Mobil 1 15W-50 EP, 2,628 mi., 1999 Harley TC88

[doyall]

1999 Harley Davidson 1450cc Twin Cam 88. 37,817 miles on unit. 2628 miles on oil. Mobil 1 15W-50 Extended Performance. In use about one year. No make-up oil. Fairly well always brought up to operating temps when ridden. Mostly ridden two-up and often very hard, but not as much this OCI as with others. Wix paper oil filter. Screaming Eagle (K&N) air filter. Sample taken 4-24-06. Analysis by Blackstone 5-1-06.

code:

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ALUMINIUM 4 5

CHROMIUM 0 0

IRON 15 15

COPPER 13 20

LEAD 3 2

TIN 1 1

MOLYBDENUM 73 26

NICKEL 0 0

MANGANESE 0 1

SILVER 0 0

TITANIUM 0 0

POTASSIUM 2

BORON 203

SILICON 9

SODIUM 5

CALCIUM 2794

MAGNESIUM 60

PHOSPHORUS 1070

ZINC 1324

BARIUM 0

SUS @ 210*F 83.3 (16.48 cSt @ 100*C if my calculations are correct)

Flash 385*F (flagged – should be >390*F)

Fuel
Antifreeze NA

Water 0.00

Insolubles 0.1

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Blackstone comments: Fuel contamination dropped from 1.8% last time to less than half a percent this time, which is a nice improvement. We don't think your Harley has any sort of fuel system problem. Wear still looks great and all metals improved on this shorter oil change. The universal averages column shows typical wear from this type of engine after 3600 miles on the oil. We don't think you'd have any problems if you added 2000-3000 miles to this fill for the next sample. The TBN read 8.6, still lots of active additive left. Looking
good! No problems found here.

My comments: Since this is still (barely) a 50 weight at temp and TBN remains good I think I’ll top it off and leave it in for another year.

 

[TomJones76]

Doyall,

I'm maintaining a database of UOA including the motorcycle UOA on here.
I like to track states for geographic trending. Whereabouts you garage this thing?
PS- Nice wear numbers.

 

[doyall]

Garaged in Montgomery, Alabama.

 

[fuel tanker man]

Thanks for sharing that report. I had wondered whether the EP stuff would serve well. Looks like it will.

However, I would point to my results with Havoline dino 20W50 as showing much better wear metal numbers. http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=52;t=000043 True, the bikes have different engines (mine is an older, Evolution model) but I (and probably others) would like to see a UOA on your bike with the Havoline.

I think we can sometimes fixate on the viscosity retention and TBN, with only secondary thought given to the real value of the UOA, which is the wear metal count.

True, there can be instances where an oil cleans up after a lesser oil which left metal laiden deposits here and there in the engine--but I'm becoming more suspect of that presumed routine occurrence, especially when we consider modern SL and SM spec motor oils.

For my part (and for my bike) I'll trust that low wear metal counts are good, and high ones are bad. Perhaps there is a case or two where that really isn't the whole story--but such cases would be the exception rather than the rule--so I'll take low wear metals over robust constitution of the drained oil any day.

Dan

 

[fonecord2]

 

[dnewton3]

What made you drag this up after six years?????

 

[fonecord2]

Hi, just doing reserch on the best oil for my vehicles. I'm thinking about using vr1 20w50 conventional and synthetic 50% mix. Using amsoil now. In the past: Mobile 15w50 and 20w50.

 

[fonecord2]