Bill has waited a long time for this one....since the days that the SC was still under Kevin's hood. well here it is!

Oil Report

The SC was installed last year in Oct. This is the 3rd oil change since then. (sorry for the dealy, Bill. I want to flush the engine with the Supersyn for couple times). I ran 2838 miles on the oil and I use Mobil 1 supersyn with OEM filter. I add 4 qt of oil for every oil change. Oil consumption is about 1/2 qt.

For this oil change....I drove the car daily for 70 miles. 80% freeway, 20% local. I boost about 2 times a day on freeway. I am happy with the report. Everything is within the limit and the only element that is higher than the last report is the iron.

The TBN is strong, 12.0, ompared to 6.5 TBN that I got from castrol GTX running @ 3006 miles when I was NA. Blackstone lab suggested to run the oil up to 5000 miles.

total milage when the oil was changed was 41354.


It only took a day for the lab to run the analysis. I mailed it out from Nor-Cal on Saturday thru priority mail. They received it this morning and I received the result in the afternoon.

 

That's a good report. Two potential issues are the iron reading, which is a tad high for the mileage driven and for mostly highway mileage. If it's been really cold where you are that would explain it. In any case, it's nothing to worry about, but it will be interesting to see if the wear rate comes down on the next report. The other thing is that the oil may have just started to thicken a little, but shouldn't really be a problem for you until well after 5-6k. It's so close to what the spec sheets say, that this could be a normal production tolerance thing as well.

It looks like this oil is serving you very well so far. Are you going to go 5k next time?

 

'bout damn time.



Looks good thus far.


At least some component of Keving's car gets analyzed since he apparently won't do it to save his life.

 

 

thx! one of the sources of the iron that I can think of is the SC inlet piping. It is rusting in that iron piping and can that be the cause of high iron reading? Or maybe it is a sign of engine stress from boosting.

I plan to take this oil to 4000 - 4500 miles this time. Or maybe just stay with 3000 miles because I will drop in a smaller pulley soon. Next oil report will be after 15000 - 20000 miles.




he will.....I bet he wants to see if the turbo is doing something funny to his engine.

 

I'm not really familiar with the SC setup. If the inlet piping you're talking about is part of the air intake system, then no. If it's the inlet line for oil, it's a possibility, but not very likely due to most oils having rust and corrosion inhbitors in them. It's most likely a combinantion of colder weather and driving the car too hard before it's fully warmed up. Most people don't realize it's much longer after the water reaches temp. that the oil is really ready to go for some serious driving.

Being boosted does stress the engine more, but if you look at mardigrasmax's results with Redline and an 8500 mile interval, his iron level is at 11. To put it more into perspective for you, his wear rate is 1.3ppm per thousand miles and yours is 4.28ppm/k. As another data point, while my car wasn't boosted, it was driven very hard on roadcourses extensively. My iron wear rates with both Mobil 1 and Amsoil were around 1.5ppm/k as well.

These numbers get more accurate the longer the intervals are, so your short interval could be a factor here as well. Again, nothing to get really concerned about, just something to think about.

 

Redline is GOOOOOOOOOD!!!!

 

it is the intake piping.....so the iron particles will not affect the oil analysis?? So how long does it take for a car to be fully warmed up? say in a 45 F morning and after 10 minutes of local driving. Does that consider fully warmed up? (that's my situation, I boost my car once I got on the freeway after 10 minutes local)

Quote:

Being boosted does stress the engine more, but if you look at mardigrasmax's results with Redline and an 8500 mile interval, his iron level is at 11. To put it more into perspective for you, his wear rate is 1.3ppm per thousand miles and yours is 4.28ppm/k. As another data point, while my car wasn't boosted, it was driven very hard on roadcourses extensively. My iron wear rates with both Mobil 1 and Amsoil were around 1.5ppm/k as well.

These numbers get more accurate the longer the intervals are, so your short interval could be a factor here as well. Again, nothing to get really concerned about, just something to think about.

I see your point....I might see more iron wear under a longer drain interval. thx again!



nice oil report, Mardigrasmax!

 

Does the air enter the engine unfiltered after that pipe? If so, that could be skewing the readings. If it's filtered, it's less likely it would show up in the oil.

Running for ten minutes at light/moderate loads (not just idling) should be pretty close to warmed up. If you drive easy on the local roads, that should do it. Maybe someone with an oil temp gauge has some more feedback.

 

Mardi,

Why don't you try running Redline 10W-40? That's what I'm changing to this weekend. I figure the slightly higher viscosity at operating temp could provide slightly more high shear area protection such as in your bearings.

 

I wonder if it could be the SC's bearing that is producing the elevated iron levels.

What do you think?

 

NO.



10W/40 = bad idea because Redline takes several changes to get a real baseline idea as to how it is doing. Changing viscosities at this point isn't a good idea because it will skew future results. If wear levels increase over the next couple of changes, then it's time to consider altering viscosities. Nothing in Matt's analysis alludes to him needing to do anything at the moment.

 

I doubt it would hurt anything. It probably won't make a difference, so I figured why not.

Elevated lead levels/mild wear in the bearings? A higher operating viscosity *MIGHT* decrease that, but until he gets a couple 10W-30 samples and then switches we won't know for sure.

 

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. I don't know what that bearing is made of though, iron is not something you typically see from bearing wear. Who knows in the SC though?

 

Yeah, I wonder what all the SC guts that the oil comes in contact with are made of like the thrust bearing that is so prone to failure when you overboost(*cough**Kev=2.87"**cough).

His future reports will be interesting.

 

you are right....
the air goes thru the filter -> MAF -> first metal piping (rusted) -> blower -> second metal piping (rusted too) then to throttle body.

thx for the tip on warming up the car.


hmmm...never thought about this. Does anyone know what material do they use for SC bearing?

 

I've got RL10W30 in their now and another interval worth in my garage, after that I may try the new RL5w40, just to see if it makes a difference.

Redline is rumored to have an ingrediant that screws up the lead count, its just rumor though.

For this last report I did have the blower rebuilt so it could have contributed to the lead levels, the next report will be a better example, it will be the 4th one with RL.

 

um sorry to get off subject, what do you guys recommend for say a turbo or sc, mobile 1 or redline?

 

Well, its more of a personal choice. Both will work fine.

Here is my logic for using RL.

1) Its a FULL synthetic
2) My oil reports with RL show better than M1 per on a wear per mile.
3) I can go a longer interval
4) RL is ~$7qt M1 is $4.50qt, with the longer interval the cost is a wash and I dont have to change it as much.
5) Dosent "REDLINE" just sound like a better oil for high performance motors than "mobile one"?

 

Either Redline or Amsoil would be my recommendation.

Mobil SuperSyn is adequate though.

 

Redline has a habit of skewing all the wear metal results for the first few intervals.

I honestly don't think you have a problem with the lead readings. Your effective wear rate was cut in half from the 4k interval you ran on Mobil 1. That one was something to make you go "huh", but not this one. I'm curious to see what your reports would like on the 10W-40, but see no reason to say defintely switch, the 10W-30 isn't holding up.

 

#3 you run longer intervals with the SC? I always thought that SC and turbos, (especially oil cooled turbos) need the oil changed frequently. What intervals you run?

#5 your right!

 

I go with 6k interval. I had been using a M1 oil filter for the full 6k. This time aroung I am going to try using Supertech (Walmart) oil filters, I will swap a new filter on at 3k and see its as good or maybe better than the M1 filter. M1 filters are $7ea IIRC, Supertechs are 1.99ea

 

Which Amsoil product?

 

That's a question for iwannabmw. He sells AMSOIL for discount.

I run Redline.

 

For a Maxima, the 0W-30, 5W-30 or 10W-30. I would also lean towards the 0W-30, especially in a turbo application.

 

Oh geez. Wait until Jeffy reads that.

I too suggested 0W-30 synthetic for turbo apps, but I want to know why you recommend that.

 

I'm speaking specifically about Amsoil's 0W-30 here, not for the others.

The reason I said that is that turbo's are absolute hell on oil. The 0W-30 is part of Amsoil's Series 2000 line, which seems to have a larger quantity of esters in the base oils. As a result, the 0W-30 will have a higher film strength and better resistance to high temperature oxidation than their 5W-30 or 10W-30 will. Considering the extra stress a turbo application puts on the motor and the oil, this is their best oil for a tweaked Maxima and will hold up better than the other two.

 

Mark is implying the Series 2000 0W/30 line, which is a bit more robust than their regular 5W/30 and 10W/30 full synthetics. I have to agree with him based on the results on my dad's 99TL which is now running Series 2000 0W/30.

I'm seriously considering biting the bullet and going Series 2000 0W/30 to get my viscosity values back in check and to keep my drain intervals at 8 to 10 months......I refuse to bend over and change my oil every 3 months or 3k.

 

Me too.


Yo Wanksta... I read that.

 

Thanks fellas

 

Got it. Thanks!



Kev: