Oil Analysis Results

C

cheetahdriver

Member
Location
NW Ark
the FX45 doesn't seem to like my beloved M1. this is the second OA that shows some sort of bearing issue, or at least high Pb with some Tin mixed in this time. i am thinking seriously about either trying Delvac1, or going to a 6k OCI with a good dino. there aren't very many FX OAs up on BITOG either.

thoughts?


Blackstone Labs

Oil Filter--------M1
MI/HR-ON-OIL------9986(5000)9437
MI/HR-ON-UNIT-----69627(59641)54641

ALUMINUM----------4(3)4
CHROMIUM----------1(1)1
IRON--------------38(10)15
COPPER------------3(3)3
LEAD--------------15(6)25
TIN---------------5(0)0
MOLYBDENUM--------75(74)87
NICKEL------------0(0)0
MANGANESE---------1(0)0
SILVER------------0(0)0
TITANIUM----------0(0)0
POTASSIUM---------3(3)0
BORON-------------115(124)127
SILICON-----------13(11)10
SODIUM------------7(8)10
CALCIUM-----------2847(2551)2941
MAGNESIUM---------15(13)17
PHOSPHORUS--------823(728)813
ZINC--------------1016(895)1034
BARIUM------------0

SUS-VIS@210F------71.3(70.9)70.9
cSt-VIS@100c------13.29(13.19)13.19
FLASHPOINT-IN-F---390(420)395
FUEL%-------------<0.5
ANTIFREEZE%-------0.0
WATER%------------0.0
INSOLUBLES%-------0.3(0.3)0.4
TBN---------------3.9(6.0)2.4
 
cheetahdriver said:
i think drinking a quart every morning would help some folks. i gave up, decided to try a different forum.
Click to expand...
I think that guy just likes to pick fights. Along with praising Amzoil, and talking about how he has put his FX through more abuse through all the track runs, and bad roads where he lives. :rolleyes:
 
To be honest - I dont know what any of those numbers and letters mean or stand for, would you care to enlighten some of us (me)
 
ok...

From the top, we have the filter type (oil type is M1 0w40) the miles per change and the total miles on the engine. I apologize for the poor formating, one of these days I will figure out all the ins and outs of different forum software.

The next 11 metals are considered wear metals, ie, they are not found in the oil (normally) and are not metals often that can come from the environment like sodium (although Al is also a part of dirt normally). For a listing of probable sources, i would direct you here (cant post links yet)

fluidlife.com/media/pdfs/wear_origins_mobile.pdf

Boron, Calcium, Phosphorous and Zinc are all part of the oil additive package, they act as acid neutralizers, anti wear additives, friction modifiers, etc. They are not there as elements, they are present in highly complex molecules, but show up on the test only as elements. Looking at the amount of the elements in the used oil vs a virgin oil analysis gives a good idea of how depleted an oil is.

Silicon is for the most part dirt. Sodium can be dirt (salt) or show an antifreeze leak (it is also an oil additive in some oils, but not this one).

Then the two viscosity numbers, which show what the current oil viscosity is at two temperatures. This oil held in grade just fine, many will shear down depending on applications and contaminants. Flash point can show fuel contamination (if it depresses) or loss of volatile fractions of the oil (if it goes up). Fuel, water and and antifreeze are self explanatory. Insolubles are the amount of solids in the oil. TBN is the Total Base Number, a measure of how much acid the oil can neutralize and typically the prime measure of oil life. Depending on the measurement method, an oil is considered depleted when the TBN reaches 0 (or with this lab 1). It typically starts out at 9-12.

With these 3 tests, the far right is the first test at 54k with ~10k miles on the oil. Note that to compare samples you need to divide the metals by the k number of miles to get ppm/1000 miles, otherwise you are comparing apples and oranges. The first test startled me with high Pb (lead) at 2.5/1000 miles (2.5/k). the Fe (iron) didn't bother me much as it is an extended oil change. I dumped the second change at ~5k, because I was afraid i was going to get "extra chunky" out of the sump. The Pb dropped in half to 1.2/k, which made me think I may have had a "particle streak", a large particle scraping along the bearing and causing a jump in metals. So I left the next change in for 10k again, and while the Pb stayed about the same at 1.5/k, now we see Sn (tin) which is also a bearing metal and wasn't present before.

Some engines just show quite a few wear metals. The Toyota 4.7L V8 engines are mythical for showing little or no wear metals, with almost any oil. The problem I have is that there are very few of the VK45DE engines on BITOG's Oil Analysis posting forum so I have very little to compare to. Normally, Blackstone will give you averages out of their database to give you a comparison, but in this case they have the VK engines lumped in with the VH engines. As I plan on pushing the FX out past 150k (i put about 45k a year on it), I am somewhat worried about the bottom end wear indicators showing up.

OTOH, I did look at the VQ35 OA reports, of which there are a ton on BITOG. While they are not going to be the same (multiply by 4/3 perhaps?), they should give some guidance, as the VK is based off the VQ. Checking several VQ reports, they tend to show fairly high wear metals as a common occurrence, so I am a little less worried. I would still like to see some other reports on this engine.
 
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