Valvoline XLD 15w40, 5800km, '88 Mitsubishi ZR4

[abg]

Hi everyone, these are my first analyses to be posted. I work at an oil lab over here in NZ so have done all my own testing. I'm still a bit new to this business and don't have much experience with diagnostics. The format will probably be different to what you guys are used to but I'll try to make it as logical as possible.

Vehicle/oil info:
Make: Mitsubishi
Model: Eterna ZR4 (Never for sale on the USDM but is essentially the 5 door version of the Galant VR4, which was USDM)
Year: 1988
Oil drawn from: Dip stick (we have specially made pumps for this, not sure if you guys have come across them or not)
Oil type: Valvoline XLD Engine Armour 15w-40
KM on vehicle: 183,000
KM on oil: 5,800
Time on oil: Approximately 7 months
Top up oil added: Approximately 4 litres
Date sampled: Aug 08
Use: Mainly daily driving 15 kms each way so mostly cold driving. Semi regular track and autocross use. Very regularly wound out to redline. Running 20 psi boost pressure and a few mild modifications.
Filters: K&N Air, Fram oil

Oil Condition:
KV100°C: 13.1 cSt
KV40°C: 92 cSt
TAN: 2.1
TBN: 6.3

Oil Contaminants:
Fuel (TGA): 2.7%
Water (TGA): 0.9%
Soot (TGA): TBA
Water (KF): 0.034%
Na (ppm): Si (ppm):
Wear/additive metals:
PQ Index: 50
Mg (ppm): Al (ppm): Cr (ppm): Fe (ppm): 1
Ni (ppm): 1
Cu (ppm): 1
Zn (ppm): 948
Sn (ppm): Pb (ppm): 9
P (ppm): 867
Ca (ppm): 2065
Cl (ppm): 70
S (ppm): 3773


Now from my limited understanding it looks like the lead level is a little high, the rest of the elements look good. TGA is notorious for giving inaccurate results for water and fuel, especially for petrol engines where both the water and fuel are normally just fuel, making fuel dilution quite high, close to 4%. I will try to confirm this with a flash point soon. The KF water should be much closer to the real water content than the TGA water. Our PQ machine reads higher than most others, in this case 50 is quite low, an empty bottle will read between 10-20 and new oil is around 30-50. The caution level is 100. Oil consumption is fairly high and has been since I've owned it. Oddly it seems the new water/alky injection system seems to have decreased oil consumption but will need to do another full oil use before that could be confirmed. I'll try to get some new oil values soon so there's something to compare to.

Cheers everyone.

 

[abg]

Here's the previous analysis.

Vehicle/oil info:
Oil type: Valvoline XLD Engine Armour 15w-40
KM on vehicle: 173,000
KM on oil: 5,330
Time on oil: Approximately 7 months
Top up oil added: Approximately 4 litres
Date sampled: Dec 07
Filters: K&N Air, Fram oil

Oil Condition:
KV100°C: 13.2 cSt
TBN: 6.5

Oil Contaminants:
Fuel (TGA): 2%
Water (TGA): Soot (TGA): 0.2%
Na (ppm): Si (ppm):
Wear/additive metals:
PQ Index: 59
Al (ppm): Cr (ppm): Fe (ppm): 2
Cu (ppm): Zn (ppm): 886
Sn (ppm): Pb (ppm):

I'm keen to hear what you guys think. My thoughts are to change the oil now then retest at around 4000km to check on the fuel dilution.

 

[addyguy]

That's a LOT of top-off oil for the interval.

Metals are low, and the TBN is high, but that is probably partially a product of the ridiculous amount of top-off oil used.

For comparison, my 4-cylinder NA car goes through about .75 liters in 10k km or thereabouts.....

 

[Francis]

Does anyone else think the zinc and calcium
Are a bit low?

 

[addyguy]

Not really, if this is 'SL' spec oil - the limit is 1000ppm Zn, so it has to be under that.

As far as Ca, that's actually a decent amount, and it has helped maintain the strong TBN.

 

[Francis]

That's really interesting info re SL because the previous range of Penrite that was SL had 1100ppm zinc and 2800ppm cal. There HPR5 which is a 5w40 would be the nearest in comparison.

 

[buickmaster]

Hey nice to see someone with a similar car.

In the short amount of time I've had my car (5 months), I'd actually say for these motors that 4L makeup oil seems about right. I seem to lose oil faster than any of the other cars I've had. I haven't tried to diag it yet (probably this summer). I'm pretty sure (at least for me) it's some combo of the PCV, and just being a turbo car (soot on the exhaust).