What components of the engine have lead material?

[sigintel]

I changed a cracked engine oil cooler once and the owner said lead rose slightly next oil change. It is totally possible the bar and plate cooler is brazed with leaded flux or leaded brazing alloy.
Fuel contamination of oil and oil chemistry itself might increase solubility of lead from heat exchanger alloys.

small amounts from cold starts with minor bearing wear should be typical.

what oil? At 20F winter outside storage, your starts are doing more wear than anything!
You should seriously drop down one weight to 0-40 or 0-30 for winter outside cold starts

or get another garage

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[RichGT350R]

It's the process of pouring molten metal into a mold. In this case it's engine block. So, the mold can contain lead in it. This is my understanding. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Lead is actually added to the aluminum in a small amount, it’s part of the molten metal pour. For castings (block & heads). In castings it’s something like .5%. This makes it easier to machine all of the surfaces that require machining. It’s really hard to say exactly where your elevated lead levels are coming form.. there are a lot of parts in an engine that contain lead.

 

[UnhandledException]

I changed a cracked engine oil cooler once and the owner said lead rose slightly next oil change. It is totally possible the bar and plate cooler is brazed with leaded flux or leaded brazing alloy.
Fuel contamination of oil and oil chemistry itself might increase solubility of lead from heat exchanger alloys.

small amounts from cold starts with minor bearing wear should be typical.

what oil? At 20F winter outside storage, your starts are doing more wear than anything!
You should seriously drop down one weight to 0-40 or 0-30 for winter outside cold starts

or get another garage

Its the 5w50 motorcraft oil. I thought this oil was fine all the way until -20F. Can I use any 0w40?

 

[WildHorse]

Quick google search " Lead can be found naturally in crude oil, therefore, there will be concentrations of lead in modern motor car sump oil. ... " Some oils may contain more lead than others.

Don't overthink it.

 

[Lurker_350]

.........Not to mention all the mod work I did, exhaust, shifter, driveshaft. All of this stuff would be thrown out. I would not be able to sell any of them......

I genuinely hope you don't have a problem with the lead levels.

A bit off topic - but why would you throw the stuff out? I always put cars back to stock when I sell them and recoup some money doing so. The easiest parts to sell are the items that haven't been installed (filters, plugs, belts, etc.). I think I got $1k from the parts on the shelf and those I removed from my 04 WRX I sold this year - and it only sold for $4k. In your case, the parts are worth much less than the value of the car, but hey, money is money.

Bottom line - if you get rid of the GT350 and have a bunch of stuff to liquidate - please post it here for sale. Don't throw it away.

 

[UnhandledException]

I genuinely hope you don't have a problem with the lead levels.

A bit off topic - but why would you throw the stuff out? I always put cars back to stock when I sell them and recoup some money doing so. The easiest parts to sell are the items that haven't been installed (filters, plugs, belts, etc.). I think I got $1k from the parts on the shelf and those I removed from my 04 WRX I sold this year - and it only sold for $4k. In your case, the parts are worth much less than the value of the car, but hey, money is money.

Bottom line - if you get rid of the GT350 and have a bunch of stuff to liquidate - please post it here for sale. Don't throw it away.

These mods arent very easy to revert. The oem exhaust is massive, one piece (I have never seen a one piece exhaust like this btw in any other car). The driveshaft, again, not very easy to revert. The linkage/shifter, again not easy. Every one of these mods took me full day (4-5 good hours) with a helper (wife) and what would I get for the parts? Probably peanuts. Shifter is worth $0 (new is $350), the exhaust is probably worth $300-400 and driveshaft would probably go for $500 at most. So 2 days worth of pain and I get less than $1k back. Its not worth it.

I am probably better off trying to sell the stock parts (including maintenance items like spark plugs, oil, engine air filter, etc) and I would definitely do that here.

But I have too much emotional attachment to this car. Always pictured my daughter learning how to drive with the shelby

 

[JAJ]

Car is a 2017 GT350.

My blackstone oil reports have started showing varying degree of lead for the last 5 oil changes across 18,000 miles. It started at 5, went up to 23, down to 7, down to 2, and now back up at 5. At this point, I am a little confused as to where this lead might be coming from. Are the bearings aluminum or lead? What else has lead in it?

Lead was 1-2 up until mile 48,000. Now I am past 65,000 miles and with the age of the car where it is I dont know if I should be worried.

All other metals are normal.

Car has had the typewriter tick during idle and piston slap around 2-3.5k rpm while cold since mile 2 when it was new.

The lead reading of 5 is not a problem. Anything under 10 is "negligible". Keep in mind these are parts per million.

 

[Hack]

I changed a cracked engine oil cooler once and the owner said lead rose slightly next oil change. It is totally possible the bar and plate cooler is brazed with leaded flux or leaded brazing alloy.
Fuel contamination of oil and oil chemistry itself might increase solubility of lead from heat exchanger alloys.

small amounts from cold starts with minor bearing wear should be typical.

what oil? At 20F winter outside storage, your starts are doing more wear than anything!
You should seriously drop down one weight to 0-40 or 0-30 for winter outside cold starts

or get another garage

Yes cold starts - either in the summer or the winter - create the most wear. I agree with that part of your post.

Its the 5w50 motorcraft oil. I thought this oil was fine all the way until -20F. Can I use any 0w40?

In my opinion you should stick with what Ford recommends for your engine. 5W 50 is pretty thin oil and I never noticed any problems. I drove my GT350 down in -teens in the past.

 

[sigintel]

What time of year was the lead spike?
after a winter of only starting once per 4 weeks?
or after sitting 3 months and starting cold?
Look up the oil viscosity:
5W50 at 255F(124C), make this minimum viscosity
5W50 at 220F(104C), make this your target optimal viscosity running +17.9cST
5W50 at -20F(-29C), make this your max viscosity

compare:
0W40 at 235F (113C)
0W40 at 200F (93C)
0W40 at -20F (-29C)

compare:
5W30 at 235F (113C)
5W30 at 200F (93C)
5W30 at -20F (-29C)

Graph your oils | Widman International SRL damn forgot flash disabled...

Just out of memory, I think you would find that a 0W50 or 0W40 would be acceptable for winter in areas where you are cold starting at -20F.
This assumes that on a 20F day you are not going to track the car and run 20 minute sessions at 255F CHT head temps.
This is a safe assumption as I have experienced trying to track a car in 40F ambient temps and its difficult to get the oil up to temperature. OP may have already experienced that getting the CHT up to 200F is difficult in under 30F weather.
Nevermind the fact that hes on snow tires so hes not going to be WOT and destroying tires just to try and hit 235F CHT.

I agree with @Hack, stick to OEM advice, unless, of course, you really research and understand what you are doing and any risk.

If it helps, I tracked a Whippled 2015 GT on road courses around Texas for two seasons and ran various weight oils.
Roughly Same viscosity:
5W20 at 205F
5W30 at 225F
0W40 at 245F
5W50 at 260F

The oil restrictor insert (can be changed) in the heads are different from GT to GT350.

 

[UnhandledException]

What time of year was the lead spike?
after a winter of only starting once per 4 weeks?
or after sitting 3 months and starting cold?
Look up the oil viscosity:
5W50 at 255F(124C), make this minimum viscosity
5W50 at 220F(104C), make this your target optimal viscosity running +17.9cST
5W50 at -20F(-29C), make this your max viscosity

compare:
0W40 at 235F (113C)
0W40 at 200F (93C)
0W40 at -20F (-29C)

compare:
5W30 at 235F (113C)
5W30 at 200F (93C)
5W30 at -20F (-29C)

Graph your oils | Widman International SRL damn forgot flash disabled...

Just out of memory, I think you would find that a 0W50 or 0W40 would be acceptable for winter in areas where you are cold starting at -20F.
This assumes that on a 20F day you are not going to track the car and run 20 minute sessions at 255F CHT head temps.
This is a safe assumption as I have experienced trying to track a car in 40F ambient temps and its difficult to get the oil up to temperature. OP may have already experienced that getting the CHT up to 200F is difficult in under 30F weather.
Nevermind the fact that hes on snow tires so hes not going to be WOT and destroying tires just to try and hit 235F CHT.

I agree with @Hack, stick to OEM advice, unless, of course, you understand wtf you are doing.

I certainly do not understand what I am doing viscosity wise. I have never used non oem oil.

My car is daily driver. It never sat any time since brand new. The lead showed up first in oil sample taken in 08/19. Then went up in 12/19. Then down in 04/20, then down more 07/20 and now went up in 01/21. So I m not sure whether cold starts is the culprit.

The only thing is lead level started trending down after I changed the fuel filter and spark plugs. I dont know whether plugs or fuel filter can change lead.

Fuel filter is changed every 25,000 miles. Plugs only once at little over 50,000.

 

[RichGT350R]

I’m not going to go into a long rant about oil viscosity. I’m sure Ford has done more testing about viscosity on the engines then anyone would ever do. Check your Owners manual and use the viscosity that’s recommended for your conditions.. of your running -20, use what they recommend.. they have bin at it for a while, I’m sure they know what works in their engines. IMO.

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