Valvoline syn 0w-20 5k miles; 2021 ford bronco sport 6.5k miles

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May 24, 2022
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Bronco oil.jpg
 
The high Moly amount is caused by assembly lube washing-out. After the first few oil changes, I used Valvoline 5W30 Modern Engine Oil, and the Moly is consistently 70-80 ppm in every 5k mile UOA.

Here's my 2017 Infiniti Q60 VR30DDTT engine @ 1k miles & 5k miles:

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yep 300ppm moly in Valvoline synthetics recently.
Jury is still out if its the moly trimer or dimer. Most would assume the dimer, based on the dose, but it is remotely possible it is trimer or some combination.
In any event it will serve you well.
 
Valvoline is most likely using MoDTC dimer. MoDTC trimer is more sulfur rich relative to moly concentration in raw form, which is part of why it's more effective at creating MoS2 at lower concentrations, but this also means it pushes the API SP limit for sulfur. (0.5% max) If they had MoDTC trimer at that concentration, given the other sulfur-containing additives in the formula, I wouldn't see them being able to stay under the API SP limit for sulfur.

The oil itself seemed to hold up okay though it has sheared out of grade. A 20 grade is 6.9 - 9.3 cSt and this shows 6.36 cSt which is more like a light 0W-16 or heavy 0W-12. The UOA shows only a slight amount of fuel (
Other than that, I don't see any cause for alarm here. The copper is likely from leaching and should reduce with each OCI.
 
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Valvoline is most likely using MoDTC dimer. MoDTC trimer is more sulfur rich relative to moly concentration in raw form, which is part of why it's more effective at creating MoS2 at lower concentrations, but this also means it pushes the API SP limit for sulfur. (0.5% max) If they had MoDTC trimer at that concentration, given the other sulfur-containing additives in the formula, I wouldn't see them being able to stay under the API SP limit for sulfur.
That's interesting, i hadn't thought of the sulfur requirements...but the 2 types of Moly don't have a different amount of sulfur associated with them.
The trimer is more effective at lower dose, so it does allow the formulator to reduce sulfur overall.

Here is a pretty interesting paper that mentions that aspect, but some other interesting topics:

I will note that adding moly, of the 3 types discussed, to a fully formulated oil (already containing moly) reduced friction coefficient.

BTW Valvoline wont tell you which moly is in this, I've asked. So, we can't conclude one way or another.
 
That's interesting, i hadn't thought of the sulfur requirements...but the 2 types of Moly don't have a different amount of sulfur associated with them.
The trimer is more effective at lower dose, so it does allow the formulator to reduce sulfur overall.

Here is a pretty interesting paper that mentions that aspect, but some other interesting topics:

I will note that adding moly, of the 3 types discussed, to a fully formulated oil (already containing moly) reduced friction coefficient.

BTW Valvoline wont tell you which moly is in this, I've asked. So, we can't conclude one way or another.

You could possibly figure it out with gas chromatography. MoDTC dimer carries oxygen where as MoDTC trimer does not. Even that would be difficult to decipher from other oxygen-carrying additives like calcium sulfonate.
 
I blame this mostly on the use of low viscosity group II+ base oils in their formulas, which is also likely why it has a higher Noack than some others of the same grade.
Last time Valvoline showed the Noack numbers (before they went started showing <15% Noack for everyting) the Valvoline Advanced (previously called SynPower) was less than 10% Noack.
 
Interesting... the 5W30 Modern Engine Oil I've been using has shown much less Moly in my Infiniti Q60 UOAs:

View attachment 102029
Almost scary how consistent the concentrations of Moly are in all the samples.
The modern engine Valvoline was before...it didn't have much moly and was discontinued. All recent VOA's of Valvoline's current lineup of Advanced Synthetic and Extended Protection have moly in the 300ppm range.
 
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