UOA - Recycled oil ran between 2 cars ~Experiment~

[Artem]

~~HISTORY~~

This oil was taken from my 2007 Honda Civic Si after 3,000 miles and put into a 96 Honda Accord 2.2L and used for an additional 3k.

Here's the first UOA from the Accord while using the recycled oil from the Si



Here's the previous UOA on Mobil 1 EP 5w30 after 6,000 miles total

~~CURRENT INFO~~


The Accord has developed a head gasket leak into cylinder #4 and that's how the coolant is getting into the combustion chamber.

Besides the extreme wear from the coolant contamination, i think the oil held up spectacularly well. Had it not been for the blown head gasket, this would have been another successful UOA from my oil recycling experiment... well, I still consider it a success in my book.


Anyway, a quart of oil was added during the initial 3k while in the Si.
Half a quart was added during the recycling process to top off the oil level in the Accord.

The previous UOA of the oil in question @ 3,000 miles can be found here: UOA of Amsoil ASL 5w30 after 3,000 miles

We have plans to repair the crippled Accord and continue with the recycled oil experiment.

Thoughts & Comments are welcomed

 

[Artem]

I forgot to mention that Blackstone Labs actually called me on the phone to report the Coolant found in the sample, causing excessive wear. I'm impressed! They do good work.

 

[Warstud]

And the point of the experiment....is

 

[Artem]

The point originally started with me wanting to see how much longer the oil could last after being abused by the modified engine in my 07 Si.

With the first UOA coming back showing the oil in good shape with zero negative side affects done to the Accord, i decided to keep recycling used oil from my Si after 3,000 miles which some would say is a waste because the oil could keep going much longer.

So as to not throw away perfectly good oil, i'm recycling it for continued use in older vehicles that i service, using the lab results to slowly keep extending the OCIs up to a reasonable limit.

Here's another UOA of my recycled oil from another vehicle.

^That oil was used 4k in the Si and ran for another 4.5k in the 2003 Honda Accord 2.4L

 

[electrolover]

i have 40 gallons of oil with 3k on it, free if you want it!
think about it, your neighbors will never have to buy oil again

 

[JHZR2]

Problem is, I dont think the experiment is worth much this time because the results are so skewed by the coolant damaging the oil/engine.

 

[ltslimjim]

^Yes, but it will be cool to look back(if OP has funds to pay and isn't hurting over it) and see UOA again after he headgasket repair/coolant contamination is gone. I'd personally idle some cheap conventional oil on sale...w/e for a little while to try and flush out any more sodium/potassium, even after the problem is fixed.

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: electrolover
i have 40 gallons of oil with 3k on it, free if you want it!
think about it, your neighbors will never have to buy oil again

If only it was good quality oil drained VERY carefully to avoid contamination, i'd use it.

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Problem is, I dont think the experiment is worth much this time because the results are so skewed by the coolant damaging the oil/engine.


Yes the results from the latest sample are skewed by the coolant breech BUT, like i've said in the original post, i'm not looking at ONLY the wear metals. I'm looking at the OVERALL condition of the oil after the extended run. Did it thicken, thin out some more, TBN and TAN count, etc etc.

Originally Posted By: ltslimjim
^Yes, but it will be cool to look back(if OP has funds to pay and isn't hurting over it) and see UOA again after he headgasket repair/coolant contamination is gone. I'd personally idle some cheap conventional oil on sale...w/e for a little while to try and flush out any more sodium/potassium, even after the problem is fixed.


I was actually thinking about the same thing. Once the head gasket is fixed, i'll run a few short flushes of the cheapest dino oil i can find to clean out the coolant and residual metals and start fresh with some Dirty, Used Amsoil

I'm thinking of dropping the oil pan to clean the inside of it as well but, idk yet, we'll see.

 

[pzev]

Have you thought about pre-filtering the used oil in any way? I've heard of people recycling drain oil in other cars, but in the accounts I've heard they use a filtering mechanism before adding it to the second car.

Typically a PVC tube with TP rolls in it and a catch can at the bottom. They fill the tube above the TP roles with the used oil, and the clean oil that drains out the bottom almost looks new again. Takes awhile to drain.
Think of it like an external bypass . The TP roles can also catch water and fuel too.

 

[123Saab]

im just thrilled the OP had the balls to do this, really cool to see something like this, Thank You

 

[Malo83]

Originally Posted By: 123Saab
im just thrilled the OP had the balls to do this, really cool to see something like this, Thank You

Surely you Jest !!!

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: pzev
Have you thought about pre-filtering the used oil in any way? I've heard of people recycling drain oil in other cars, but in the accounts I've heard they use a filtering mechanism before adding it to the second car.

Typically a PVC tube with TP rolls in it and a catch can at the bottom. They fill the tube above the TP roles with the used oil, and the clean oil that drains out the bottom almost looks new again. Takes awhile to drain.
Think of it like an external bypass . The TP roles can also catch water and fuel too.


I tried that prefiltering with a coffee filter. 5w30 will pass through the filter at room temp slowly, but 10w30 almost didn't go through.

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: pzev
Have you thought about pre-filtering the used oil in any way? I've heard of people recycling drain oil in other cars, but in the accounts I've heard they use a filtering mechanism before adding it to the second car.

Typically a PVC tube with TP rolls in it and a catch can at the bottom. They fill the tube above the TP roles with the used oil, and the clean oil that drains out the bottom almost looks new again. Takes awhile to drain.
Think of it like an external bypass . The TP roles can also catch water and fuel too.


I tried that prefiltering with a coffee filter. 5w30 will pass through the filter at room temp slowly, but 10w30 almost didn't go through.


I also tried pre-filtering with a few coffee filters stacked together. Took a REALLY long time and didn't seem to do much.

I just put my faith into the Amsoil oil filter to keep the oil clean in the first car and then since i reuse the oil filter into the second car as well (oil filter rated for 15k) The high quality synthetic media takes care of the filtering for me.

I focus on having a clean pan while draining the oil and making sure nothing falls into it, to prevent contamination.

Next i will try to drain directly into a clean 5 quart jug to further keep the possibility of contamination at bay.

Hoping to run the next fill up to 10k as per Blackstone's analysis, in a neighbors 2003 Accord 2.4L with 190k that i'm also recycling oil into. (UOA is posted in post 4 of this thread after 8,500 miles total between the 2 cars)

 

[NateDN10]

I think this is a cool idea. The nice new car gets good oil and frequent changes, the old car gets as good an oil as it needs, and you get your money's worth!

 

[Artem]

^ thank you for understanding the idea behind this whole process.

If you look at the wear rates in the Accord's first UOA vs the average numbers, you'll see that there is less wear even considering the longer oil run.

The Accord gets second hand but Top Of The Line quality oil AND oil filter as well.

I think i'm maintaining both cars rather well while only using 6 quarts of oil.

I plan to keep extending until i get full use out of the oil. Hopefully right around 10k's worth between the two cars.

 

[ltslimjim]

Yeah, I totally get the set up and idea behind re-use. I'm still using fresh AZO in my VX so don't try to give me any of your 'used', stuff pal!

 

[Artem]

You got it backwards man, i'd love to get my hands on some of your used AZO and run it in one of the cars

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: 123Saab
im just thrilled the OP had the balls to do this, really cool to see something like this, Thank You

I put a good bit of faith into the lab results. After seeing the UOA report @ 3,000 miles showing LOADS of TBN, i feel pretty confident dumping the dark, used oil into the Accord.

Now if only i had the balls to extend it to like 10-12k total, THAT would be interesting to see... i'm working my way up there though.

 

[ltslimjim]

I'd be curious to see what another lab would say of the same sample after the 2nd use of the same oil. As long as wear metals stay constant or better, what other method to determine wear/some sort of contamination could there be; from re-using the oil the way you are? Compression test??? Pull oil pan and valve covers?!

PS: Keep your hands to yourself.

 

[Artem]

I can take off the valve cover during the next OC (shouldn't be long since i'm doing a short interval to flush out the coolant)

It should be pretty clean under there... well, as clean as a 16 year old engine with 215k should look like.