RLI 5W-30 8391 miles Saturn SL-2

[lewdwig]

OIL RLI5W40 RLI5W40
MILES IN USE 8391 5441
MILES 104556 101606
SAMPLE TAKEN 10/22/08

ALUMINUM 2 2
CHROMIUM 1 1
IRON 21 19
COPPER 4 3
LEAD 0 0
TIN 0 1
MOLYBDENUM 8 9
NICKEL 1 0
MANGANESE 0 0
SILVER 0 0
TITANIUM 0 0
POTASSIUM 7 8
BORON 15 13
SILICON 10 12
SODIUM 6 9
CALCIUM 2739 2308
MAGNESIUM 11 12
PHOSPHORUS 889 819
ZINC 1180 1062
BARIUM 0 0

INSOLUBLES 0.4 0.5
WATER 0 0
FLASHPOINT ºF 375 400
SUS VIS 210ºF 61.6 60.4
cSt @ 212ºF 10.66 10.34
FUEL% WATER% 0 0
TBN 3.7 2.6

 

[lewdwig]

Still gotta work on the formatting.

Using a Motorcraft FL-400 filter, added half of a quart of oil about a week before sampling.

 

[MONKEYMAN]

Originally Posted By: lewdwig
Still gotta work on the formatting.

Using a Motorcraft FL-400 filter, added half of a quart of oil about a week before sampling.


If I take one highway trip I use that much oil in one week.

My 99 SL2 is getting around 800 miles per quart. Nice it see an SL2 that does not use much oil.

 

[saaber1]

What is the virgin viscosity of this oil?

 

[QuOk]

Why not use 5w30?

 

[benjamming]

What is the prior history of this car oil-wise? RLI will clean up some.

 

[MolaKule]

So which is it, RLI 5W30 or RLI 5W40?

 

[lewdwig]

Both are 5W-30...should have written it after my second cup of coffee! (I even put 5W-40 initially on this reply - maybe I should switch to the 5W-40)!

I did 2 OCI's with Mobil 1 0W-40 before the RLI, don't know what the used car dealer had in it.

 

[JoeFromPA]

Ok, my analysis of this:

Iron is the only metal showing the slightest of elevation, and given the 8.4k run on this oil and no other metals showing up I don't see any problems.

Silicone and Potass a bit high; baseline in this oil? Not worrying regardless, considering the mileage on the OCI and engine.

I like the addy package of this oil...calcium, zinc, phosphorous. Insolubles seem a tad high; filter running out of steam?

Flashpoint seems lower than would be indicated by fuel and moisture comments. Whats up there? Not worryingly low, but still degraded from it's start (which I think is like 400-440).

Viscosity seems spot on after this long of a run. Pretty nice in my eyes.

Overall seems like a great report on an engine that probably isn't the cleanest, best engine in the low displacement 4-cyl gas class.

However, I find the TBN odd. You added a 1/2 quart between ~5.5k miles and 8.3k miles....but your oil at 5.5k indicates it shouldn't have made it more than another 2k miles and you only added maybe 1/8th of sump capacity...and yet your TBN is very strong at the end. Mathematically, it doesn't seem to jive.

Joe


P.s. This is one of my first analyses that I'm posting on BITOG for a full report....feel free to critique or let me know what I'm missing so I can improve my UOA reading abilities.

 

[lewdwig]

I added 1.75 quarts between the UOA's, the one-half quart was about a week before the UOA. (I've got to master pasting the .pdf).

 

[RI_RS4]

Looks solid for a 1st run of RLI after who knows what has been in the engine. The incremental iron of 19 to 21 ppm (2ppm) over 3K additional miles looks good. This tells us that 19 ppm over the first 5K miles is probably residual crud being cleaned out.

I'd change the oil out now, get some fresh in, and continue cleaning. At that point, you'll be able to start seeing the actual wear and contaminants.

 

[benjamming]

Was the oil changed when the 5441 mile sample was taken?

 

[RI_RS4]

Originally Posted By: benjamming
Was the oil changed when the 5441 mile sample was taken?


No. you can tell from the top of the analysis. The difference between 8391 and 5441 miles is 2950 miles, which is the difference between 104556 and 101606

Quote:
OIL RLI5W40 RLI5W40
MILES IN USE 8391 5441
MILES 104556 101606
SAMPLE TAKEN 10/22/08

 

[benjamming]

Ah yes, I was asking due to the TBN increase from the 1st to 2nd UOA. I missed that oil was added a week prior to the 2nd UOA.