Motul X-Lite 0w30, 9756mi, 97 JDM ITR engine

[BrianEM]

My Car: 1996 Acura Integra SE, 1997 B18C JDM ITR motor (totally stock inside) with somewhere around 105,000 miles on the engine at the time of the change.

The Oil: Motul X-Lite 0w30 running through an Amsoil EaO oil filter. This oil was run for 9,756 miles and ~6.6 months, during which time 4.2 quarts of make-up oil was used.

Relevant mods: Amsoil EaA air filter on a no-name short ram intake, magnetic oil drain plug.

Other: The PCV inlet (for the line connecting the valve cover to the intake) on the intake arm is, like all aftermarket intakes for these cars, not slash cut...it just goes in at a right angle on the arm. After doing this oil change, I also modified that as such (where the bottom of the inlet is pointing towards the throttle body) in an effort to hopefully help crankcase pressures and reduce oil consumption. We'll see if it did anything at the next change.

On to the results! The column with a sample date of 8/25/08 is GC (Castrol Syntec 0w30) and 2/9/08 is Motul X-Cess 5w40, both on the same engine.

Previous UOAs:
GC
X-Cess
Amsoil TSO (this was on my old non-VTEC engine...original to the car)

 

[Pablo]

The analysis looks fine with a quick review - OTOH 1+ quart every 2500 miles would drive me bonky, I guess it comes with this engine for the most part - but let's see what the cool mod does!

 

[addyguy]

Expensive freakin' oil change! With that kind of consumption I would use a much cheaper dino or syn-blend...

 

[ThirdeYe]

Report looks good to me. I took a look through your "My car" album on Photobucket as well. That red valve cover on the ITR engine looks great under the hood of your DB7

 

[BrianEM]

Yeah VTEC engines do tend to burn oil when in VTEC (which for me is 5700rpm and up)...if I were to drive a lot more conservatively, my consumption would drop noticeably...but what's the fun in an 11.1:1CR/200hp/8600rpm engine if you don't use it?

ThirdeYe, thanks dude!

 

[JSP]

With your oil consumption TBN should be good. Looks like 10k mile OCI works well for you I wouldn't push it any further though, IMHO.

 

[BrianEM]

CORRECTION: I used a NAPA Gold oil filter, not an Amsoil...oops

 

[d00df00d]

A few comments from the OP's brother...

On oil consumption: I've heard from Motul that this oil is based on 300V, just tweaked for long-ish OCIs. I know my oil consumption nearly doubled when I went from GC to 300V, so maybe something similar is going on here. Just a guess, for what it's worth.

On price: Yes, this stuff is a lot more expensive than GC. However, it protected better, got the same or better fuel economy, and ran just as well at the end of the OCI as it did at the beginning. I'm sure RLI, Amsoil, and Red Line also have products that perform at this level for less money, but they don't have any third-party approvals.

I am seriously considering this oil for my car.

 

[saaber1]

Ca and ZDDP levels are very high and viscosity is excellent for a 30 weight. However, how much of these good results are due to the 4.2 quarts of makeup oil?

More info. about this oil please. Just off the top of my head, it reminds me a lot of one of the recent Amsoil SSO UOAs.

 

[d00df00d]

 

[saaber1]

This is the first VW 502 oil that I have seen that is ester based and has a strong additive pack. Someone who is anal retentive about vw/audi specs needs to try this oil in the 2.0 FSI ASAP!

 

[d00df00d]

By the way, does anyone think there might be some fuel dilution here? The measured viscosities and flash point are all slightly lower than spec. Or, are the differences too small to be significant?

 

[buster]

I wouldn't trust Motul's use of the words "ester based" at all. That could mean as little as 10% ester. In fact, when I tried to get an answer from the Motul guys a few years ago, they dodged the question then one guy said their 0w-30 is a Grp III/IV V blend.

 

[d00df00d]

Good point.

That reminds me of RLI. They're popular for their unique brand of esters, but I remember reading that it only made up something like 20% of the base stock for one of their PCMOs, with most of the rest being PAO or something.

Maybe what they mean is not that the base stock is mostly ester, but that that's the most important part of the chemistry?


EDIT: buster, how long ago was your conversation with Motul? Could it be that the 0w-30 you learned about was not X-Lite? I'm pretty sure they had a 0w-30 before X-Lite.

 

[zoomzoom]

looks good but you have replaced all of your oil during this OCI ..

so I would looked at these results like you had 4900 miles OCI instead..

so GC and 5w-40 clearly did better in previous OCIs here, and required less make up oil.

 

[d00df00d]

Interesting. I've never heard of an analysis interpreted that way. What's your basis for that?

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Good point.

That reminds me of RLI. They're popular for their unique brand of esters, but I remember reading that it only made up something like 20% of the base stock for one of their PCMOs, with most of the rest being PAO or something.

Maybe what they mean is not that the base stock is mostly ester, but that that's the most important part of the chemistry?


EDIT: buster, how long ago was your conversation with Motul? Could it be that the 0w-30 you learned about was not X-Lite? I'm pretty sure they had a 0w-30 before X-Lite.


Yeah it's more marketing than anything. By using ester that equates to superiority because it's a higher class fluid. As most people know it's more complicated than that.

This was about 3 years ago??

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: buster
This was about 3 years ago??

I just found the thread on BITOG that mentions the coming release of X-Lite. It's from 2007:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=807998&fpart=1

Before X-Lite, they had at least two 0w-30 oils. There was an E-Tech Lite, which was an ACEA A5/B5 oil, and a VW 506.01 spec fluid.

 

[Izb]

Motul X-lite 0W-30 - ester based
Motul 300V - double ester based.

But:
- How many % of group V contains in X-lite 0W30?
- What is difference: Ester versus Double ester?
- I am looking in information: Motul X-lite 0W30 versus Valvoline 0W30 versus Mobil 0W30 versus LubroMoly 0-W30. Which motor oil 0W30 has the lowest wear?

 

[dkryan]

Brian,

What's the crankcase capacity on your ride?
How many quarts of make-up oil did you add to the other two OCIs?

d00df00d:

I like Blackstone and their price, but I use Dyson Analysis, as his lab uses a "closed cup" method for testing fuel dilution. My understanding is Blackstson still uses the open cup method and that will result in a higher flashpoint and lower fuel dilution number.