SynPower 5W30: 3,640 Miles - 09 Acura RDX Turbo

[IntegraVT]

I was curious as to how a GM 4718M oil would hold up in the turbo Honda since almost all of the HTO-06 oils are on GM's list. So here's the first non-HTO-06 UOA on the K23A1 -

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This OCI was mostly city driving with regular weekend highway runs. OLM was down to 20%, only paranoia prevented me from running it all the way down to 0% without a UOA.

I was a little worried about the sodium number, but it looks like this is normal for Ashland's add pack from some of the VOAs on NAPA/SynPower. I refilled with the same but now have more confidence to run it a bit longer.

 

[Bruce T]

I don't know about typical UOA numbers for a Honda 2.3 liter turbo, but I'm guessing this is good performance for a turbo engine that is still breaking in? An OCI of 3k for this oil in this engine seems about right to me.

IntegraVT, did you kick in the turbocharger very often during this time? If you did, then it's even more impressive.

Do you plan to stick with the SynPower, or switch to something like Red Line 5W-30?

 

[Audi Junkie]

Buster claims HT-06 is a deposit spec. As confident as I am in SynPower, it's worrysome. Still, all in all, it seems to work in terms of wear.

 

[addyguy]

Usually I would say 3600-miles on a syn is waste, but at 20% OLM on a new engine, I'd do the same thing. Engine is trending down nicely.

 

[vxcalais]

These figures are 4x less than Mobil

Only kidding, but Valvoline certainly showing some excellent UOA on here.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
Buster claims HT-06 is a deposit spec. As confident as I am in SynPower, it's worrysome. Still, all in all, it seems to work in terms of wear.


Right. It is a deposit spec. and Synpower does not currently meet it. I'm not sure a 3k mile interval using a non-approved oil will do much if any damage, but I would be cautious.

Valvoline is now using Na in both Synpower and their regular oils. Both are great oils.

 

[buster]

Nice report btw. Metals are low.

 

[zulu]

Hmmmm... not a stout offering from Ashland. Wead add pack and it's already bordering on a 20W in <4k miles? Numbers look good though.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: zulu
Hmmmm... not a stout offering from Ashland. Wead add pack and it's already bordering on a 20W in div>


Huh? They are actually using a very good add pack. You can't judge an oil just by high levels of certain additives.

Modern PCMO's are reducing a lot of metallic additives and are replacing them with additives that don't show up in used oil analysis.

 

[IntegraVT]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

The first UOA was factory fill Mobil 1 with an unusually high moly number (Honda's secret sauce/assembly lube?); second UOA was Mobil 1 5w30 just to see if the the iron/copper numbers went down a bit. I think SynPower held up pretty well in the viscosity area compared to M1.

Bruce T, it's hard not to use the turbo on this guy. Honda has it programmed for 13~14 psi of boost until 4500RPM then it feathers down to about 8 psi near redline. I'm going to do one more OCI on SynPower then switch to the PP in my stash. After than, maybe experiment with Edge or GC.

I think it's been mentioned by a couple of the RDX owners on here, but the OLM is VERY conservative on these. My TL will get close to 10k miles under similar conditions (calibrated for dino, btw) before it gets to single digits where the RDX does less than half of that with an HTO-06 calibrated OLM.

 

[Bruce T]

I didn't realize that HTO-06 was about deposit formation. It makes me nervous experimenting with non-approved oils, too. Gets me thinking about things like high flash point oils, Auto-Rx and Lube Control, Red Line oil, consulting with Terry Dyson, etc.

 

[Izb]

excellent UOA!

 

[unDummy]

Excellent UOA. Whats the sump size?

Run your next change down to 1% and get a TBN. Wonder how fancy the OLM's algorithm is?

Edge, GC, PP should work just as well. I truly don't think that any full synthetic with a GF4/SM rating would have any deposit issues IF: sump is not run to low, if OCI is not excessive, if the vehicle doesn't overheat...

Makes you wonder if HTO-06 is to GF4 like GF5 is to GF4. Did Honda not want to wait for GF5?

Or, are automakers still paranoid of the word synthetic? Use an HTO-06 oil, a 4718m oil, a 505.01 a weight here>........? Is the word "synthetic" a bad word?

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: unDummy
Or, are automakers still paranoid of the word synthetic? Use an HTO-06 oil, a 4718m oil, a 505.01 a weight here>........? Is the word "synthetic" a bad word?

Interesting idea. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case.

Either way, I don't think it's enough just to say "synthetic". In and of itself, that doesn't really say much about the formulation or the oil's capabilities.

 

[IntegraVT]

Originally Posted By: unDummy
Excellent UOA. Whats the sump size?

Run your next change down to 1% and get a TBN. Wonder how fancy the OLM's algorithm is?


Thanks! The RDX takes 5 quarts, it's a drop bigger than the average Honda sump but nothing compared to other makes.

I don't know how fancy it is, but it is really conservative: slalom44 posted a ~6k mile/0% OLM UOA (on Mobil 1) on his RDX and it came back with a 4.1 TBN. My prior TBNs were a bit lower in mid 3's with less mileage. Probably due to more city driving, but still okay. Looks like they programmed in plenty of slack.