) went up in this sample. No harm done though--once you change this oil (we'd probably change it soon)everything should come down closer to the average. The TAN reads 3.8, so the oil is getting acidic--over 4.0 is "acidic" in our book. The TBN shows some active additive remaining."

8.2 number ("change Oil" IOLM) 5K numbers (33% IOLM)

Aluminum 11 9

chromium 1 0

iron 29 22

copper 96 78

lead 1 1

tin 0 0

molybdenum 77 76

nickel 1 1



Manganese 26 28

Silver 0 0

Titanium 1 1

Potassium 6 2

Boron 85 131

Silicon 46 36

Sodium 9 8

Calcium 2357 2211

Magnesium 13 13


Phosphorus 832 801

Zinc 901 879

Barium 3 3


SUS Viscosity @ 210 degrees F 53.0 50.9 [ should be:46-59]


Cst Viscosity @ 100 degrees C 8.19 7.54 [ should be: 6.0 -10.2]

Flashpoint: 445 degrees farenheit 425 degrees farenheit [should be greater than
355 degrees farenheit]

Fuel % less than 0.5% less than 0.5%


Antifreeze 0 0

Water 0 0


TBN 1.7 2.1


TAN 3.8 --


I will let you guys go first.

 

[daves87rs]

The highway runs may have helped the oil a bit from the short drives...

 

[Errtt]

I'm no good at this but agree the 2nd with highway runs helped plus the engine getting more run-in/wear-in.
Viscosity improve with the highway runs compared to the 1st " less than four mile commute twice a day, almost no highway miles, sub-freezing temps many days" - might be less fuel dilution but both Insolubles... I dunno again... Filter? (unless I missed it, don't see what oil was changed to either).
Again.. I'm terribly horrible at this

 

[901Memphis]

The insolubles cause the oil to thicken. It's common for the viscosity to increase as you meet the useful life of the oil. I would try to change it before that occurred if possible by getting a stronger oil or lessen the miles.

That being said your wear numbers are fine for showing break in.

 

[jimbrewer]

Yet, the insoluble numbers improved from the first test. 0.3 VS. 0.4 (Left it out of my initial transcription--sorry).

Fuel dilution apprently isn't an issue with this motor. Remember, its the 3.7L not the Ecoboost.

 

[daves87rs]

Iffy to think I'd go much more than 7500 on MC...just to be safe..

 

[jimbrewer]

Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Iffy to think I'd go much more than 7500 on MC...just to be safe..


Well, this was a test. I expect to drive this car for quite a while and I want to know what to make of the IOLM. Still, no opinions on the ultimate question: Did the IOLM work or not? By "work" I mean was it an improvement over the 5k severe, 7K normal service recommendation that are in the paper manual.

 

[901Memphis]

The OLM did its job. The oil held up okay and wear is definitely within spec. Aluminum could be a little lower, but still its early in the engines life to determine.

You could get better wear numbers likely by trying a longer lasting oil, ie: motor craft synthetic or any top shelf synthetic and running to the OLM 0%, or just keep doing what your doing.

If you run it to 0% and UOA 2 more times with motorcraft synblend you can get much better trends on if the iron wear will go down, which i think it will. Early fills always have more iron as the parts are wearing in.

 

[dustyroads]

The olm did very well.

Your truck is still very low miles so wear metals can't be judged with so much break-in materials.

The viscosity went up due to oxidation I believe.

Looks like oil was getting near it's limit but not yet past it. The olm worked. Probably good to get the break-in excess out, though.

 

[bigt61]

The OLM worked IMO - they are programmed to be conservative and you could have gone even longer on this lube with no worries. Maybe as much as 2000 miles more. Did you add any make up oil? What year is the F150? Total miles on unit? Sump capacity?

 

[KonaMustangGT]

I have a longer commute (19 miles each way) with a highway segment. I get the "OIL CHANGE REQUIRED" message ~50 miles short of 10K. Your second test seemed to decline slower than your first test. I would expect shorter trips to result in shorter life, so the IOLM appears to be working as expected. (not sure if there are difference between the 3.7L F150 and 5.0L Mustang implementations.)

FYI, I get the "ENGINE OIL CHANGE SOON" message at 5% remaining and "OIL CHANGE REQUIRED" at 0% remaining. The owner's manual says "The engine oil change service needs to be completed within two weeks or 500 miles (800 km) after the "OIL CHANGE REQUIRED" message is displayed.", so you can go a little over.

 

[jimbrewer]

Its a 2012. The 3.7L, not the Ecoboost (Note the high flash-point low fuel dilution numbers. 5.5L sump). I'll weigh in with my own conclusions:

1. Did the IOLM work?

A. I'd say it passed with flying colors. Its a good thing I ordered TAN, or I would have thought it was ultra-conservative. It wasn't. It just guessed, somehow, that my TAN numbers would be climbing even though I had plenty of add-pack left. As you may recall, I was a little perplexed because I parked it for a week with 6% showing, and when I started it it asked for an oil change. The IOLM 'knew' that parking a car for even a few days with older oil in the sump was bad. Which brings me to subsidiary conclusions:

B. Order TAN. At least for longer runs. Mr. Newton has said this a few times and he was right. The complexsion of the entire test changed because of the TAN test.

C. Motorcraft semisyn 5w-20 is plenty beefy. I've seen it in this thread and elsewhere, that MC is good, so long as you don't try and put too many miles on it. This certainly wasn't borne out by the test. The Iron numbers only went up 7ppm for the last 3200 miles, for a car that is still, by other indicators breaking in a little. It would be hard to believe that Mobil Super 5000 would have done any better. Remember, all those highly favorable UOAs we see for MS 5000 are without TAN. This would also have appeared to be a super oil without the TAN reading.

D. Highway miles aren't just 'easy' miles. They are more like the fountain of youth. How else do you account for some of the numbers improving from an earlier test to the older? I theorize that the add pack needs, heat, circulation and time to do its job, for example for the Boron to meld into the cylinder walls. When it does, the wear numbers improve and the filter (which increases efficiency until it fails) takes out more of the crud. I had noticed that the IOLM seemed to give me 'brownie points' after a highway trip. That is, it would not immediately revert to a normal 75 miles per percentage point clip, but would go longer. The IOLM had it right.

E. Yes, its true. Oil lubes better as it gets older---until it doesn't.

I'm not planning on running it to the bitter end like that, although I certainly could. I passed up a $10 discount to take it to the end and I had to scramble around on Labor Day weekend to try and get it changed.

 

[bigt61]

While it's new and under warranty you are doing the right thing - just follow the OLM and sleep well.

 

[jorton]

+1
Oil thickened from 20 grade to 20 grade. If it had thickened more you would have to change at 6k.