03 Forester - 5,000 miles - M1 mix

[buster]

Here is the latest UOA. Numbers in brackets were from the last UOA. The car had a new connecting rod and exhaust valve installed. Looks better, but not good enough. No oil consumption or smoke. Runs great. Question I have is, how long will a piston last with wear metals at these levels?

Currently running all Mobil 1 HM 5w30.

ALUMINUM 9 (6)
CHROMIUM 9 (15)
IRON 21 (26)
COPPER 3
LEAD 3
TIN 3
MOLYBDENUM 67
NICKEL 0
MANGANESE 0
SILVER 0
TITANIUM 0
POTASSIUM 3
BORON 46
SILICON 7
SODIUM 6
CALCIUM 989
MAGNESIUM 694
PHOSPHORUS 708
ZINC 809
BARIUM 0
SUS Viscosity @ 210F 57.5
cSt Viscosity @ 100C 9.51
Flash point in F 410
Fuel % Antifreeze % ?
Water % 0.0
Insolubles % 0.2
TBN N/A

 

[fdcg27]

Aluminum doesn't look that bad and a small ppm (although large percentage) increase from one UOA to the next should cause no great concern unless this trend continues.
Why did you need a new con rod and exhaust valve?
Looking at Sodium and potassium, you at least don't have head gasket problems.

 

[oliveoil]

How many miles on the car? What has your OCI been and what have you been using for oil? Finally, did it throw a rod or just start knocking?

 

[buster]

144k miles on it. Runs excellent. I've been using Mobil 1 the last 10k miles more more. I'm using all Mobil 1 5w30 HM currently. I don't plan on keeping it much longer. I've thought about keeping it as a off-road beater. It's built like a tank.

A bit of water got into the engine and the one rod was slightly bent. New exhaust valve/connecting rod, plugs and HG.

I'm going to keep an eye on the chromium. If the engine fails, oh well. The car is old. I've had a lot of fun with it this winter and last summer.

I may try M1 HM 10w40 next. Possibly Kendall GT-1.

 

[buster]

I'm going to put M1 0w40 in this weekend.

 

[901Memphis]

I don't see any wear patterns that would suggest it won't make it to 300k+

 

[Clevy]

The car around it will fall apart before the engine goes.
Wear metals in oil IS NOT AN ACCURATE INDICATOR OF WEAR.
I suggest reading Doug Hillary's posts about wear metals over 150ppm for a million miles yet at tear down the engine parts were measured and compared to when they were measured at the time the engine was assembled and all parts were within new tolerances and re-used when the engine was re-built.
He is an industry professional,with 4 decades in the field,so if he says a 30 dollar used oil analysis cannot measure wear in any real way I believe him.

They are meant to establish trends and can help give warnings when anomalies present themselves.
So don't put too much stock into the wear metals. The equipment used to analyze oil cannot see the damaging wear particles anyway due to size.
I used to believe that wear metals in a used oil analysis indicated actual wear. Thanks to the professionals here at bitog I learned otherwise.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Clevy

I suggest reading Doug Hillary's posts about wear metals over 150ppm for a million miles yet at tear down the engine parts were measured and compared to when they were measured at the time the engine was assembled and all parts were within new tolerances and re-used when the engine was re-built.


Just a note:

The engine was not rebuilt. It was a randomly selected engine from the fleet where one cylinder was pulled. The piston was checked, the liner checked, bearing checked...etc. Once the inspection was complete, those parts were simply put back into the engine and it was returned to service.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
I don't see any wear patterns that would suggest it won't make it to 300k+


Chromium is high. It's possible, but it should be lower. These are known to be durable engines.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: Clevy
The car around it will fall apart before the engine goes.
Wear metals in oil IS NOT AN ACCURATE INDICATOR OF WEAR.
I suggest reading Doug Hillary's posts about wear metals over 150ppm for a million miles yet at tear down the engine parts were measured and compared to when they were measured at the time the engine was assembled and all parts were within new tolerances and re-used when the engine was re-built.
He is an industry professional,with 4 decades in the field,so if he says a 30 dollar used oil analysis cannot measure wear in any real way I believe him.

They are meant to establish trends and can help give warnings when anomalies present themselves.
So don't put too much stock into the wear metals. The equipment used to analyze oil cannot see the damaging wear particles anyway due to size.
I used to believe that wear metals in a used oil analysis indicated actual wear. Thanks to the professionals here at bitog I learned otherwise.


Wear metal in oil is wear. What else could it be? Oil analysis is like a blood test. Ultimately you want lower wear metals in your oil sample. Oil analysis is used by formula one racing to monitor wear.

It becomes more involved determining the type of wear. That is more expensive. One oil may produce higher wear, but using more extensive testing such as a ferrography, find the wear particles are smaller than avg etc. Also, one oil could be producing lower wear (ppm) but be leaving behind more varnish/deposits etc. So that is where it becomes a bit limited of a tool.

You want to try and figure out the threshold and acceptable wear pattern.

The reason why wear is elevated here is due to the engine work. Mobil 1 0w40 is in the engine now.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: buster
Wear metal in oil is wear. What else could it be? Oil analysis is like a blood test. Ultimately you want lower wear metals in your oil sample. Oil analysis is used by formula one racing to monitor wear.

But, I bet Formula 1 teams don't bounce around from brand to brand and chemistry to chemistry between races, either.