1996 Town Car 136,606 miles - Unknown Oil - Unknown mileage

[Pepsibottle1]

New to me 96 Town Car. Super clean and runs like a total dream. That's why this UOA came as a total shock to me. I'm not noting any unsual noises, and even my techs made note of how smooth the engine ran while in service.

I changed the oil with 5W30 PP High Mileage because it was on sale at Wally World, and used a Motorcraft oil filter from work. It's only been about 400 miles but I'm contemplating changing oil again due to the not-so-good news. The engine air filter looked good on inspection when I changed the oil

Thoughts?

 

[Graham Piccinini]

If you bought it from older folks - they're not known for keeping track of OCIs. Likely just an overdue OCI, with Jiffy Lube oil from a barrel, and with lots of short trips to play Bingo and back.
I'd go with your intuition and replace the current fill at 500-1000 miles. Then next fill for 3000 miles, then next fill for normal length run and sample the oil again.

 

[Pepsibottle1]

If you bought it from older folks - they're not known for keeping track of OCIs. Likely just an overdue OCI, with Jiffy Lube oil from a barrel, and with lots of short trips to play Bingo and back.
I'd go with your intuition and replace the current fill at 500-1000 miles. Then next full for 3000 miles, then next full for normal run and sample again.

Confirmed bought from old folks. It's a creampuff

 

[JoelB]

I agree with Graham. Need a baseline where you know the oil and mileage before going too crazy here.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Yes, do a couple short runs and change it out a couple times. You didn't mention what color the oil looked like. If it was nice and clean looking you probably have a problem.

 

[fantastic]

This reads to me that it could've been run low on oil or like above posters run too long of an interval. Run the HM another 1k then sample to see what it looks like again. I'd just run some standard conventional oil through a few cycles before any expensive oil goes in.

 

[Pepsibottle1]

Yes, do a couple short runs and change it out a couple times. You didn't mention what color the oil looked like. If it was nice and clean looking you probably have a problem.

The oil was at level, but it was pretty dark when I changed it. It wasn't horrendously black or smelled burnt. Pre-trip before driving to the race this weekend, the new oil is already starting to change color and darken. I suspect it is doing a good job of cleaning up.

If I was hearing some degree of engine noise I would probably be more worried, but it runs and drives great. I know these engines have a great track record too

 

[himemsys]

I wonder if at some point on this OCI it was run without an air filter. Or a damaged air filter that was changed before you took ownership.

 

[twX]

I suspect the wear was caused by silicon dirt. If it wasn't for the high wear, I'd expect that there was some recent engine work and that the silicon was due to sealant. With both high silicon and high wear metals, it's pretty likely that oil was contaminated with dirt.

100+ ppm of dust in the oil could be expected to increase wear by over a factor of 10, which is pretty much what we see based on the wear metals in your UOA.

It could be that the car was driven on dirt roads with poor air filtration. Is the airbox dusty at all? Is the air filter new? Could be that the previous owner found a dirty airbox, cleaned it, changed the air filter, then decided to just buy a new car with an engine that wasn't dusted. You might want to check for vacuum leaks or a poor filter seal.

I'd change the oil again. Typically around 15% of the old oil remains after an oil change. If you had 130 ppm of dust in the oil, it would now be 20 ppm, which is still enough to triple the normal wear rate according to that chart. After the next oil change it will be down to around 3 ppm, which should be about good enough. Even after the oil is clean, it can take a while for the worn surfaces to "heal" and wear rates to go back to normal. I'd use an efficient oil filter like a FRAM Ultra or Endurance for at least one OCI to help filter out any residual dirt and deal with elevated metals from a lingering high wear rate.

 

[Lubener]

I would run a short interval 2500-3000 miles with a less expensive oil to clean things up. Then resume your regular interval and you might want to recheck with another analysis.

 

[MParr]

Try switching to a 10W40 high mileage oil.
Check your air box, intake tubing, and use a Motorcraft or WIX/NAPA Gold air filter.

 

[Pepsibottle1]

Pulled the car back in, I put a new Motorcraft air filter in and blew out the airbox, confirmed everything was tight. It didn't look that bad at all but the filter was a little dusty. Probably will do another oil change after I swing by wally again and pick up a 5qt Saturday. The owner before me says he owned a construction company and drove around in this in lieu of putting miles on his truck so maybe dusty job sites?

 

[fantastic]

Pulled the car back in, I put a new Motorcraft air filter in and blew out the airbox, confirmed everything was tight. It didn't look that bad at all but the filter was a little dusty. Probably will do another oil change after I swing by wally again and pick up a 5qt Saturday. The owner before me says he owned a construction company and drove around in this in lieu of putting miles on his truck so maybe dusty job sites?

The wear metals seem to tract with the avg's so I'm thinking too long of a run & if the oil wasn't low on the dipstick then hard use, long duration, & or work done internally could be the reasons. Did the prior owner mention anything about repairs? If not then probably none has been done recently & can rule it out. We can't really get too excited yet b/c we don't see any trends just really contaminated oil. Just run this oil for 1k or so then change it, run that for 1-3k & sample? It's up to you how you want to handle it but I think it's fair to say trying to flush out the engine with another change then continuing to sample is a good idea. In the meantime just enjoy your new cruiser. Checking the filter is a good start along with the initial oil change.

 

[cptbarkey]

I would do another UOA very soon. Napa/Wix have a quick turnaround. Blackstone is slow. I agree with others, likely neglected, but another UOA would confirm.

 

[Artem]

I would run a short interval 2500-3000 miles with a less expensive oil to clean things up. Then resume your regular interval and you might want to recheck with another analysis.

I’d say, if 10-15% of this residual oil remained in the engine, why would you run the now contaminated oil for 3 THOUSAND MILES instead of flushing it out ASAP?

A flush is a few hundred miles at best. 5-10 heat cycles over the course of a week should be enough for the new oil to clean up all that it technically can and dump it to remove the abrasive oil ASAP.

 

[Artem]

This reads to me that it could've been run low on oil or like above posters run too long of an interval. Run the HM another 1k then sample to see what it looks like again. I'd just run some standard conventional oil through a few cycles before any expensive oil goes in.

Pennzoil Platinum is considered “expensive”?

A 6qt box of Havoline conventional is $19.99
A 6qt box of Havoline synthetic oil is $28.27

Synthetic oils obviously has more additives in it. If you’re trying to flush out and clean the engine, why would you use an oil that has less additives??? It doesn’t make sense to me. Use the exact oil that you plan to keep using even after the flush to keep the oil additives consistent and not throw off the next UOA by mixing oils and have more residual oil messing up the report.

 

[fantastic]

Pennzoil Platinum is considered “expensive”?

A 6qt box of Havoline conventional is $19.99
A 6qt box of Havoline synthetic oil is $28.27

Synthetic oils obviously has more additives in it. If you’re trying to flush out and clean the engine, why would you use an oil that has less additives??? It doesn’t make sense to me. Use the exact oil that you plan to keep using even after the flush to keep the oil additives consistent and not throw off the next UOA by mixing oils and have more residual oil messing up the report.

Never said it was expensive. But I Don't know what the price is for PP these days either. There is absolutely no need to spend a lot of money on High priced oil & dump it in 1k when that could be the affordable solution here in this case. There are many store brand synthetics that offer the same exact add pack that come in their conventional line. The only difference is the base oils.

 

[Artem]

@fantastic — idk, Supertech (along with others who have this type of label on the bottle) all seem to suggest that their synthetic counterparts have better sludge fighting ability.

I’m just saying… dumping $25 worth of synthetic oil during a 500 mile engine flush isn’t a big deal. The price difference between using some el cheapo conventional is $8.

 

[fantastic]

@fantastic — idk, Supertech (along with others who have this type of label on the bottle) all seem to suggest that their synthetic counterparts have better sludge fighting ability.

I’m just saying… dumping $25 worth of synthetic oil during a 500 mile engine flush isn’t a big deal. The price difference between using some el cheapo conventional is $8.

Well, I tend to agree with what you're showing & saying. Using synthetic after a very short run of conventional could be cost effective though and resolve the high readings. Run some conventional for 1k dump, then throw in some synthetic if you'd like then test the oil. That's what i'd do. I would think that the synthetic may not be in the sump for long enough time to make any difference in the short run. But to your point if it's just a few bucks more, for synthetic, then no one's going to lose any sleep over it.

 

[himemsys]

@Artem @fantastic

I haven't seen conventional oil on the shelves at WM in years. The cheapest oils there are Supertech and Quaker State. Typically around $19 for a 5qt jug. And typically full synthetic or synthetic blend. So why go out of your way to find conventional that may only be 20 cents per qt cheaper when you can just buy a cheap full synthetic for a short flush? I guess I just don't get how conventional even enters this conversation.