Factory Oil Analysis

[cucamelsmd15]

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Uh, what? You mean silicone fittings?

And no, silicone fittings, regardless of amount of flex, dont wear like that. Because of the way silicone couplings are made, they tear. Hey, but dont listen to me, listen to Blackstone.

High wear and silicon are common finds in new engines, such as yours. The excess wear
metals are due to new parts breaking-in, while silicon is from sand-casted parts used when
assembling your engine.

Thats straight out of my used oil analysis on the factory fill.

Oh, and just as a little sidenote, Mass Spec doesnt identify any compound, in anything. It merely assigns an amu to whatever flows through the source and gets ionized/fragmented. As Blackstone uses ICP-AES to do their spectral testing, they only have emissions to determine elements, and not the wonder of MS. Furthermore, silicon exists as about 20 different isotopes in varying concentrations, with the most common being 28Si. If this were actual silicon coming from a fitting wearing (which it isnt), the amount of insolubles and polymers would be through the roof.

 

[JamesCH]

Okay, I guess that answers my question then. And thanks for catching my spelling mistake.

 

[nhluhr]

Okay, I guess that answers my question then. And thanks for catching my spelling mistake.

It goes beyond a spelling error when you are clearly confusing/combining elemental silicon and molecular silicone.

 

[JamesCH]

So I learned some stuff about Si/Silicone and I asked a question where the answer was no, pardon my ignorance on the subject. At least I listened and learned.

 

[MrDouble]

nhluhr, your analysis is encouraging. But 3-4K intervals are little short, aren't they? I'm planning to double that. Did you go full synthetic after first oil change?

Guess high silicon is normal for factory fill MS3s. Just glanced at my-ex 07 GTI factory fill analysis at 5000mi and it's only 19. It did not have intake but was chipped since 800mi.

 

[cucamelsmd15]

nhluhr, your analysis is encouraging. But 3-4K intervals are little short, aren't they? I'm planning to double that. Did you go full synthetic after first oil change?

I think he wanted to see the difference between brands.

I went straight to PP 5w30 after the factory fill at 7100 miles, and just changed it again at 15k. I used PP 5w30 again, and I probably wont change unless something is wrong with this analysis. Lots of people have good results with PP on BITOG forums, especially in this car.

FWIW, the factory recommends 7500 miles in the manual, and since I do the majority of my driving on the highway, thats what Im sticking to. If all I did was stop and go city driving, Id probably be changing every 3750, dependent on what my analysis looked like of course.

 

[///M Compact]

I run 5W-30 Mobil one in my heap; Blackstone stated that my UOAs indicate that a 7500 mile OCI would be fine. That said, I use a 5000 mile OCI since I have free oil changes for as long as I own the thing- I just have to bring my own Mobil 1.

 

[kwsmithphoto]

I only have one car I care about, my MS3. No UOA after a year and 9000 miles, but I can tell by look, feel, and smell that it's about due for it's 3rd oil and filter change.

I'll try to get a sample sent off next week, just to see if anything is trending badly, but the oil that's in there now has survived most of the summer and a hot track day, yet still looks good.

Sadly, I live in a thick, short trip urban environment with lots of idle time, which burns a lot of fuel, some of which inevitability winds up in the oil (and burns a hole in my bank account). I get terrible city mpg in this car, like 14-17 (measured).

FWIW, it's a well cared for but hard-driven city car, with PP synthetic and Purolator P1 filters since the first oil change. The factory fill looked, felt, and smelled awful when I changed it at 3K, but the Pennsoil and Purolator combo seems very good. If the lab results look good I might extend my changes to 5K. I'm already at 4K with my current fill and it looks really good, but there's nothing like a UOA to tell you if everything IS good!

 

[MrDouble]

Just got my 2nd UOA back after 5000+mi on Castrol Syntec Blend 5w-30. Looks good except for high Sodium which seem to have come from oil additives. I had CAI during the interval and Silicone dropped, so i don't think intakes contribute to Silicone levels.



Have Penzoil Platinum 5w-30 in there right now, planning to go 7 to 7.5Kmi.

 

[robin2660]

Let's see more of these!

 

[Metro Gray]

Thank you for posting these.

Nick it would be helpful to know if the oils you used were synthetic or dino. I assume the Royal Purple is synthetic but what about the others?

 

[Jared703]

Here's my lab for Mobil 1 5w30 @ 4300 miles. I switched over to PP 5w30, I'll get a report on that after ~7,000k miles. The car had 7,000 miles on it when this sample was taken.

 

[Hank3]

Pic no worky...

 

[Jared703]

Pic no worky...

Should be there now

 

[BillTheCat]

Should be there now

Roger that. See it. Thanks for sharing your results.

 

[ElGaspo]

This is the only 1 i've done so far. next oil change in 3 mos. Will keep you posted. Good thread, keep it going!

 

[Jared703]

Here's my analysis of Penziol Platinum 5w/30 @ 6150 miles. The car's mileage was @ 13,500.

 

[Jasnall]

I've got 54k on the odo, I haven't sent a sample in since 15k or so. I'll send this next one in so we can see what higher mileage looks like.

 

[///M Compact]

Here's the last one that I bothered to upload:

 

[MrDouble]

Here's the latest with about 7000mi on the oil, used Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30 with OEM filter. Overall, happy with results, will continue with PP. Only engine mod is CAI at 1200mi. Report says 9000mi interval should be fine.(headbang)