Rotella Syn 5W40, 5000 miles; 94 Cavalier ; 119,517 mi.

[dkcase]

94 Cavalier 2.2L 4-cyl
SAMPLE DATE 12/10/04
119,517 Miles, 6 months

Blackstone Labs
This Unit ...Univ. Averages

ALUMINUM 3 ... 3
CHROMIUM 1 ... 1
IRON 11 ... 16
COPPER 5 ... 4
LEAD 3 ... 11
TIN 1 ... 1
MOLYBDENUM 3 ... 38
NICKEL 0 ... 0
MANGANESE 0 ... 0
SILVER 0 ... 0
TITANIUM 0 ... 0
POTASSIUM 0 ... 1
BORON 2 ... 51
SILICON 7 ... 10
SODIUM 6 ... 4
CALCIUM 3040 ... 2274
MAGNESIUM 0 ... 96
PHOSPHORUS 1020 ... 772
ZINC 1287 ... 902
BARIUM 0 ... 0

MI/HR ON OIL 4,991

MI/HR ON UNIT 119,517

SUS @210F was 65.5 ..... should be 65 - 76
Flashpoint " 320 ..... " should be >390
Fuel " 3.5 ..... " should be b>
antifreeze " 0 ..... " 0
water " 0 ..... " Insolubles " 0.3 ..... "

This unit had 5.0 % fuel over 3700 miles in March 04.
At that time, I replaced Plugs, Wires, Oxygen Sensor.
There was an intermediate short OCI interval due to an emissions inspection, 1600 miles -- Passed OK.

For this interval, ran LubeControl and Fuel Power.

I think next step in chasing the fuel problem would be rebuilt (about $100)/replaced ($300 +) injectors or excessive fuel pressure.

Any Comments ?

 

[eljefino]

Pull your plugs and see if it's one cylinder or all of them...

 

[ekpolk]

Well, you've got an obvious symptom, too bad the problem itself may be a little harder (and costlier) to ferret out. It maybe overstating it a little, but your crankcase is almost awash in gasoline, and your 40 wt oil is about to drop into the 30 wt range. But so far, this dramatic looking problem is not causing much in the way of detectable harm (just don't smoke with your oil filler cap open...). Now I suspect I'm in danger of setting off yet another Ford-Honda conspiracy debate, but this first thing I thought when I looked at these results is, "I wonder if the picture would be so rosy if this was en engine spec-ed for and using 5w-20, and the oil had just diluted down into the 10wt range???" Obviously, I can't speak to direct cause and effect from just this one snapshot of this engine, but one could certainly conclude (or at least not exclude) from this information that the 40 wt oil has provided a buffer of protection against viscosity loss by fuel dilution.

 

[Al]

You could try several cycles of a good injector cleaner. It might be worth a shot.

 

[Steve S]

ekpolk has got it, the xw/20 oils leave little room for problems.

 

[Bror Jace]

Guys, I think we are overlooking one thing. This is a pretty good UOA. All values are single digits (with the exception of iron which is 11) despite the fuel problem and the 5,000 mile interval.

Question is, is it due to the oil ... or the Lube Control?

As for cleaning the injectors, shouldn’t the Fuel Power be taking care of any cleanliness issue?

dkcase, you could do exactly as you are doing right now and it looks like that engine has many more years of life left in it.

--- Bror Jace

 

[BlazerLT]

Fuel in oil could be due to the lower temperatures and the ECU dumping more fuel in.

I don't think there is anything really needed to chase this problem.

 

[ekpolk]

I think it's a good UOA in the sense that the wear metals are fine now, but that's sorta like saying it's the weather's great when the sky above you is blue, but there's also a big wall of dark clouds on the horizon, moving your way. And yes, there may be some simple and predictable reasons why there's a lot of gas in his oil, but the fact remains, the fuel is almost double the recommended max, with a predictable drop in oil viscosity. This oil-engine combo may be in decent shape today, but I doubt that this is a sustainable situation, without either extra-frequent oil changes or further diagnostic/corrective action.

 

[OffOrWFO]

I think how you drive it may have more to do with fuel dilution. Do you do lots of short trips? Long trips? How far did you drive it before you took the sample? If all you do is drive around town it has been my experience that fuel dilution will go up. Cars like to be driven. A 100mi trip once or twice a month is a good thing. Your last UOA in march was even higher and I would bet it's because of the cooler winter temps. The colder it is the longer you need to drive it to burn the oil/fuel off of the oil.

 

[dkcase]

Thanks to all for the thoughtful comments.

This car gets plenty of trips at operating temperature. My daughter regularly commutes with it to college, about 45 minutes each way.
Probably an equal number of shorter in-town trips.

I have been more worried lately about possible anti-freeze contamination, since a radiator hose and overheating incident. Am glad to see no anti-freeze reported.

Also, TBN = 5.0. I forgot to post that the first time, as this is the first time I had that value tested for.

 

[ekpolk]

Well, I'm not trying to sound like Chicken Little, but given the latest info from dkcase, I'm now more concerned about this UOA. Forty-five minutes commutes should be plenty of time for excess fuel to evaporate and be disposed of by a properly functioning CCV system. My wife's Sequoia gets used for 95% in-town short trip driving, only occasionally sees the highway, and on its last UOA, the fuel was under .5%. Sure, it's a different and much younger engine, but I still think that 3.5 - 5% fuel is critically excessive and needs to be corrected before things get out of hand.

 

[Al]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ekpolk:
Well, I'm not trying to sound like Chicken Little, but given the latest info from dkcase, I'm now more concerned about this UOA. Forty-five minutes commutes should be plenty of time for excess fuel to evaporate and be disposed of by a properly functioning CCV system. My wife's Sequoia gets used for 95% in-town short trip driving, only occasionally sees the highway, and on its last UOA, the fuel was under .5%. Sure, it's a different and much younger engine, but I still think that 3.5 - 5% fuel is critically excessive and needs to be corrected before things get out of hand.

---

I completely agree. This is way, way into the abnormal zone and needs to be dealt with pronto. Thbis is the worst fuel dilution/lowering of flashpoint we have seen on this board-I believe.

 

[Geoff]

Consider the fuel pressure regulator, if that engine has one(?). Many last about 7-10 years as the rubber diaphram loses elasticity or cracks. The fuel system then stops dumping excess pressure back in the tank, so the fuel injectors are overpressurized.

Could also be leaky injectors.

 

[T-Keith]

I agree their, easy to test too. Simply pull off the vacuum line and watch for gas to bubble up. You may have to push it on and off a couple times to see anything.

-T

 

[Last_Z]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steve S:
ekpolk has got it, the xw/20 oils leave little room for problems.

---

I was mercylessly beaten down when I expressed concern over 20W providing little to no prtection in extreme cases such as this one. I feel redeemed!

This UOA is not bad at all as far as wear.....in fact, wear looks as if no fuel problem exists. If you didn't have the fuel issue, I suspect wear would've looked much better.
You could have leaky injectors, which I think is the main problem most times. Once you shut down your engine, the leaking begins....fuel gets past the rings and into the oil.

 

[Bror Jace]

Guys, I’m not gonna stick up for this car’s condition. You folks are 100% correct in saying this thing has a fuel delivery problem that could cause serious trouble.

But ...

The car is a 10 year old Cavalier with 120,000 miles on it. Hmmm what’s it worth? $1,500? Less? What kind of shape is the rest of the car in?

How much longer will dkcase’s daughter be needing the car? 2 years? 3?

Now I’m the first one to point out that a car is usually ‘worth’ more to its owner than the book value ... but this judgment needs to be weighed carefully. How much will Geoff’s mechanical suggestions cost? A few hundred bucks? Well, in that case, it might be worth it. Any more and I’m not so sure.

If this was a newer and/or more expensive car, I wouldn’t hesitate to spend whatever it takes to fix the problem.

However, I stand by my earlier assessment that dkcase might be just fine with his current oil regimen.

Even Last Z seems to agree:

“This UOA is not bad at all as far as wear ... in fact, wear looks as if no fuel problem exists.”

--- Bror Jace