Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30, 8330 miles, '06 Camry 2AZ-FE

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St. Louis, Missouri
1-year OCI (from August 4, 2012 to July 27, 2013)--actually 8 days shy of 1 year.
Toyota OEM (Denso) air filter and oversized Mobil 1 M1-209 oil filter were used.
57,860 total car miles on Camry.
8,330 miles on oil.

This was my first fill with Pennzoil Ultra. I had previously used Amsoil SSO, RLI BioSyn 0w-30, Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30, Mobil 1 5w-30, and Valvoline Dino.
Easy to moderate driving on roads in St. Louis, Missouri. The highest RPM this oil might have seen was probably somewhere between 2,600 and 3,200 rpm. I'm not sure I even drove once at 3,200 RPM or above so if I did, it was a rare, rare occurrence.

Probably 80 percent or more was city driving with most trips averaging somewhere around 10, 15, and 20 city miles in length. Some city trips may have been longer, maybe up to about 30 miles. Occasional highway drives but much less frequent than city driving. No stop-and-go city driving.

Highway speeds usually were between 55 mph and 70 mph. On very, very rare occasion 80 mph.

On the actual day of the oil change, in order to get the oil hot just before changing the oil, I drove the car about 50 miles, much of it on the highway.

Although my manual calls for 4 quarts of oil when also changing the Denso OEM oil filter, I have always put in 4.25 quarts with that filter. Right now I'm probably adding a little more than 4.25 quarts because I now use the oversized Mobil 1 filter and I place some oil inside the oil filter itself before attaching the filter to the car (thanks for that tip). I estimate there is about 4.4 or 4.5 quarts of oil in the sump and filter.

This is Toyota's 2.4L 2AZ-FE engine, an inline 4 cylinder.

Blackstone-Labs results:

Miles on oil: 8,330
Miles on engine: 57,860
Sample date: 7/27/2013 ; Report date: 8/2/2013
Makeup oil added: 0

First number = Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30 (8,330-mile OCI over 1 year)
Second number = Amsoil SSO 0w-30 (9,000-mile OCI over 14 months)
Third number = Bio-Syn 0w-30 (7,500-mile OCI over 9.75 months)
Fourth number = PP 5w-30 (4,920-mile OCI over 6 months)
Fifth number = Universal Averages for this engine over about a 5,000-mile OCI, I believe

Aluminum 3 , 3 , 2 , 3 , 3
Chromium 0 , 1 , 1 , 0 , 0
Iron 20 , 23 , 15 , 7 , 15 (Blackstone's universal average used to be 12, according to my previous report(s). Now it's 15 as you can see in the last column)

Copper 2 , 2 , 1 , 1 , 2 (universal average used to be 1)
Lead 1 , 4 , 17 , 3 , 2 (universal average used to be 1)
Tin 0 , 0 , 0 , 0

Molybdenum 48 , 2 , 10 , 53 , 80
Nickel 0 , 1 , 0 , 0 , 0
Manganese 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 1

Silver 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0
Titanium 2 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 1

---------
Potassium 0 , 2 , 3 , 2 , 2
Boron 34 , 10 , 11 , 28 , 40
Silicon 28 , 30 , 16 , 17 , 18
Sodium 3 , 14 , 6 , 4 , 49 (universal average used to be 33)
---------

Calcium 2850 , 3713 , 2511 , 2795 , 2261 (universal average used to be 2354)
Magnesium 15 , 19 , 14 , 15 , 137 (universal average used to be 86)
Phosphorous 652 , 681 , 733 , 714 , 706
Zinc 717 , 836 , 953 , 860 , 830
Barium 0 , 0 , 1 , 1 , 0

MY Penn Ultra 5w-30 RESULTS // MY Amsoil SSO 0w-30 RESULTS // MY Bio-Syn 0w-30 RESULTS // My PP 5w-30 RESULTS // WHAT VALUES SHOULD BE

SUS Viscosity @ 210* F = 62.2 // 57.9 // 62.4 // 59.3 // 54 - 63 (range used to be 57 - 67)
cSt Viscosity @ 100* C = 10.84 // 9.63 // 10.88 // 10.03 // 8.5 - 11.3 (range used to be 9.4 - 12.4)
Flashpoint in * F = 435 // *375* // 415 // 400 // > 365 (used to be >385 --Hmm, what's going on?)

Fuel % = < 0.5 // 0.5 // < 0.5 // < 0.5 // < 2.0
Antifreeze % = 0.0 // 0.0 // 0.0 // 0.0 // 0.0
Water % = 0.0 // 0.0 // 0.0 // 0.0 // < 0.1
Insolubles % = 0.2 // 0.3 // 0.3 // 0.2 // < 0.6

TBN = 2.3 // 3.2 // 2.0 // 4.7 (Penn Ultra // Amsoil // RenewableLube // Pennzoil Platinum)
TAN = 2.3 // 5.4 // 8.5 // 0.9 (Penn Ultra // Amsoil // RenewableLube // Pennzoil Platinum)
 
I think the silicon is a little high. Maybe give your air intake system a once over.

I'd like to think that PU is good for more than 8K, but that may be the limit.

Thanks for the UOA info.
 
Iron seems to track very consistently according to OCI. Interesting lead spike with RLI. Maybe you used a fuel system cleaner or it was present in RLI. Otherwise good info and I would run PP or M1 which can be found for a great price and forget the boutique lubes. JMO
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
I think the silicon is a little high. Maybe give your air intake system a once over.

I'd like to think that PU is good for more than 8K, but that may be the limit.

Thanks for the UOA info.


I forgot to add that this is the more advanced Ultra too, the SN, not the SM version.

The air filter is just under one year old. It was placed in the car on August 9, 2012. I'll check the air intake system, but wouldn't a reading of 28 for silicon be about right since Blackstone's universal average is 18 for an approximate 5,000-mile OCI over 6 months, I think.

At 8,330 miles, I went about 66 percent farther than 5,000 miles--or 2/3 farther.

2/3 more than the universal average of 18 is 30, and my reading for silicon was 28 (under 30). Or should I not look at the silicon reading that way perhaps?
 
I'd stick to Pennzoil Platinum based on the FE wear results.

Edit: Just noticed the short run on PP. Use what you get cheap I guess.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Falken
I'd stick to Pennzoil Platinum based on the FE wear results.

Edit: Just noticed the short run on PP. Use what you get cheap I guess.


Yes, what I did was run the standard 5k, 6-month OCI with my first oil change (using Platinum). Then I increased the OCI roughly 50 percent to 7,500 miles and 9 months with my second analysis (using RLI BioSyn).

Then I felt safe enough to roughly double the OCI to 9,000 miles and 14 months (roughly a 100-percent increase). Used Amsoil SSO for that. But a 100-percent increase in the OCI didn't work out as well as I thought with this engine (2AZ-FE).

So with the latest OCI, I cut back to a 66 percent increase over the standard 5k, 6-month OCI. So this Ultra went 8330 miles, but I kept the year-long length.
 
Originally Posted By: chubbs1
Iron seems to track very consistently according to OCI. Interesting lead spike with RLI. Maybe you used a fuel system cleaner or it was present in RLI. Otherwise good info and I would run PP or M1 which can be found for a great price and forget the boutique lubes. JMO

I didn't use any fuel system cleaner with the Renewable Lube Bio-Syn a few years ago. I don't think I've ever used a fuel system cleaner.

In this latest OCI with Ultra, I guess it would have been nice if the TBN were a little higher than the TAN. They both came in at exactly 2.3.
 
I know Blackstone does not provide it, but oxidation is important. It tells you how well the base oil is doing. TBN tells you how well the additives are doing.
 
Originally Posted By: Built_Well
Originally Posted By: chubbs1
Iron seems to track very consistently according to OCI. Interesting lead spike with RLI. Maybe you used a fuel system cleaner or it was present in RLI. Otherwise good info and I would run PP or M1 which can be found for a great price and forget the boutique lubes. JMO

I didn't use any fuel system cleaner with the Renewable Lube Bio-Syn a few years ago. I don't think I've ever used a fuel system cleaner.

In this latest OCI with Ultra, I guess it would have been nice if the TBN were a little higher than the TAN. They both came in at exactly 2.3.


Tbn depletion isn't linear so it could be that the tbn could hover around 2 for quite a few miles. We've seen oils here deplete tbn at a very fast rate then stabilize and lower very slowly after the initial hit.
Looks alright though. PP looks close too.
 
To minimize silicon,replace the AF about a week BEFORE you change the oil. Silicon resulting from the AF change will then be dumped out with the old oil. Your oil thickened a bit.
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy
Tbn depletion isn't linear so it could be that the tbn could hover around 2 for quite a few miles. We've seen oils here deplete tbn at a very fast rate then stabilize and lower very slowly after the initial hit.


That's good to know about TBN. What about TAN. I'm guessing it's much more linear than TBN. I'd guess TAN can continue to skyrocket up at a faster rate while TBN decelerates slowly downward
 
All the UOA #'s seem fine to me. It looks like, with your kind of driving in this car, you could easily go to 10,000 miles, no sweat. Probably 12k or more.
 
Originally Posted By: FZ1
To minimize silicon,replace the AF about a week BEFORE you change the oil. Silicon resulting from the AF change will then be dumped out with the old oil. Your oil thickened a bit.

Great tip. Thanks.
 
I like that the flashpoint held up high over a year and 8,330 miles at 435* F with Penn Ultra. I've never had such a high flashpoint.

With Amsoil's 14-month run and 9,000 miles, the flashpoint deteriorated to 375* F, leading to an "official" fuel percentage reading of 0.5 percent, instead of the usual less than < 0.5 percent reading. The fuel dilution may have actually been significantly worse than 0.5 percent, since it's a calculated number (not measured), and Amsoil is a very high-quality oil.

In Blackstone's column where Blackstone shows what values should be, they now list greater than > 365 is what the flashpoint should be. But in previous reports, Blackstone used to say the flashpoint should be greater than > 385. Why did they lower the acceptable value for flashpoint by 20 degrees?
 
Originally Posted By: Built_Well
I like that the flashpoint held up high over a year and 8,330 miles at 435* F with Penn Ultra. I've never had such a high flashpoint.

With Amsoil's 14-month run and 9,000 miles, the flashpoint deteriorated to 375* F, leading to an "official" fuel percentage reading of 0.5 percent, instead of the usual less than < 0.5 percent reading. The fuel dilution may have actually been significantly worse than 0.5 percent, since it's a calculated number (not measured), and Amsoil is a very high-quality oil.

In Blackstone's column where Blackstone shows what values should be, they now list greater than > 365 is what the flashpoint should be. But in previous reports, Blackstone used to say the flashpoint should be greater than > 385. Why did they lower the acceptable value for flashpoint by 20 degrees?
Thanks for the back-up on the other thread.
 
Here are Blackstone's comments on the report:

"Interestingly enough, the TBN and TAN both read the exact same for this sample: 2.3. For the TBN, that shows some, but not a lot, of active additive remaining. For the TAN, that shows the oil is not all that acidic. You ran this oil about the same miles as the last, so we are surprised that you've got such different TBN and TAN numbers from last time. Though this is a different oil, so maybe that's why the difference. Nothing has changed with your wear levels though -- your Camry is still in great shape. Note silicon--check air filtration. All else is good."
 
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