02 WRX Synergyn 6840 miles

[Santo Fontana]

This was the 3rd change with synergyn 5w30.
I have the 4th change in the sump now with a bosch oil filter, and LC.

oil in use: 3.5 months
mileage: 68,094
oil filter: purolator premium plus
air filter: paper fram (all previous uoas done with K&N panel)

NO FUEL OR OIL ADDITIVES, just 93 oct, mostly from Hess.

Cars mods are the same as last uoa, minus the K&N:
turbo back exhaust, headers, uppipe
sti v7 intercooler
walbro fuel pump
utec engine mgt w/ wideband o2


running 17-18 psi on stock turbo, only a couple minor knock events (1 counts - "shift knock")picked up by utec

this interval included 6 trips from Mass to NY, totalling 3600 miles (roughly).

code:

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oil RP ASL Amsoil Synergyn Synergyn



mileage 3100 5174 7156 5023 6840





aluminum 3 2 2 3 3

chromium 1 1 1 1 1

iron 7 5 5 7 8

copper 2 2 3 4 3

lead 0 0 2 4 7

tin 0 2 1 0 2

moly 92 9 3 70 87

nickel 0 0 1 1 1

manganese 0 0 0 0 0

silver 0 0 0 0 0

titanium 0 0 0 0 0

potassium 0 0 0 0 0

boron 26 41 26 78 77

silicon 4 6 5 5 5

sodium 3 2 2 4 4

calcium 2161 2200 2177 2766 3225

magnesium 63 663 590 10 9

phosphorus 862 954 741 1073 1231

zinc 946 1148 880 1210 1463

barium 0 0 0 0 0



vis@210f 64.0 64.0 66.4 64.9 64.2

flashpoint 340 390 390 375 355

fuel 1.5
antifreeze 0 0 0 0 0

water 0 0 0 0 0

insolubles 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.4

TBN n/a 6.9 6.2 6.0 5.1

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I didnt drive the car as much as I usually do before I changed the oil so that could account for the fuel. Also it is very cold.

Basically happy w/ results but lead could be better.

I would like to be able to crack 400 flash, and be able to stay at 0.3 insols above 5,000 miles. Maybe its not possible.

Any comments will be appreciated.

Good to see all the Suby owners posting!

[ February 04, 2005, 10:19 PM: Message edited by: Santo Fontana ]

 

[427Z06]

You mentioned you used LC. How much, what intervals?

 

[Santo Fontana]

No I did not use LC. I didnt use any gas or oil adds for this uoa.

LC Is in the car now.

 

[Santo Fontana]

I forgot, a little under a quart makeup.

 

[GreenElixer]

SO,
My comments would suggest that the wear metal levels per 1k miles indicate that the Amsoil is the clear winner in your engine. Aluminum, Iron, Copper, Lead, and Tin all lower with more miles on the oil w/ Amsoil. TBN and Flashpoint both held up much better too.

On the other hand, the Synergyn oil was really pretty good too. All single digits in wear metals and a solid TBN after nearly 7k miles. You really have it boiled down to which oil do you personally prefer, cost per quart, ease of obtainability, and other preferences...because they all seemed to do well in your car.

Also, based on your UOA numbers, you can, IMHO, easily go 10k miles on OCI...maybe 12.5 or 15k miles w/ LC and FP adds.

 

[Santo Fontana]

I agree that Amsoil appears to be the winner, however that 7k run was done in the spring, so no super cold starts, and it was before I had the utec. Also I put the miles on a little faster during the Amsoil interval. The lead does bother me now that I take a look at the report again, I might have to try an interval with amsoil again and see what happens.

As far as going past 7K, I dont think Ill do it unless I find a way to keep the flash up and insols down.

[ February 05, 2005, 01:06 PM: Message edited by: Santo Fontana ]

 

[Santo Fontana]

Just a bump for anyone interested in Synergyn.

I have about 3 more oil changes worth so I hope to see the lead come down a bit.

Even if it didnt I would be confident runing this oil 10K under severe conditions.

 

[LubeOiler]

I just wondered if you ever considered useing Synergyn Oil treatment at say 5000 miles. Perhaps the lead would be as low as Amsoil or I would expect lower all wear metals.

 

[TooSlick]

I'd run the Amsoil Series 2000, 0w30 or Series 3000, 5w30 in this application. I believe you'll be able to extend your service intervals out to perhaps 10k miles and still reduce this iron wear.

Tooslick

 

[buster]

Iron wear? What? It's below 10ppm. Ted, with all due respect you have to get a handle on what is high wear. Call OAI and they will tell you. Wear, including Pb in this report is virtually non-existant among all oils. Your going to make this guy paranoid.

 

[TooSlick]

Who said anything about iron wear? I was specifically referring to BEARING wear (Pb/Sn/Cu) in this case.

The solution here is simply a bit higher oil pressure to maintain hydrodynamic lubrication in the main/rod bearings...

Am I picking nits? Of course, but that's my job.

Ted

 

[buster]

quote:

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I believe you'll be able to extend your service intervals out to perhaps 10k miles and still reduce this iron wear.

---

You did.

 

[TooSlick]

Buster,

Synergyn has a high ester content, like RL and it takes a while for the bearing wear to stabilize after the initial reaction of the additive chemistry.

The first time I ran Synergyn in my Tacoma, Pb jumped to 41 ppm for a 6250 mile interval. The Pb wear may well come down in time with continued use of the Synergynm, so I may be jumping the gun in retrospect...

I do like the Synergyn formulation approach very much and their additive treat level is robust. Go back and look at some VOA's for these formulations!!!

Ted

 

[buster]

quote:

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Go back and look at some VOA's for these formulations!!!

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They use an identical add pack to M1 SS, only they probably use esters rather then AN's. Same amount of Moly/Boron and much higher ZDDP. Flash points are low though which is odd for an oil that suposedly has higher ester content. The different chemistries interacting with different metals and forming different films is why I don't get too excited about small differences in ppm wear metals. However, it's hard to distinguish this from corrosive wear which I hope isn't the case with RL and Pb/bearing wear metals.

 

[TooSlick]

The additive treat level of the Synergyn 0w-20/3w-30/5w30 is more like the Mobil 1R, 0w30 and not the GF-4, or even the EP formulations....
These lubricants are highly additized for racing or HiPo applications....

I think that Synergyn is using low viscosity, dibasic acid esters and not polyol-esters, hence the relatively low FP's....The 3w-30 seems to be the best price/performance compromise amoung these three.

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by buster:
Wear, including Pb in this report is virtually non-existant among all oils. Your going to make this guy paranoid.

---

Amen. Dominus vobiscum.

 

[Santo Fontana]

Well Ive done a couple more uoas since this one. Castrol Syntec blend 10w30 at about 3k basically shows better wear numbers.

I dont know what is really going on with the synergyn an the slightly higher lead, but seeing less on the report makes me feel better. It also makes my wallet feel better when I use an OTC oil. That and the higher vis is why Im trying rotella synth 5w40 now.

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by Santo Fontana:
Castrol Syntec blend 10w30 at about 3k basically shows better wear numbers....seeing less on the report makes me feel better.

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I understand. But you're measuring noise at this level.

 

[Santo Fontana]

Agreed.

 

[Idrinkmotoroil]

at what point did you increase boost levels ? were boost levels the same on all runs or just with the Synergyn ?, higher lead can usually be associated with increased boost as you put more pressure on the rod bearings. Your lead numbers are not high, and I can understand some of the comments about not worrying about such small numbers, but going from 0 to 7 seems like an increase that is worth consideration in my books, so it might be worth noting at what point the boost was increased.