Oil Life Monitor vs Blackstone Recommendations

You are playing with fire on this engine extending the oci past 8k miles. They fail catastrophically when they tear up a rod bearing.....and 99% of time you wont hear it till too late. We change more of these engines than all others COMBINED at the dealer level. IMO the ONLY way to own one, is a green diesel tune, and real regular OC. Do as you will, but u have been warned. :)
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So how many of these "catastrophic failures" were traced back to improper oil changes or incorrect oil spec?
Sounds more like poor engine design to me.

Also we must remember that all OLM's are not the same.
 
I would trust the owners manual over Blackstone any time. I don’t pay attention to the oil life monitor. I do 5,000 mile oil changes on my F-150 and once per year on the VW Tiguan.
 
JohnnyG said:
So how many of these "catastrophic failures" were traced back to improper oil changes or incorrect oil spec?
Sounds more like poor engine design to me.

Also we must remember that all OLM's are not the same.
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It IS poor design, and thats why I wouldnt push the OCI. Even FCA changed the oil specs from first release, and now again for the newly released gen3 Ecoboom.
 
Is changing the oil more often on a crap engine proven to help it last longer? When it fails, it it an issue that can be helped by having fresh oil it it? Unless it's contaminated in some way, oil usually lasts a good long while before the additives. Overall, this sounds like an engine to avoid like the plague.
 
I have often wondered how a UOA would compare with an OLM run down to 0%. I would trust the UOA ( more than one sample ) more.

On my Honda’s, the OLM ( maintenance minder on Honda’s ) indicates 0% anywhere from 7000 to 12,000 miles depending on driving.

For the amount of driving ( when was working ) I do, it would have made sense to do a few UOAs to see how far I could safely go between oil changes and highway driving.
 
My OCI on our '07 Accord is 10000 km (6200) miles, and the OLM is usually at 10%. Our '03 Buick had identical use and OCI, but the OLM always displayed 35% (+/- 2%) remaining.
I've thought the Honda's OLM is very conservative. The 2.4 sump holds 4.3L, vs the Buick 3.8 sump which holds 4.4L.
The "cushion" you mentioned that Honda used might be at least part of the difference.
 
Donald said:
Blackstone often recommends people increase their OCI as if everyone wants to see if they can get every last mile from an OCI. Most people should stick with the manufacturers recommendations. Unless you have a large oil sump , its cheaper to change your oil than to send oil to Blackstone especially since you really need a TBN (extra $$ at Blackstone) to see if the OCI can be extended.
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What’s an oil sump?
 
ZombieHunterAdventures said:
What’s an oil sump?
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download.jpg
 
Tested my 3.7L Ford against Blackstone using Motorcraft oil and filter. Ran IOLM down almost all the way and tested.

Result: The IOLM was dead on accurate, but with almost no margin of error. “change oil” means take the next exit and drive straight to the closest Jiffy Lube.

Overweening pride in low-maintenance vehicles is just an idiosyncrasy of Ford corporate culture. Adjust accordingly.

A conservative, but not obsessive, regimen would be running it down to 25% or 20% oil life remaining. Alternatively you could probably put in an EP synthetic and run it down all the way.
 
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OEMs are only concerned with engines(or trans/diff/etc) lasting the warranty period....they SURE dont want them to last 200k....remember that.
 
Hmmmm the manufacturers OLM tells someone to change the oil on their $30,000 to $100,000 vehicle. But instead you try to stretch out an oil change a extra couple (maybe) thousand miles that you are going to justify by a UOA?

and the reason? Over the life (or every 100,000 miles) your going to save yourself the money of two oil changes? Which was already wasted on UOAs because someone told you the oil was still good?

Since there were automobiles a certain percentage of the population looked to stretch out oil changes for dome reason to me that doesnt make sense.
 
"It's {the OLM} just taking into account the load, rpms, temp, and fuel consumption usually and counting down from the known lifetime of the minimum spec."

I doubt any but the most sophisticated OLM programming takes half the data alluded to in the above post.
They {auto makers} will assemble the data which has the lowest chance of making them look bad.

Then again, who knows? All the data is sensed and measured electronically now-a-days so it is all there in the ECU/PCM/Car Brain

Do you wait for your shoes to look disgusting or do you polish them sooner?
 
When I worked for Toyota they were replacing the 3.0 in 4 runners right and left for head gasket failure which scared the block and the amount of abuse was staggering. I did one customer bought that blew rod from 4 wheeling and Toyota paid for it. Customer towed it from the house to dealership. There are quite a few that can't afford the vehicle so oil changes get left out.
 
While the manufacturers figures are based on multiple vehicles under varying conditions and many analysis, a UOA on your vehicle will tell you specifically what that vehicle will tolerate using your choice of oil quality and driving conditions. Nothing says that you need to extend the OCI, you could keep changing it way short if that makes you happy. Its all about choices made with the most information possible.
 
Kira said:
"It's {the OLM} just taking into account the load, rpms, temp, and fuel consumption usually and counting down from the known lifetime of the minimum spec."

I doubt any but the most sophisticated OLM programming takes half the data alluded to in the above post.
They {auto makers} will assemble the data which has the lowest chance of making them look bad.

Then again, who knows? All the data is sensed and measured electronically now-a-days so it is all there in the ECU/PCM/Car Brain

Do you wait for your shoes to look disgusting or do you polish them sooner?
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Actually they take into account most of these parameters and other not listed here like speed.

Even the lowly but highly refined Honda OLM does a pretty good job leaving about a 20% buffer. The GM LS algo is also pretty good.

In the case of the Dodge OLM It left the own a very healthy buffer from what 3rd party analysis "guessed" the condemnation point would be while allowing a significant delta between its own point and a 3, or 5K fixed point guess that many work with.

It needs to leave a buffer as your average joe may not get his oil changed until its gone negative, and even if he's 1K over (1 trip for many ) his oil is still serviceable.
 
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alarmguy said:
Hmmmm the manufacturers OLM tells someone to change the oil on their $30,000 to $100,000 vehicle. But instead you try to stretch out an oil change a extra couple (maybe) thousand miles that you are going to justify by a UOA?

and the reason? Over the life (or every 100,000 miles) your going to save yourself the money of two oil changes? Which was already wasted on UOAs because someone told you the oil was still good?

Since there were automobiles a certain percentage of the population looked to stretch out oil changes for dome reason to me that doesnt make sense.
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Yeah … and a guy gets grief here because he spent a hair more on a well known EP oil …
Also, I have not seen the OEM shorten the published OCI in the last 10 years …
Blackstone ? If they could not tell you to run more … seems business would drop …
 
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BigCahuna said:
The olm is to protect the mfgrs best interest, not your motors. Being the olm doesn't know, or does it care which oil is being used in the vehicle. You could be running Dollar store discount oil, or the best oil on the planet. It will state what the mfgr tell it to.,,,
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It will assume you used an OEM approved oil … if you didn’t that’s not the OEM’s problem nor something they should waste resources on …
 
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