oesman
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2016
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- 24
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- Location
- Houston, TX
- First Name
- Dmitry
- Vehicle(s)
- 2016 Mustang GT PP
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- #1
Hey Guys,
I ran the recommended 5w20 (Mobil 1 Extended Performance) for the first 1,500 miles after my procharger install. Ultimately I became pretty concerned about engine life and performance of the oil with the big jump in power output on top of the Houston heat.
I sent off oil samples to two labs to be tested and got results from one lab thus far. The other is probably in my mailbox, but I'm on a short trip out of town. I'll update the post when I get back. The reason I used two labs is to confirm the results, if they're different I'll find a third lab to test my remaining sample.
As you can see after just 1,500 miles the oil is starting to fail. The base number is starting to drop. The viscosity at 100C is at 7.8cSt which also on the low side since it should range 6.9 to 9.3.
The 101 ppm of manganese seems normal due to my use of unleaded race fuel. However the 33 ppm of lead is interesting. For 8qt of oil it means I had 0.25g of lead in the oil. Where did it come from? Bearings? Not a lot of copper in the oil, maybe not. Maybe i had lead in the 55gal drum of fuel from a leaded fuel in it before? Seems like 0.25g is a lot though. Maybe lead solder?
In the mean time I decided to go for Motul 300V Chrono 10w40. Because the car is only for track and fun use it's never going to see cold temperatures. Not even remotely near freezing. The tires won't work at that temp anyway. I will take samples in 500mi intervals from this oil and see how it goes. I may also try the Redline 10w40 depending on what kind of results I see. But that will depend on the results.
Update 10/19/2017: Received my report from second oil lab. It seems to largely match up with the first lab. I also had a conversation with an engine builder who confirmed no lead in factory bearings. Blackstone also confirmed this in their analysis. So chances are (and it's Blackstone's theory) that the fuel probably has lead in it. The first lab also suggested that as a possibility, along with leaded solder since it's a new engine.
The fuel I use from Sunoco, although marketed as unleaded, I suppose could contain TEL anyway. Would sort of explain why this particular fuel works so ridiculously well. It works a lot better than the VP and Gulf unleaded offerings with similar marketed specs. I wonder if the TEL content is just low enough that it's considered unleaded? Going to take some time to research how that works and if there is any standard for classification. Perhaps it's like calories on food items, where if it's below X calories they can just call it zero calorie.
I updated the numbers up top and created a second column for the new lab. I'm told by the staff at blackstone their margin of error is around 3 ppm. Now of course we see some of the results are off by more than 3 ppm. Being that I only have two lab reports, I don't know who's closer to the truth. I'm going to ask the first lab what the margin of error is and maybe take a sample to a third lab. Just to keep in mind, my method was to take the sample mid stream and store one big container. I then shook it up before distributing a sample into each lab's jar. It's not like I took samples at different parts of the stream. I'm trying to be as scientific as possible.
I ran the recommended 5w20 (Mobil 1 Extended Performance) for the first 1,500 miles after my procharger install. Ultimately I became pretty concerned about engine life and performance of the oil with the big jump in power output on top of the Houston heat.
I sent off oil samples to two labs to be tested and got results from one lab thus far. The other is probably in my mailbox, but I'm on a short trip out of town. I'll update the post when I get back. The reason I used two labs is to confirm the results, if they're different I'll find a third lab to test my remaining sample.
Code:
Date Sampled 10/04/2017
Date Received 10/12/2017
Miles Used 1,500
Miles Engine 5,424
Lube Changed Yes
Filter Changed Yes
Lab Name: Oil Analyzers Inc. Blackstone Laboratories
Fuel Dilution <1% Vol <0.5% Vol
Soot <.1% Vol 0.1% Vol
Water <.1% Vol 0.0% Vol
Glycol N/A 0.0% Vol
Viscosity 100C 7.8cSt 7.6cSt
Base Number 3.20mg KOH/g N/A
Oxidation 9abs/cm N/A
Nitration 9abs/0.1mm N/A
Iron 16 ppm 19ppm
Chromium 0 ppm 0 ppm
Nickel 0 ppm 0 ppm
Aluminum 4 ppm 6 ppm
Copper 6 ppm 7 ppm
Lead 33 ppm 41 ppm
Tin 0 ppm 0 ppm
Cadmium 0 ppm N/A
Silver 0 ppm 0 ppm
Vanadium 0 ppm N/A
Silicon 11 ppm 12 ppm
Sodium 4 ppm 5 ppm
Potassium 7 ppm 4 ppm
Titanium 0 ppm 0 ppm
Molybdenum 78 ppm 88 ppm
Antimony 0 ppm N/A
Manganese 101 ppm 105 ppm
Lithium 0 ppm N/A
Boron 71 ppm 80 ppm
Magnesium 728 ppm 865 ppm
Calcium 1077 ppm 1167 ppm
Barium 0 ppm 0 ppm
Phosphorus 724 ppm 799 ppm
Zinc 771 ppm 915 ppm
The 101 ppm of manganese seems normal due to my use of unleaded race fuel. However the 33 ppm of lead is interesting. For 8qt of oil it means I had 0.25g of lead in the oil. Where did it come from? Bearings? Not a lot of copper in the oil, maybe not. Maybe i had lead in the 55gal drum of fuel from a leaded fuel in it before? Seems like 0.25g is a lot though. Maybe lead solder?
In the mean time I decided to go for Motul 300V Chrono 10w40. Because the car is only for track and fun use it's never going to see cold temperatures. Not even remotely near freezing. The tires won't work at that temp anyway. I will take samples in 500mi intervals from this oil and see how it goes. I may also try the Redline 10w40 depending on what kind of results I see. But that will depend on the results.
Update 10/19/2017: Received my report from second oil lab. It seems to largely match up with the first lab. I also had a conversation with an engine builder who confirmed no lead in factory bearings. Blackstone also confirmed this in their analysis. So chances are (and it's Blackstone's theory) that the fuel probably has lead in it. The first lab also suggested that as a possibility, along with leaded solder since it's a new engine.
The fuel I use from Sunoco, although marketed as unleaded, I suppose could contain TEL anyway. Would sort of explain why this particular fuel works so ridiculously well. It works a lot better than the VP and Gulf unleaded offerings with similar marketed specs. I wonder if the TEL content is just low enough that it's considered unleaded? Going to take some time to research how that works and if there is any standard for classification. Perhaps it's like calories on food items, where if it's below X calories they can just call it zero calorie.
I updated the numbers up top and created a second column for the new lab. I'm told by the staff at blackstone their margin of error is around 3 ppm. Now of course we see some of the results are off by more than 3 ppm. Being that I only have two lab reports, I don't know who's closer to the truth. I'm going to ask the first lab what the margin of error is and maybe take a sample to a third lab. Just to keep in mind, my method was to take the sample mid stream and store one big container. I then shook it up before distributing a sample into each lab's jar. It's not like I took samples at different parts of the stream. I'm trying to be as scientific as possible.
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