AMSOIL 0W-30 Report

[Leadfoot]

I bought my 97 Honda Civic with 57,000 and shortly afterwards switched it over to AMSOIL Series 2000 0w-30...thought I'd get better protection and especially in the winter would do less oil changes. Most of my mileage is highway but I live in Canada so the winters are harder on lubes. Anyway in November I did an oil change the car had 168,000 Km's. The filter was changed at 178,000 and again at 188,000. This April I wondered about the condidion of the oil and the claims made by AMSOIL so decided to pull the oil out and send it out for analysis, on the clock were 196,000 Km's making a total of 28,000. Here are the results and I would appreaciate hearing from you guys any comments.

Current UOM

Silicon 15
Potassium 0.0
Sodium 1.0
Fuel % Glycol % Soot -
Sulfation 237
Nitration 97

Boron 10.
Barium 0.0
Calcium 3204
Magnesuim 385
Molybdenum .2
Sodium 1.0
Phosphorus 1152
Sulfer 3813
Zinc 1784
Visc@100 degC 13.0

Iron 19 150
Nickel 0.0 5
Chromium 1.5 20
Copper 3.4 155
Aluminum 7.0 40
Tin .6 10
Lead 6.3 50
Silver 0.0 2

so here it is....I don't really know whaat some of these are and the effects these things will have on my motor....mabe some of you could comment on that as well...


thanks guys

 

[Patman]

With 17,400 miles on that oil, through a very cold winter, that report is excellent! If you calculate the wear out to ppm per 1000 miles, it's extremely low:

Iron-1.09
Lead-0.36
Al-0.40
Copper-0.195

There are many of us here who would kill for such extremely low wear numbers!

It has thickened up slightly to a low 40wt, but is still not too far off it's original viscosity. How much top up oil did you add?

One thing I'm curious about, how come so much zinc? I didn't think Amsoil had quite that much in it.

Silicon of 15ppm on such a long interval is excellent too! Less than 1ppm per 1000 miles! What kind of air filter are you using?

[ June 10, 2003, 09:01 AM: Message edited by: Patman ]

 

[Al]

Patman - I'm thinking the universal average is first?? If so-not so hot.

 

[Leadfoot]

sorry my columns got messed up???? not sure why??

 

[buster]

I'm not sure what I'm looking at but the oil stayed in grade very well, % change that is. Thats impressive. I can't tell which columns are which. Any makup oil used?

 

[Pablo]

Leadfoot - you must clarify the wear metals (Fe, Cu, PB, Al, Sn, Cr) - what actually were the wear metals in the oil?

Also, who did the analysis?

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by Al:
Patman - I'm thinking the universal average is first?? If so-not so hot.

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I think the first column on the left are his wear numbers, while the second numbers look to me like the "abnormal" numbers. I say this because those numbers in the second column are the same numbers I've seen listed on my Wearcheck reports (under the abnormal column), and his UOA appears to have been done by Wearcheck Canada. I'm 99% sure of that since the wear metals he listed are in the same order as Wearcheck lists them on their reports (plus the abnormal numbers are identical too)

[ June 10, 2003, 10:32 AM: Message edited by: Patman ]

 

[Patman]

I just noticed something interesting with this report. I had thought all along that the sulfation, nitration and oxidation numbers given to me by Wearcheck were exact percentages. I even talked to someone in the lab there who was sure it was listed in percentages too. However it's obviously impossible to have more than 100% on any of these values, so I'm going to have to go back and look at all my prior reports now. I had always wondered how it was possible for me to have 37% oxidation and 15% nitration on oil that was only in my car for 740 miles (when I took the early baseline sample last year at the beginning of one of my intervals)

 

[Spector]

Based upon my two results of the 0W the zinc is fine, mine are over 2000 so his are actually lower then mine but I had only 9000 miles approx. on the samples.

 

[Patman]

Interesting, I guess I didn't pay as much attention to previous 0w30 Amsoil UOAs as I thought, I had wrongfully assumed the zinc levels were closer to 1200 to 1300.

Technically speaking is there any real benefits to running that much more zinc? Or is all that excess just a waste? (sort of like how some people have mentioned that having too much moly can be a waste since you only need to have a certain amount in order to get the job done)

 

[buster]

quote:

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Technically speaking is there any real benefits to running that much more zinc? Or is all that excess just a waste? (sort of like how some people have mentioned that having too much moly can be a waste since you only need to have a certain amount in order to get the job done)

---

Thats a good question. I would think it's like taking two Advil for a headache is enough, 5 Advil will end up doing more harm then good. Same thing with Moly as you mentioned. Decreasing marginal returns.

I'll tell you what though, if those wear numbers are really that low, and based on the viscosity shown, I'll be eating my words for bashing this oil. Pablo probably wants to hang me.

[ June 10, 2003, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: buster ]

 

[Pablo]

Buster - Gnaw...never would wish ill on anyone...

I never took your words as bashing, more of a "forgotten goal" - the goal being IF this oil really is a 35K oil (in less than 1 year) then let's have the pudding. The oil maybe would have gone on in this case.

TBN?

It is a strange reporting format.

I tell you what baffles me is how much the P varies. I think P is difficult to measure. We had one P in Amsoil 0W-30 <800 and one at 801...now at 1152 ppm.....well duh, because the Zn is high!

 

[buster]

quote:

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I never took your words as bashing, more of a "forgotten goal" - the goal being IF this oil really is a 35K oil (in less than 1 year) then let's have the pudding. The oil maybe would have gone on in this case.

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Glad you understand. I come across like I"m bashing, and sometimes I am I guess. I know Amsoil is great stuff.

I'm also a hard to please.

[ June 10, 2003, 06:17 PM: Message edited by: buster ]

 

[Gebo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:

Silicon of 15ppm on such a long interval is excellent too! Less than 1ppm per 1000 miles! What kind of air filter are you using?

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Yea, what kind of oil and air filter did you use?

 

[mdv]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:
With 17,400 miles on that oil, through a very cold winter, that report is excellent!

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Isn't there 28k on the oil with 2 filter changes?

 

[TooSlick]

Leadfoot,

This is an excellent report with very low wear rates, in particular the rate of iron wear is excellent. The second column of numbers is indeed the condemnation limits - that's why they're nice round numbers like 50/150/20, etc.

I'm having a hard time making sense of the contamination data. I suspect nitration is on a scale of 1-200, so you about at 50% of the limit. Given the viscosity increase of about 18%, I'd say there is a fair amount of oxidation at this point. I'd change the oil and filter @ 30,000km, if you haven't done so already. It looks like 30k change intervals, with filter changes every 10k miles, will work fine in this application. You might be able to push things out to 40,000km, but without accurate TBN data I wouldn't want to try that.

Very good for first time use of the Amsoil 0w-30 on an engine with some miles on it....

TooSlick

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by mdv:

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:
With 17,400 miles on that oil, through a very cold winter, that report is excellent!

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Isn't there 28k on the oil with 2 filter changes?

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Yes, but it's 28,000 kilometers, which is 17,400 miles.

 

[Pablo]

OK This is an EXCELLENT report.

Where is that guy that bashed Amsoil and said to use Castrol with Rat407's report? I think if.....well I better shut my big mouth right here....

 

[Patman]

Pablo, it is even more impressive to me knowing how cold our winter was up here in Toronto. If he runs a similar interval in the warm weather only, you can be sure his iron levels will be at least half of what they were here, which will be simply incredible.

A lot of people doubt Amsoil, but it is without a doubt a top notch oil. Ignore the wild claims from some of the websites you read out there, and just look at the UOAs people, this oil definitely does it's job well.

 

[mdv]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:

quote:

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Originally posted by mdv:

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:
With 17,400 miles on that oil, through a very cold winter, that report is excellent!

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Isn't there 28k on the oil with 2 filter changes?

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Yes, but it's 28,000 kilometers, which is 17,400 miles.

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Forgot about that.