Best Engine Oil - All Mod Levels

Let's not get too off topic here which is oil type for the engine's...

Yes 5w30 over 5w40 could show signs wear, I'd be more inclined to say check your boost tubes and intake for oil, check for oil around the intake turbine and for shaft play than swapping to a w30.

I would be more worried about getting rid of that Rotella which can cause detonation from fuel sheer and go to one of the 3 recommended oils now.

 

I'll toss in my report that just came in: Car is built bottom end with pistons and rods at 88mm, stock head with the k04, dual catch can setup, and it doesn't get driven much due to the nature of my work, hence the low mileage on the oil in my analysis posted below. I don't tend to romp on it much either, but it is nearing 26,000 miles on the motor. I have only owned it since it was at ~22,000 miles. Very pleased with the analysis results using Brotella 5w40/15w40.

 

Wow your fuel dilution is showing less than mine ever did along with alot of others don't think Rotella is coming back to the top anytime soon especially with that short interval change esp see quote below for issues.

 

Can someone link to the Rotella fuel dilution discovery? Fuel dilution is such an odd thing to happen when proper compression and no abnormal rich condition exist (such as VTA). The only cars I have ever had issues with fuel dilution were rotaries. Having run Rotella for 120K miles cumulatively on my DISI engines, I have yet to see any fuel-dilution causes like decrease in compression, etc, and of course the sniff test - does my oil smell like fuel. I'm sure Blackstone has more accurate means of detecting it, but anyone have a link, pls?
I am only wondering about this because being diesel-specific and thus designed for direct-injection, it's supposed to resist fuel dilution much better.
Google shows things like this which make we wonder what the fuss is about, apologies if it's been a well known thing forever now:
https://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy251/mdmazda/Oil cooler/UOA1.jpg

Been using the newer Rotella 15w-40 now available in T6, and T5, T5 being a semi-synthetic version that's cheaper. But for the winter i'd switch back to 5w-40

 

Yeah, so, I recommend you don't use that oil anymore (super high calcium count). Could be problematic. The zinc content looks good though.

Speaking from experience, I've gone on a ~20 mile drive, pulled the dipstick and smelled fuel. My old UOAs had >5% fuel dilution on my sub 50k mile stock block (I was stock turbo back then too).

 

Please feel free to correct my understanding, but I think fuel dilution is a parameter typically monitored to show non-oil related issues with the engine, not a measure of how good an oil is.

https://www.spectrosci.com/resource...re/e-guides/guide-to-measuring-fuel-dilution/

This tells me you had fuel leaking into the block (a lot), as it would be odd for any oil to smell like fuel within 20 mi of driving after an oil change, unless there are some other serious issues.
As an example, given an engine that leaks fuel into the crank case, by whatever means, it's not like one type of oil will make that problem go away, while another will make it worse, right?

I've used T6 5w40 and other oils in my rotaries, which I know leak fuel into the crankcase (by design, or lack of being able to design this out) esp on cold starts and low rpm, and the oil only starts smelling like fuel after 1000 mi or so. And that's not a problem I could solve by changing oils, it's one that was part of how the engine operated. In a piston engine, fuel washing the cylinders so much it ends up in the crank case after 20 miles and smells up the oil doesn't seem like an oil problem.

I just went and smelled my dipstick as i'm 1,000mi away from a 3k oil change while using Rotella T6. I don't smell fuel at all. I can send that oil in for a change when I drain it.
Also, take a look at the UOA I posted above, the "universal average" for calcium there is much higher at 2,284 (not 1,818 as in jdab's analysis) and the guy only had 968 measured. I heard Rotella has changed the formula, but BITOG says it's not the formula, it's the qualification that's changed.

 

Keep in mind our engines are side fire DI, which are extremely bad for washdown, and I was on probably either full corn or 50/50 at a minimum (probably full corn, because stock turbo). Swapping to the RP got rid of the smell, and dropped dilution.

The info in this thread (and quoted from OP) is from the guy referenced in the youtube talk I posted in another thread (a great listen, highly recommended) which stated that high sodium OR calcium could lead to LSPI, per their testing, and that ZDDP or moly would reduce that risk further.

 

Appreciate the comments; when I bought the car a year ago the compression was tested at 180 across the board and had been running Rotella T6 the entire time anyways, so I figured I would keep up with the trend since it seemed to be working. It was also what I used on my previous Speed3 since Rotella was the prevailing logic back around 2015 in the MSF days.

I guess for my setup on the next change I should switch to the RP on the first page? Catch can was basically only oil, doesn't smell of fuel on the dipstick either.

 

Honestly with 3k mile intervals it doesn't really matter what oil your using

 

Good enough for me, wouldn't go any longer anyways since the timeframe at 3k is getting close to 6 months.

 

Per above post, I tested my oil - T5 15W-40, 3K mi on oil, 116K mi on engine. Stock engine. I use 15W-40 T5 when it's warm until night temps go into the 30s, then I switch to 5W-40 T6. Save money and no issues so far.
Fuel dilution is low. Calcium is a bit high. Sodium is very low. Lead is a bit high. Moly is close to average.
Draw your own conclusions, but I don't see anything wrong with this oil. Will post T6 results in the spring when I switch back to T5.

 

Honestly my experience is that Blackstone sucks so take it with a grain of salt

 

calcium high...as per normal with rotella. also if you go into your account you an export without personal data so its not a small pic that we can bearly see

 

Are they not running the tests properly or missing things that another sampling company may find given the same sample?

 

I sent in samples for my speed 3 and my wife's cx-5. 10w-30 and 0w-20. They told me that both of the samples for my cx-5 looked great. They didn't even catch the difference in viscosity

 

what is a better UOA testing facility? Polari? Intertek? Testoil?

In my mind, it doesn't matter that their comments are jumbled, as long as you can see the test data, you can draw your own conclusions.

 

I have the results around somewhere but based on what I sent in and the report that I got back I had zero confidence that they pay attention. Unfortunately I don't really know of anyone better

 

I've read through this, and I haven't seen anyone mention the Amazon basics oil, which is SN plus. I've read several reviews about it being some really good shit - what do you all think? Anyone ran it and/or done analysis?

 

It's only going to be mentioned here if someone has an analysis for it.

 

It’s made by Warren, same stuff as Kirkland and Supertech. Decent stuff, cheaper at Costco, they just had 12 quarts for $20 on sale.