Penn Ultra 5W30, Subaru Impreza 2.5i, 5000mi

[Dominic]

Subaru Impreza 2.5i 5-speed manual
WIX Oil & Air Filters + FilterMAG

Background: I mailed in this sample to test the durability of Pennzoil Ultra and to determine if I had an internal headgasket leak. I noticed a wetness under the block on the driver's side that appeared to be a coolant/oil mixture. The car has never leaked or lost engine oil or coolant since I bought it new. Up until this UOA, I had always run Valvoline Synpower 5W30.

Blackstone Comments: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me on the phone. Back in 2008, Valvoline Synpower didn't have sodium, but we have a virgin sample from April of this year which does. That means that most (if not all) of the sodium we are seeing here is residual additive. Since you've seen some evidence of a coolant leak, we'll leave a ? there for now, but with wear looking this good, we don't think much antifreeze has gotten into the oil. The TBN is great, at 5.8, so this oil can go longer. Keep an eye on your coolant level, and check back at 7,000 miles. Nice!

Code:


OIL Penn Ultra 5W30 Synpower 5W30

MILES IN USE 5,000 5000

MILES 89,796 15,000

SAMPLE TAKEN 08/24/11 03/15/08



ALUMINUM 3 2

CHROMIUM 0 1

IRON 5 5

COPPER 4 2

LEAD 0 0

TIN 3 0

MOLYBDENUM 42 3

NICKEL 0 0

MANGANESE 0 0

SILVER 0 0

TITANIUM 0 0

POTASSIUM 3 3

BORON 275 8

SILICON 11 5

SODIUM 161 5

CALCIUM 2721 2296

MAGNESIUM 11 7

PHOSPHORUS 655 672

ZINC 738 816

BARIUM 0 2





Visc @ 210F 57.3 58.5

cSt Visc 100C 9.44 9.78

FLashpoint 410F 405F

Fuel %
Antifreeze ? 0.0

Water % 0.0 0.0

Insolubles % 0.3 0.4

TBN 5.8 3.2




So what I can gather is this appears to be nothing serious at all. To make my day even better Blackstone called me and talked to me about the report before issuing it, which is just going above and beyond what I expect for a UOA. I will retest my oil in another interval to see if the sodium drops.

Also, I'm extremely impressed with the durability of this oil. I didn't just commute on this oil, this car went up and down the tail of the dragon several times and was driven hard around the mountains during this interval. I can't believe the great wear and incredible 5.8 TBN. It might just convince me to go 7-10K per OCI from now on.

Also, I have changed the coolant for more genuine subaru green long-life coolant and I used 2 bottles of the conditioner just in case this is an early headgasket weep.

 

[Donald]

I agree that this is a great UOA. However if PU did not do extremely well at 5K, there would be something very wrong.

 

[buster]

Great results. Where is the Na coming from?

 

[Patman]

In order for there to be that much sodium leftover as residual from the previous oil, the Synpower would have to have something like 500-600ppm of sodium in it (which is doubtful), so I'd still keep a close eye on things here.

 

[chubbs1]

I really like the Ultra, I have noticed lately that people are griping that it isn't SN approved. I could care less, it doesn't really affect a base-oil like this. I don't want to get too off topic though...great oil, great UOA thanks for posting it. Looks like your engine is A-OK. There would have been at least more potassium in the oil and, as you said, I would fully expect most if not all the sodium is residual.

 

[Dominic]

I agree Patman. They said the Valvoline virgin sample has ~300ppm, so I'm a little suspicious still but, it doesn't look traumatic at least.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: Patman
In order for there to be that much sodium leftover as residual from the previous oil, the Synpower would have to have something like 500-600ppm of sodium in it (which is doubtful), so I'd still keep a close eye on things here.


I looked through the VOAs on BITOG for Synpower and the Na was 490.

 

[Dominic]

Thank you Donald! That's very helpful to me.

Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: Patman
In order for there to be that much sodium leftover as residual from the previous oil, the Synpower would have to have something like 500-600ppm of sodium in it (which is doubtful), so I'd still keep a close eye on things here.


I looked through the VOAs on BITOG for Synpower and the Na was 490.

 

[bluesubie]

I would extend to the normal service interval of 7,500 miles, provided that you don't see any other evidence of a HG problem. I ran conventional Pennzoil HM in a 2000 RS at 5k intervals and just switched to PP and plan to go 7,500 miles on it.

Did you use a different air filter for the first OCI?

-Dennis

 

[Dominic]

Blue -
The first air filter was the OE Subaru unit. I used it for many miles and later switched to the WIX. I do see that the silicon is a bit higher, but on this interval I had been driving down some extremely dusty dirt roads near cabins in TN. If the silicon doesn't drop back on the next test, I may switch back to an OE Subaru Air Filter.

 

[ltslimjim]

I strongly doubt coolant entry. I had residual wash out from Valvoline runs with an oil change of Mobil1 AFE 0w-30 in my sig app, that was the 'in-between' interval, from Valvoline MaxLife ran 3-4 3,000 OCIs over to Amsoil's 0w-30. My first UOA showed Na like this, and it got better after a subsequent OCI from the first UOA. It can take 2-3 oil changes to wash out the add pack from my experience in this app, anyway.

Run this same setup again to 7,500 and sample, without changing the oil. If it looks good 10,000 could be a breeze.