Hey Guys,
I haven't posted since October. Traded in my '08 Impala on a brand spankin' new Sorento. The Impala was the car that I pushed the last OCI to 11577 miles for PYB 5W-30 (10% over the OLM) with great results.
Unfortunately, the new Sorento does not have any such aid. I have 5,000 miles on the car now. I drained the FF at 764 miles. I believe Hyundai/Kia use Quaker State as their FF. I put my trusted PYB 5W-20 in it at the time, so it has under 4300 miles on it.
I really want to find an oil that lets me to use the maximum allowable drain interval under the Kia warranty which is 7500 miles. It will irritate me to no end if I end up having to shorten my OCI, since my wife uses the Sorento for lots of short trips, but there are still 30-50 mile trips multiple times a week, totalling 1200-1400 miles/month.
Until I read (with a little dismay, I must admit) Trav's very thorough detailing of the problems with his friend's Honda 3.5L VTEC engine using a Group III oil with 7500 OCIs, I blindly thought that any highly rated SN GF-5 conventional would be sufficient to keep my new engine clean, giving my mixed driving routine and our lack of cold weather here in Tucson (okay, even here has been a little chilly lately).
In addition to using PYB, I also want to try Motorcraft syn-blend 5W-20, Mobil Super 5000 5W-20, along with my other favorite, Chevron 5W-20, all in SN, of course.
I am going to send off a sample of the PYB at 5000 miles to Blackstone Labs, to check the TBN and the viscosity, but depending on the results, try to stretch the OCI to 7500 miles and resample.
I wanted to do that for each of the other three oils, Chevron, MC, and MS5K--sample at 5000 miles, closely monitoring the TBN and hot viscosity (I'm not particularly concerned with the engine wear metals, I know it's new, and they will drop as it breaks in, and I'm sure all of these oils will give great protection, it's just a matter of for how long), followed by another sample if I extend each oil to 7500 miles.
Will a TBN value 2.0 or above, along with no oil thickening, definitely indicate no harmful oil breakdown (i.e. varnish or sludge) is occuring? Again, I thought I had this stuff figured out before with the GM OLM system allowing me to fine-tune things, but the Honda 3.5 VTEC fiasco has me concerned that the new engines with VTEC (this one has it on all the cams, as well) has upped the oil requirements and maintenance intervals.
All comments and suggestions are welcomed and desired, as again, I want to experiment with the best conventional oils out there, achieve 7500 mile OCIs if possible, using UOAs as a tool to monitor oil condition, while still keeping my engine clean. In other words, if I can accomplish this without having to resort to Pennzoil Ultra or an equivalent that would be great.
Take care,
Gary
I haven't posted since October. Traded in my '08 Impala on a brand spankin' new Sorento. The Impala was the car that I pushed the last OCI to 11577 miles for PYB 5W-30 (10% over the OLM) with great results.
Unfortunately, the new Sorento does not have any such aid. I have 5,000 miles on the car now. I drained the FF at 764 miles. I believe Hyundai/Kia use Quaker State as their FF. I put my trusted PYB 5W-20 in it at the time, so it has under 4300 miles on it.
I really want to find an oil that lets me to use the maximum allowable drain interval under the Kia warranty which is 7500 miles. It will irritate me to no end if I end up having to shorten my OCI, since my wife uses the Sorento for lots of short trips, but there are still 30-50 mile trips multiple times a week, totalling 1200-1400 miles/month.
Until I read (with a little dismay, I must admit) Trav's very thorough detailing of the problems with his friend's Honda 3.5L VTEC engine using a Group III oil with 7500 OCIs, I blindly thought that any highly rated SN GF-5 conventional would be sufficient to keep my new engine clean, giving my mixed driving routine and our lack of cold weather here in Tucson (okay, even here has been a little chilly lately).
In addition to using PYB, I also want to try Motorcraft syn-blend 5W-20, Mobil Super 5000 5W-20, along with my other favorite, Chevron 5W-20, all in SN, of course.
I am going to send off a sample of the PYB at 5000 miles to Blackstone Labs, to check the TBN and the viscosity, but depending on the results, try to stretch the OCI to 7500 miles and resample.
I wanted to do that for each of the other three oils, Chevron, MC, and MS5K--sample at 5000 miles, closely monitoring the TBN and hot viscosity (I'm not particularly concerned with the engine wear metals, I know it's new, and they will drop as it breaks in, and I'm sure all of these oils will give great protection, it's just a matter of for how long), followed by another sample if I extend each oil to 7500 miles.
Will a TBN value 2.0 or above, along with no oil thickening, definitely indicate no harmful oil breakdown (i.e. varnish or sludge) is occuring? Again, I thought I had this stuff figured out before with the GM OLM system allowing me to fine-tune things, but the Honda 3.5 VTEC fiasco has me concerned that the new engines with VTEC (this one has it on all the cams, as well) has upped the oil requirements and maintenance intervals.
All comments and suggestions are welcomed and desired, as again, I want to experiment with the best conventional oils out there, achieve 7500 mile OCIs if possible, using UOAs as a tool to monitor oil condition, while still keeping my engine clean. In other words, if I can accomplish this without having to resort to Pennzoil Ultra or an equivalent that would be great.
Take care,
Gary
