Schaeffer 5w30, 3100 miles, 95 Firebird Formula

[TooSlick]

Patman,

Generating lead wear that is higher than iron wear is typically a sign that the oils you are using are too thin. I'd go to an ACEA "A3/B3" rated xw-30 or a low xw-40 and see if you can't get the bearing wear down to an acceptable level.

The Castrol SLX should work pretty well, provided it's shear stable ....

By the way, with all your preaching it looks like you are still changing oil every 3000 miles - what's up with that?

TS

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by quadrun1:
Patman,

Belgian Castrol 5W-40? Whoa! Is that available in

yet or only in

?

Jason

---

In Ontario there is a place in Oakville which sells it for $8 per liter, which isn't too bad considering Mobil 1 is $7.12 per liter and German Syntec is $6.66 per liter.

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TooSlick:
Patman,

Generating lead wear that is higher than iron wear is typically a sign that the oils you are using are too thin. I'd go to an ACEA "A3/B3" rated xw-30 or a low xw-40 and see if you can't get the bearing wear down to an acceptable level.

The Castrol SLX should work pretty well, provided it's shear stable ....

By the way, with all your preaching it looks like you are still changing oil every 3000 miles - what's up with that?

TS

---

Hehe, well it's like this. We've only got a few more weeks of warm weather here in Toronto, so I wanted to get two equal intervals in, one with this oil here and then one with the 0w30 SLX. I would've rather done two 5k intervals, but that would've put me into December, which means I wouldn't get a fair comparison.

You'll notice my last few intervals before this have not been 3k intervals at all, although they have been still not too long since I kept wanting to try different things out and see the UOA quickly.

My plan is to go to 6k intervals (after this next 3k one). I would go a bit longer if it weren't for our cold weather up here. 6k intervals are nice though, as it's a nice round 10,000km. And I changed my oil at precisely 145,000.0 km this time around, so will do the next change at 150,000, then it'll be every 10,000 on the tens.

From what we've seen on the SLX 0w30 it is very stable, however I still wonder if 12cst at 100c is enough for my engine, especially since I know I'm seeing some extremely hot oil temperatures (hot enough to melt the sample bottle again!!) So I'll give the SLX a chance, but if I'm still not happy, I'll definitely be stepping it up to something around 14cst next time around.

 

[jsharp]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Patman:

The only problem with doing the Mobil 1 10w30 and 15w50 mix in my car would be that this mix is no good for winter. So a 5w40 or 0w40 would be a better choice. I would prefer to stick with one viscosity all year round instead of switching around.

---

How about Delvac 1?

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsharp:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Patman:

The only problem with doing the Mobil 1 10w30 and 15w50 mix in my car would be that this mix is no good for winter. So a 5w40 or 0w40 would be a better choice. I would prefer to stick with one viscosity all year round instead of switching around.

---

How about Delvac 1?

---

I was thinking about Delvac 1, but only being able to get it in 4L jugs up here is a HUGE inconvenience, since my car takes 5L of oil, so I'd have to buy 2 jugs and then have tons of leftover oil. If only it came in 1L bottles or even just a 5L jug, it would be perfect.

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Patman:
The only problem with doing the Mobil 1 10w30 and 15w50 mix in my car would be that this mix is no good for winter. So a 5w40 or 0w40 would be a better choice. I would prefer to stick with one viscosity all year round instead of switching around.

---

Patman, I'd be willing to bet that if you did a Mobil 1 5w30/15w50 mix you'd wind up with an oil that would still be a 5w on the cold side (though just barely) and a very high 30wt or low 40wt on the hot side. My hunch is that 25-33% 15w50 would accomplish this.

 

[Patman]

Well if I ever do decide to do the 15w50/5w30 M1 mix, at least I have the luxury of seeing the viscosity at 40c on my used oil analysis, so it will give me a rough idea of how it's cold viscosity is.

 

[jason07-1zzfe]

Why not go to Schaeffer 15w40. Minimum variables. Then you know for sure if it was visc.
Sounds like you already have the syntec in though

 

[Patman]

One thing has me really curious about this 5w30. Schaeffer lists the specs at 100c of being 10-12cst, which is obviously correct, but they list the 40c viscosity as being between 47-52cst. But yet it came in way over that in this case. As I mentioned earlier, the 40c viscosity was almost the same as I've seen with their 10w30.

I almost wonder if they put 10w30 in the 5w30 bottles?

I also wonder why the TBN fell faster on this run? My previous interval was 4800 miles and the TBN was higher, at 3.24.

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jason Troxell:
Why not go to Schaeffer 15w40. Minimum variables. Then you know for sure if it was visc.
Sounds like you already have the syntec in though

---

I was thinking of going with the 15w40 before, but I had heard it uses a different chemistry more suited to diesels than to a performance engine like this one.

Plus I'm not confident on the cold weather abilities of anything higher than a 5w oil anyways.

 

[jason07-1zzfe]

The 40C visc is affected more by the second number then the first. Look at Mobil 1 0w,5w, and 10w30, the 40C visc are all close.

The 40C visc will usually thicken up after use.

 

[jason07-1zzfe]

I thought you are taking it out before summer...it's actually a 10w anyway. Terry tested it in a Honda at 10F. If it can handle that, it would be fine for you.

 

[Patman]

We got down to -10F here a few times last winter though, and I'm parked outside all night long too, although I do plan on using my block heater every single day this winter, something I should've done last year.

I do think I may be overanalyzing this analysis to death though. It's not as if these results are bad, when you consider it's a big V8 with a lot more metal in it to begin with, owned by a guy who loves to mash the loud pedal whenever he gets the chance, in fact this analysis is good. But I do believe there is room for improvement. I do believe it's possible for me to see at or below 2ppm/1000 miles for iron and lead. I've done it before, just not at the same time. And maybe, just maybe, if the moon and the stars are in the right alignment, I might see under 1ppm/1000 miles someday.

 

[Jay]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Patman:
One thing has me really curious about this 5w30. Schaeffer lists the specs at 100c of being 10-12cst, which is obviously correct, but they list the 40c viscosity as being between 47-52cst. But yet it came in way over that in this case. As I mentioned earlier, the 40c viscosity was almost the same as I've seen with their 10w30.

I almost wonder if they put 10w30 in the 5w30 bottles?...

---

This shows the oil thinned somewhat from shearing and thickened from oxidation. It probably is 10w30 now but it didn't start out that way. We usually don't have the luxury of seeing this on our UOA reports.

 

[Patman]

I don't believe it's 100c viscosity thinned out though. I don't believe too many batches of this oil actually start out at 12cst, so I suspect this oil started out pretty much right where it is here. Ya gotta hand it to Schaeffer Oil, their oils hold their viscosity extremely well!

I'm curious if any of you guys think Mobil 1 0w40 would be a good match in this engine? I know I've bashed it a bit, however my engine doesn't tend to thin out oils too much, so even if Mobil 1 0w40 went from 14.4 down to 12.4 it would still be in a pretty decent range to protect this engine. The 0w40 is very tricky to get up here (there's only one place near me that sells it but they close at 3pm and aren't open on weekends!), but it's pricing is the same as their 5w30, 10w30 and 15w50.

I guess I should wait and see how the German 0w30 performs though, before I continue agonizing over this any longer.