Updated - Pennzoil Platinum 5w30, 2,700 miles, 2009 Mazdaspeed 3

[shpankey]

This is just an updated report, with the correct mileage on it now. Ignore the other one.

Oil: 5 quarts of Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 & .6 quart of Mobil 1 0w-30

Total Miles: 11,000

Miles on Oil: 2,700

Car: 09 Mazdaspeed 3 w/ mods: Cobb Short Ram Intake & Turbo Inlet Pipe, High-Pressure Fuel Pump Internals, Street Unit's Test (mid/race) Pipe, Step colder Denso Iridium Plugs w/ upgraded coil pack springs, CP-e Rear Motor Mount (60 dur),

Driven: Sometimes very hard. Maybe 10-15 full, hard pulls running through all the gears to redline. 60% highway 40% city. I have a daily commute of 20 miles all highway to work, and 20 miles back Monday through Friday. I did a few car warmups as temps have been near or below freezing this entire oil use.

Info: The reason for the short change of only 2,700 miles is b/c I've recently felt the car was "off" and not running near its potential after doing some of the upgrades. Worse than it was running before them. I don't know if this was just the cold weather or what but I was a little worried and wanted to make sure all was well. Also, as I didn't have a used oil analysis on it yet, and I wanted to quickly get a baseline down and start moving the miles up. I will be running my current fill (German Castrol) for 4,200 miles and then used oil analysis'ing.

The high Manganese is from lots of fuel additives. MMO was in every tank to help break in the new fuel pump internals, and I used octane booster in almost every tank. Also used a fuel injector cleaner in about half the tanks.

Oil was caught after a 30 minute highway drive, caught midstream.

It was a Fram cartridge filter. They actually make a nice filter for my car. Looks just like the OEM's. I put a Pure 1 cartridge filter in it currently, and am NOT happy with it. By comparison it looked cheap and shoddy.

 

[saberz]

Some vehicles you need to disconnect the battery, much like my tC when I installed a CAI & Full Exhaust. Reconnect and let car idle for 10 minutes.

If you bolted your addons without relearning the computer it may run weird(my tC through a MAF light and ran like [censored] until it was relearned). The Xterra is the same way.

 

[Hitzy]

Quote:
The high Manganese is from lots of fuel additives. MMO was in every tank to help break in the new fuel pump internals, and I used octane booster in almost every tank. Also used a fuel injector cleaner in about half the tanks.


Using MMO, Octane booter, and fuel injector cleaner in the same tank is probably why your car is running [censored].
Those 3 things are all pretty much made of the same thing.....naphta,mineral spirits, and kerosene. You are basically tripling the recomended dose.

 

[shpankey]

Yup, as per the advice from the other thread, I am no longer adding any additives at all. I'm also going to take out these Iridium Step Colder plugs and put the factory ones back in.

Anies, yeah, thanks. I have done that each time I added something. Then I baby it for 100 miles after each ECU reset.

I still think this is a pretty good report. Other than the shearing, which is pretty common for my engine. The only oil I've seen not shear down is Mobil 1 5w30 but I don't like the high Fe with that. After this run of GC, I'm doing another GC run, then either Pennzoil Platinum 5w-40 Euro or maybe even Redline 0w-40.

 

[pcfxer]

A couple of WOT runs will trigger the ECU to remap. Driving around town in close loop mode obviously doesn't. ECUs remap when in open loop mode.

 

[shpankey]

Eh? I'm actually going by the way all of the experts over on the mazdaspeed forums say to do. Which is to reset the ECU and then baby it for 100 miles while it learns the new fuel trims. After that, you can "get on it" or whatever. They are really smart guys and include people from COBB and CP-e and PTP and the like. It's always worked good for me.

I didn't get a chance to change the plugs yet. And now one appears to be fouling out pretty badly, as I have a very bad miss when sitting at the light. After some research, it appears there are many others with my car and these plugs having the exact same issue. The Denso Iridium step colder plugs are fouling out within 2k miles.

Luckily, I kept my stock plugs as they only had 10k on them and the car ran fine at the time. I'm wondering if I post pictures of these plugs if you guys can look at them and tell me if they're ok to put back in, or if I should buy new ones? I ask this because the plugs for my car have to be special ordered from the dealership and can't be found at any parts store. They also cost $15 each!

btw... the manual says stock plugs are good for 60k miles! Which kind of blows me away. Anyways, any input on the matter is greatly appreciated!

 

[JAG]

Check the gaps on all the stock plugs. If they close to spec. and there is no serious erosion of the electrode, re-use them. There shouldn't be serious erosion with only 10k miles on them. Sure, post pics of the colder plugs and hopefully someone will diagnose them properly.