Whats going on here?

Lead at 40!!! I'm running Castrol German 0W30

 

Are you using GC green, or the newer GC gold?

 

It's the newer GC Gold.

 

how did you pull the sample? any chance of contamination?

how do you drive the car? do you redline much?

do you use any fuel/oil additives? some contain lead. and some fuel adds contain strong solvents that will chew up your bearings right quick.

have you ever done an engine flush?

your air filter is doing an awesome job, so no sandblasting problems.

blackstone didn't say it, but IMO your iron is slightly high as well. for 5k miles on a top tier oil like GC your Fe should be down in the single digits, unless you beat on the thing. the universal averages they publish for this motor are much worse than well cared for examples produce. I get the feeling they get a lot of samples from people who race their cars.

personally I'd dump in some cheap dino & do a short flush OCI to get out all the lead, then run 3k with whatever you choose & sample again. if you just change the oil & resample, the next sample will be contaminated with leftover lead and you will not get a true assessment of the situation (i.e. was it a one time thing? or is it a continuing problem?).

 

Pulled the sample while draining. It wasn't the first gush coming out but certainly within about 10 sec of pulling the plug, enough time to pull the plug put it down and reach for the container next to my creeper. I sealed it up right after that.

Like a grandmother, same route everyday with a long highway trip to and from Pa (800 miles) on this last sample. Never redline.
I use a fuel additive about once a year (Lubecontrol FP60). I think I used it on this last sample.
Never. 5k miles change interval with Mobil1 since 10k miles to 55k miles then switched to GC for the last 10k miles.
It's a paper filter from Wix. I can't do s short change on this one because I took the sample while draining (as on the first reported sample) and then changed the oil with GC.

personally I'd dump in some cheap dino & do a short flush OCI to get out all the lead, then run 3k with whatever you choose & sample again. if you just change the oil & resample, the next sample will be contaminated with leftover lead and you will not get a true assessment of the situation (i.e. was it a one time thing? or is it a continuing problem?).[/QUOTE]

 

IMO, Techron is the culprit. If you want a true wear lead reading in your oil, stop adding Techron to the gas tank in between OCIs. If you still feel the need of adding Techron, do it the tankfull before you change the oil (but after grabbing a sample).

 

techron? I think he's using FP60, which is a very mild upper cylinder lube and is not the cause of the high lead.

2002 SE -- it sounds like you're taking great care of this car. I have no idea what this could be. blackstone might be right about the particle streak. definitely get more samples to see if it continues. a particle streak will gradually disappear over a couple OCIs.

you might post this on the bobistheoilguy UOA forum. I think you'll get mostly the same responses, but maybe someone there will see something I don't.

 

I didn't mention Techron in a single post.

 

I did, in the European Oil section.

 

I thought you posted you'd used techron (or Chevron gas) in BITOG, but I now don't seen that. Did you use any adds with Techron?

 

Our area doesn't have Chevron gas stations. I do recall the post on BITOG where someone related Techron to the high lead in their analysis. Nothing conclusive though.