Castrol Edge 5W30, 2008 Chevrolet Colorado 3.7

[Fraser434]

I get my DD Colorados I5's oil analysed once a year, I go 5,000 - 10,000 miles on an oil change using high end synthetic oil. Heres an analysis may find interesting, the I5 was sucking down quart of coolant every 5,000 miles. No external leaks, no smoke out tail pipe, no overheating, its going into the crankcase according to the the UOA (crack, porosity?). Not enough to cause damage just leave trace amount of Potassium in oil sample, oil would have broke down sooner.

Drain/filled coolant, put in Bars Leak aluminum version, sealed up almost instantly, see if the next UOA shows no contamination.

Also Note the yellow column Zinc and Phosphorus numbers, I put a 4oz. bottle of 'ZDDP plus' additive, it definitely is not snake oil. I'm sure that answers the lower wear numbers.

The yellow column is most recent UOA, Castrol Edge 5W30, contains molybdenum btw. The orange column is 'GC' Syntec 0W30, no extra additives.

 

[chubbs1]

Boy that is an interesting UOA. You have a heck of a lot of (K) in the oil but as B_S commented sodium went down. Either way you have a coolant leak and I would get it checked out. The wear is increasing in your engine and I also agree with B_S to keep your OCI's short until you get the leak pin-pointed and fixed.

I still have to add that this is a pretty good UOA considering the presence if coolant.

Thanks for Posting!

Welcome!!!

 

[Artem]

Interesting report. I through Potassium and Sodium went hand in hand but this report shows a different story... hmmmm.

 

[Fraser434]

After dropping in Bars Leak, hasn't used a drop of coolant in 1000 mi.

 

[cp3]

Very good report considering the coolant issue. Is your 5-10k miles based on the OLM or just arbitrary?

 

[Fraser434]

I've had quite a few oil analysis done have lot of data, quite often I will replace the oil filter every 3-5k miles, take an oil sample, drop in a quart of oil.