Changed it back in Feb with Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30 and put on a new Amsoil oil filter.
Previous fill 2,500 miles of the Rotella T 10W-30 to continue flushing out the Aluminum from a previous issue, no UOA was done.
See previous UOA here.
Fifth sample of 10/17/09 was Rotella T 10W-30 with a new Amsoil Filter.
Fourth sample of 8/20/09 was Rotella T 10W-30 and did not get a new filter, left the Amsoil filter on for 2 runs.
Third sample of 5/15/09 was Rotella T 10W-30 and a new Amsoil filter.
Second sample of 7/28/08 was GC with a UPF-52 filter.
First sample of 9/2/07 was Valvoline 10W-30 most likely with a cheap oil filter from my mechanic after fixing some oil leaks.
Napa Gold air filters used, changed at 120k, 130k, and 140k miles.
Blackstone Coments:
It looks like the higher lead you tend to get from bearing wear has something to do with the amount of silicon in the oil. For this sample it may also have to do with the miles run on the oil. Take a good look arouind the air filtration system to see if you can find any faults that would let abrasive dirt get in with the intake air. Some of the silicon is coming from the cylinder walls but not all of it. As to the miles, try dropping back to 6,000-miles for the next sample. The TBN was still okay at 2.0 so acid fighting oil power is not used up. Nice improvement in aluminum.
Good UOA's are always more fun to post and this one certainly isn't all that great, but I'll post it anyway. The previous Aluminum issue I've decided was most likely due to running the vehicle out of fuel (nearly). It was low enough on fuel that the fuel pressure was low causing the CEL to come on for the last 2 miles before the fuel stop. This was while running at full throttle hauling a travel trailer over some hills in NY State. I have an oil cooler so it took a few OCI's to flush out the Al and it seems to be a past issue. The car is spec'd for 5W-30 year round and I was wanting to get back to that so I tried the PP 5W-30 this time even though the Rotella T 10W-30 was doing pretty good. My other car had its high lead issue solved by switching from M1 to PP and I was hoping the PP was going to work as well as the Rotella in this vehicle. Perhaps not. I also didn't do the car any favors by running it well past the normal amount of miles. I've been running 5k mile OCI's but this time I decided that I was confident the Al issue was gone and I'd try to run until the OLM went off. I've only let the OLM go once in the past and it went off at 6k miles so I figured it would likely be a small increase in miles over the previous 5k mile OCI but this time it didn't go off until over 7600 miles. I had given up waiting for the OLM light to go off and was going to change it the night of 9/7/10 but on my way home from work it did go off. It is just a dummy light with no %. All numbers look fairly good except the lead which is up nearly as high as what I had with the GC. My silicon was also higher this time. I'll double check the air filter fittings to see if anything is loose or mis-assembled. It might also be higher simply because of the higher miles. I think I'll stick to 5k mile intervals for a while. Another thing I noticed is that the PP cST Viscosity @ 100C is 11.16. What is the Viscosity when new? It seems kind of thick. No oil was added and it was about 1/4 qt low when changed. About 1,300 miles of the OCI was towing my travel trailer.
Right now I have Pennzoil Ultra 5W-30 in it. I might run it 5k miles and see how it looks or maybe I won't bother checking it since the real test is summer time when towing. I'm more tempted to go back to the Rotella T5 10W-30 which is a newer formula than what I was using or try the Rotella T6 5W-40.
I didn't see any advantage in the Amsoil filters and have bought 2 Mobil 1 filters for the next 2 OCI's. FZ1 had pointed me to some particle count tests comparing Amsoil and M1 oil filters done by bt anchors which were convincing so I'm giving them a try.
Comments welcome.
Code:
OIL PP 5W-30 RT 10W-30 RT 10W-30 RT 10W-30 GC 0W-30 Valv. 10W-30
MILES IN USE 7.6k 2.6k 5.0k 5.0k 5.6k 4.6k Uni Avg
MILES 142.6k 132.5k 130k 125k 118k 108k
SAMPLE TAKEN 9/7/10 10/17/09 8/20/09 5/15/09 7/28/08 9/2/07
ALUMINUM 7 10 34 7 6 6 4
CHROMIUM 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
IRON 23 11 22 26 19 22 21
COPPER 3 2 4 3 4 5 6
LEAD 29 5 15 10 32 19 9
TIN 0 0 0 3 0 0 2
MOLYBDENUM 42 3 7 8 7 15 65
NICKEL 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
MANGANESE 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
SILVER 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TITANIUM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
POTASSIUM 0 6 5 4 2 1 1
BORON 23 19 19 14 5 7 52
SILICON 26 17 18 26 29 94 22
SODIUM 6 3 9 7 7 8 9
CALCIUM 2441 2282 2188 1864 1648 1701 2143
MAGNESIUM 22 20 49 152 526 66 190
PHOSPHORUS 642 960 894 876 868 616 716
ZINC 765 1155 1189 1076 1054 737 854
BARIUM 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
SUS VIS 210ºF 63.4 64.4 69.7 65.6 66.2 59.3
cSt @ 212ºF 11.16 11.45 12.88 11.78 11.95 10.02
FLASHPOINT ºF 400 390 400 385 385 390
FUEL % <0.5 <0.5 <0.5 <0.5 TR <0.5
ANTIFREEZE % 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
WATER % 0 0 0 0 0 0
INSOLUBLES % 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.3
TBN 2.0 n/a 2.3 2.7 3.6 2.6
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Does running low on fuel really affect fuel pressure that significantly? I have noticed, at least in older vehicles, that they require a bit more cranking to start when below a quarter tank or so.
And if so, would that cause lean running? Wouldn't oxygen sensor feedback cause the ECU to compensate with longer injector pulses?
Just wondering.
