Canola Follow-up

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VOA, I had a OUA done on the old oil, will post results this evening if I can find the report (it's been a while now)
 
Another month gone by, any updates?

I wouldn't care if my oil was slightly degraded from canola if it cut leaking by significant amount. If you are adding fresh oil because you lose tablespoons daily anyway your additive package is hanging in there.
 
Yeah, as much attention as this has drawn and we keep getting put off, lol. 6 months ago you needed 800 more miles. 5 months later, you have the results, but you are at work and will post when you have time. Another month later, you will post the results when you get home.

Post that [censored] up before I start pulling my hair out, PRETTY PLEASE! X-D

No one can judge you, you are only contributing to research. I think what you've done is awesome if you post up some proof. Cause it's starting to smell fishy, and I don't want to say that because I felt like it was all true with the way things have been worded.
 
I am not going to make my own thread because im doing the same thing pretty much with my own take on it.

I'm going to start topping off with dino delvac 15w-40 + canola blend for the last 1500 of my OCI, the method I use with MMO. Then on drain I'm going to fill the crankcase with about 75% canola and idle the warm engine that has cooled a few hours. I will then add a fresh change of just motor oil. Residual canola will be present but not significant.

This is a 1988 carbed mazda b2200 that ticks for 2-3 miles on startup and leaks a lot from a bad rear seal. As i said in above post if it drops ONE drop less overnight makes it thru summer with no breakdowns then it's a success to me.
 
Haha! Keep your hair on your head! Life just decided to get busy for me is all. I'm actually a hair over 1500 miles into my next OCI already (6mo later, I know -- I really don't put many miles on this car) with straight T6 so I know I'm waaaaaaaay overdue for posting the UOA from the canola test.

It's coming! At this point, I have to find the dang thing!!
 
Ooh that's ballsy. 75% might be a bit much, even at idle. That said, you should still have and additive coatings from your last OCI in there, so you might be fine. In either case, I'm not responsible for the results!!
 
Well, here we have it:
00COROLLA-011714_zps35374fe2.png


Wear metals are a bit higher than my last OCI, but not horrible; I'm attributing it to the oil having deteriorated when the car was parked for 3mo, possibly combined with my tendency to keep the RPMs high. They're not alarmingly high, considering how I drive this car.

Silicon is high most likely because I used black RTV on the VCG and didn't let it fully cure before starting the engine. That, or the Spectre filter I'm using is letting [censored] through; I guess we'll find out with my next OCI.

Viscosity was out of range at the end of 3k miles, but better than the Pennzoil Ultra from my last OCI by quite a large margin, and with a markedly higher flashpoint. It looks like the canola didn't hurt the TBN too badly, either, but I'm going to confirm that with a sample of Rotella at 3k miles (I'm running it straight currently).

I'll be running this straight Rotella for as long as I can safely do so, then repeating the canola experiment for my next OCI. Looking at this OUA, I'll probably be dumping the Rotella at 3k (or whatever it's got on it when I get that 3k UOA back). I'm just broke 1500 miles this week, so I've got a bit of driving to do yet.
 
I actually started with a blend of Rotella T6 (which is a 5w40) and M1HM 0w20 in a 3:1 ratio to thin it out a bit, and only started adding canola as a top-off. I did 4 8oz top-offs of straight canola and 4 8oz top-offs of 3:1 T6/canola blend, so it should have been very close to 25%. My next run will be 25% from the very start and driven much more frequently.

Travis at Blackstone has taken an interest in my activities and wants to see a VOA of the blend for comparison, so I'll be sending a virgin sample at my next OC. We'll be able to make a solid comparison at the end of that OCI.

I don't really remember how it looked when it came out. I know the sample cup was absolutely black once I filled it up, but if I recall, it was still amber on the stick. Visually, I'd have not given a second thought to running it for another 3k, if not for it's age.
 
The entire report, save for the silicon, surprised me. I expected the wear numbers to be higher, simply for the fact that the oil went rancid while the car sat, and expected there to be little-to-no additive content left in the oil. I was also expecting the TBN, flashpoint, and viscosity to be much lower, so I was happy to see the flashpoint and viscosity actually higher than my previous OCI without canola.

I just went for an hour long romp on the freeway (can't tell you how many miles that was, I'm sure some simple math would make that a rules violation), trying to get up to 3k sooner, rather than later.
 
Sorry to necro this thread, but I wanted to let everyone who followed this originally know: I'm back!

I ended up selling the car back to the guy I bought it from at the end of 2015 and it ran fine for him until it didn't. He never bothered diagnosing or fixing the problem, so we don't know if it was oil related but he said he doesn't think it was. He was well aware of the canola experiment, and the fact that it had canola in the crankcase when he bought it; AFAIK he continued running that blend, as well, because he noted a major improvement in idle smoothness and throttle responsiveness from when he had owned it before.

He was my roommate when I bought it, for most of the time that I owned it, and again when I sold it back to him. He was well aware of the maintenance history of the vehicle while I owned it, and nothing I did while it was mine would have accounted for the change he noticed -- except for the oil.

That said, the experiment is *NOT* over!! Once I have the fuel trim issue with my 97 Ranger sorted out I'm doing one more OCI with Motorcraft 5w30, then continuing the experiment with this engine starting at 25% canola for 3k.

Unlike the Corolla, this engine burns *NO* oil, so who knows WHAT we might see. I do have plans to rebuild this engine at some point (actually, the whole truck -- I bought it as a project vehicle, but buying a house is more important right now -- need somewhere to actually do the work).

Stay tuned for a new canola thread in a couple months or so.
 
Hey, glad to see you're back around, and I am glad that you decided to necro this thread. I've been very curious to know how this experiment had proceeded.

Glad to hear you'll be trying it again on the Ranger. Please keep us updated!
 
Originally Posted By: KeMBro2012

...That said, the experiment is *NOT* over!! Once I have the fuel trim issue with my 97 Ranger sorted out I'm doing one more OCI with Motorcraft 5w30, then continuing the experiment with this engine starting at 25% canola for 3k.

Unlike the Corolla, this engine burns *NO* oil, so who knows WHAT we might see. I do have plans to rebuild this engine at some point (actually, the whole truck -- I bought it as a project vehicle, but buying a house is more important right now -- need somewhere to actually do the work)...


You may very well need a rebuild after the experiment.

Unadditized Canola can't have any advantage over a finished motor oil from the bottle.

All I can forecast is increased oxidation and degradation of the mix.

https://fr.canolacouncil.org/media/515239/canola_oil_physical_chemical_properties_1.pdf
 
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Yup. You predicted that with the Corolla, as well, and the evidence did not support your position. If it did, I wouldn't be willing to subject another engine to it.
 
That's the spirit! And if I grenade my engine, well, it's *MY* engine and I'm aware that is a distinct possibility. MolaKule seems to be on a years-long mission to make sure I don't forget that could happen. Trust me, I get that; to me it seems like a viable excuse to drop a 4.0l V6 in during the project.

As it stands now, I'm satisfied I've resolved the fuel trim issue with the Ranger and have one remaining issue (possibly; I won't be able to test drive to verify the issue still exists until this evening) and need to run one full OCI where I don't (edit - mod) with anything to get good baseline numbers, then the the Ranger run can begin.
 
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