Ravenol REP vs BMW LL 04 5w30

[Nicolae]

Hi guys,

I've done an oil analysis recently for Ravenol REP. I thought to post here the comparison between REP and BMW LL 04 5w30.
The car is a BMW M2 G87 S58 engine. Ravenol REP was used for 7000 Km (including 2 track days), BMW oil was used for 6000 Km (no track usage).
Left column is voa, right column is uoa.
When i sampled BMW oil the car was 16500Km and when i sampled Ravenol the car was 28000Km.
What do you think ?

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Hi guys,

I've done an oil analysis recently for Ravenol REP. I thought to post here the comparison between REP and BMW LL 04 5w30.
The car is a BMW M2 G87 S58 engine. Ravenol REP was used for 7000 Km (including 2 track days), BMW oil was used for 6000 Km (no track usage).
Left column is voa, right column is uoa.
When i sampled BMW oil the car was 16500Km and when i sampled Ravenol the car was 28000Km.
What do you think ?

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You're not going to like my response but IMO there are couple of problems.

No 1: These are consecutive single pass UOAs. You have residual oil in the sump from the previous fill. You need many samples from each.

No 2: The amount of km's on these samples is insufficient. These are long drain 10k mile oils.

No 3: Wear is statistically the same which is why UOA's are not the correct tool for comparing the "performance" of various oils.

What I find odd if the difference in calcium between the VOA and UOA of the LL04 oil.

 

[Nicolae]

You're not going to like my response but IMO there are couple of problems.

No 1: These are consecutive single pass UOAs. You have residual oil in the sump from the previous fill. You need many samples from each.

No 2: The amount of km's on these samples is insufficient. These are long drain 10k mile oils.

No 3: Wear is statistically the same which is why UOA's are not the correct tool for comparing the "performance" of various oils.

What I find odd if the difference in calcium between the VOA and UOA of the LL04 oil.

Well.... i asked to see what are the opinnions of people who know more about oil than i do ( i know almost nothing about oils), so your opinion is more than welcome.
No1 : I dont exactly get what you mean: should i take a sample a 7000Km, then let's say another one at 10000 Km ?
No 2 and 3 You mean basically at 7000Km there is no important difference between these 2 oils. So if i change the oil at around 7000Km i shouldn't do an UOA ?

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Well.... i asked to see what are the opinnions of people who know more about oil than i do ( i know almost nothing about oils), so your opinion is more than welcome.
No1 : I dont exactly get what you mean: should i take a sample a 7000Km, then let's say another one at 10000 Km ?
No 2 and 3 You mean basically at 7000Km there is no important difference between these 2 oils. So if i change the oil at around 7000Km i shouldn't do an UOA ?

I would run each oil for 2-3 intervals and sample #2 and #3. I would also at least push the interval out to something close to BMW recommends for your country. In the US the interval is lesser of 10k miles(16k km) or 1 year. Note: Wear will by default trend downward as the km's accumulate.

UOAs are useful for determing whether you have a problem (coolant, air filtration, fuel dilution, bearing wear) as well as giving you an idea of how far you can take an oil.

My humble opinion.

 

[kschachn]

No matter how hard you try and believe you’ll never be able to produce comparative oil quality data from a couple of $35 spectrographic analyses. It’s not the right tool for the job. Comparative oil quality testing is complicated and expensive and there’s a reason for that.