2010 Fusion 2.5 - 6865 mi - Valv ML 5w30+LubeGard

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Well, this is the 3nd oil change I've done, following the valve job / top-end work I had done, and the 2nd of those that I ran out to ~ 7,500 miles, although I pulled the trigger a little early on this one due to the engine sounding noisier over most of the OCI. The red line indicates before/after the top-end work.

I'm having a hard time putting my finger on what exactly is making the engine seem noisier.. maybe it's an exhaust leak, perhaps an engine mount worn/wearing out.. dunno. I actually was concerned a bearing was going, which is why I pulled the trigger early, but the UOA doesn't seem to point to a bad bearing.. so I don't know.

Copper and aluminum are a bit higher than I'd like to see, but not at a level that I'd consider scary at this point.. Could they be from the new head gasket?

This fill had a full bottle of LubeGard BioTech engine oil additive in with it.. does anyone know if that has copper and/or aluminum in it? Does anyone else have experience with it, in general?

All in all, I do feel better about the engine.. at least I'm not worried about bearing failure at this point.

 
The reason I don't put additives in my engine. You don't know what is in it to get an honest analysis.
 
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SirTanon
Typical numbers after having the cylinder head worked. This engine has served you well. As far as noise, there should be more noise after .25 million miles.
 
AFAIK there is no copper or aluminum in LG Bio EP. Shoot them an email with your concerns, they're usually pretty good at getting back to you.
 
You can try some Castrol Magnatec 5w30 in it to see if that quiets it down any. Not sure I'd mix anything else into the oil as far as additives go.
 
Skip the additive. My 2.3 Fusion has only had 20 wt oils and most of that 0-20. No more noise in this engine now than when purchased, although these engines are prone to be slightly noisy but long lasting.
 
Accessories driven by the belt can be very noisy. If you take the belt off and run the engine for a few seconds only, you will understand.
 
Wear metals look good. Viscosity is still well within grade. If you're having noise issues, I would try running magnatec next time. It really quieted my escort zx2 which ha flat tappet cams, at 150k miles of wear.
 
Originally Posted By: Lubener
The reason I don't put additives in my engine. You don't know what is in it to get an honest analysis.


Originally Posted By: tig1
Skip the additive.


Yeah. I bought some LubeGard Red to put in my transmission, and the engine stuff seemed to have good feedback too, so I figured I'd give it a go.. Of course, after I put it in, I thought to myself "now why did I feel I needed to add this to my oil?".. but it was already in, so I left it.


Originally Posted By: tig1
No more noise in this engine now than when purchased, although these engines are prone to be slightly noisy but long lasting.


Originally Posted By: MParr
Typical numbers after having the cylinder head worked. This engine has served you well. As far as noise, there should be more noise after .25 million miles.


Yeah, I have observed many times previously that this engine tends to be kind of noisy.. even fully warmed up, it sounds like a sewing machine on steroids. Maybe it's just my imagination, or maybe I'm being hyper vigilant, but it just seems to sound different. Probably something to do with how it was all put back together after the top-end work was done. Not sure. At highway speeds, it seems pretty smooth, although there is some of what I think may be wheel bearing noise/vibration.. other than that, it winds up fine on the onramps, etc..

And yeah, I'd say the engine has done well, considering that it's already made it to the moon and is on its way back. I know I've heard this 2.5 liter referred to as 'bulletproof' before too.


Originally Posted By: SR5
I thinks it looks OK to me.
Is this the full synthetic or semi-synthetic MaxLife ?


Standard red jug MaxLife.. so semi-syn. I do have some jugs of the full-syn stuff too.


Originally Posted By: PimTac
Are you sure the noise is internal?


No.. I'm not. Sometimes it sounds like it might be, and other times, it doesn't. If anything it might be piston slap, but I doubt that, based on the wear metals in this UOA. Could very well just be normal vibration transmitted through worn-out engine mount, or dog-bone strut mount. Heck, it could even be an odd exhaust leak that just sounds metallic.


Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
You can try some Castrol Magnatec 5w30 in it to see if that quiets it down any. Not sure I'd mix anything else into the oil as far as additives go.


I don't plan to add any additives to my oil going forward... although I do have a very light dose of mos2 in with the current fill.. I'll be going with just straight oil on my future fills.

Originally Posted By: John_Dude
Wear metals look good. Viscosity is still well within grade. If you're having noise issues, I would try running magnatec next time. It really quieted my escort zx2 which ha flat tappet cams, at 150k miles of wear.


Funny that you both mention magnatec.. must be something to it. If I didn't already have something like 65 quarts of oil on hand, I'd probably get some magnatec and try it..

While we're on the subject, this is what I have in my stash currently.. which would you say should be my next fill:

Mobil Super Synthetic 5w30
Valvoline MaxLife Synthetic 5w30
Havoline Conventional 5w20
Havoline High Mileage 5w20
Kendall GT-1 (Titanium) 5w30
Rotella T4 10w30
Rotella T5 10w30
 
I think things are looking OK. This engine is fairly "new" on the top, so let's give it a little time to settle down. This is only the third OCI on the new head work. Let's give it a chance to show how well things can run for another 250k!

I don't understand why folks recommend different brands of lubes, as if one brand is going to magically make something quieter? Bah-humbug!
 
Magnatec helps with valve train noise due to the same principle that having more zddp helps. I've ran mobil 1 0w-30 with rislone zddp additive (boosts zddp to 1600-1800ppm) to achieve the same effect. I believe magnatec just has some esters that stick to the lifter buckets and cam lobes better than your typical low-zddp add pack of current sn oil formulations.

The difference is cold-start valve train noise is pretty dramatic. Once warmed up it's a smaller difference, but still noticable.

The zx2 has solid tappets, so to do a valve lash adjustment you have to change the whole tappet which are not available anymore.

I wonder if his noise is from an incorrectly set clearance...

Next oci I'm going to try Castrol edge HM to see if it has the same esters as magnatec
 
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Quote:
Standard red jug MaxLife.. so semi-syn


It did very well, viscosity is still in grade after almost 7000 miles.
 
Quote:
Mobil Super Synthetic 5w30
Valvoline MaxLife Synthetic 5w30
Havoline Conventional 5w20
Havoline High Mileage 5w20
Kendall GT-1 (Titanium) 5w30
Rotella T4 10w30
Rotella T5 10w30


All excellent choices.

I would go the Kendall with 100 ppm Titanium.
 
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