Oil Analysis Results - follow up to "Break-In Oil"

Great information. How would an unused sample of the oil test out? I suppose it's too late to get a sample of the same lot that was in your engine prior to use.

Al

Some might say buying a WRX is a waste of money too. I happen to think this was pretty interesting, especially since it didn't cost *me* a dime. :-)

-John O

The guy bought a WRX and he wants to know what's going on with the oil. If it pleases him, it's not a waste. How much do you spend on cable tv?

I did it more out of curiosity. There seemed to be a varying opinion of when to perform the first oil change. I wanted to verify if there was a high amount of moly - as suggested by several posters. I did my first oil change **exactly** at the point recommended in the manual.

Yep - and for a lot of people, working on and finding out about their cars is a hobby. What do you think keeps auto maintenance discussions going?

What a waste of time and money dont you think the factory knows what they are doing?

Agreed...and many folks will probably spend that much on beer in a month. BTW, what does this cost, and where are you & "Blackstone" based--US, UK, Oz?

steve

It doesn't cost much to get oil analyzed, if you have a car with known head gasket issues it can save you money in the long run but giving you prior warning to failure.

US $20 - and they're in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They're one of the better known operations that will do analysis for individual vehicles. Most oil analysis labs will only do work in volume. They also provided a test kit for free. I could have theoretically kept it. :-)

I've only had one other oil analysis - the sample was taken during a AAA vehicle diagnostic in 1995. That was an additional $15, but it would have been $20 without the diagnostic. They sent it off to a place called Herguth Labs in Vallejo, CA. I also had a phone # to call if I had questions. It looks like they've upped the price to $22.50.

I remember seeing a prepaid oil analysis kit sold at AutoZone. Don't recall the name of the company.

Thanks...interesting stuff!

Steve

Hi,

Thanks for the report!

As for the numbers, I've never had oil analysis done on my engines, but friends have. What the lab told you about numbers getting better with time held true with their engines. An old time engineer told me you need to do the analysis several times to set baselines for YOUR engine since different oils, fuels and engines produce slight variations, hence the "average" numbers.

Hope to see more "progress reports!"

Rick

Hmmmm...

One gentleman spends $20 or so to give us all some interesting and possibly useful info. Another probably spends a similar amount each month for internet access so he can criticize. Where's the REAL waste of money?

Rick

If you are interested in used oil analysis, visit

and scroll down to "UsedOil Analysis-Gas Engines". Lots of them there. Consensus there are Subarusare pretty easy on oil...non-turbo anyways. bg

I dunno. I'm not planning on sending in any more samples until after the engine is broken-in (maybe after 6K miles). I knew the wear metals were going to be high. I just wanted to put to rest the whole break-in issue. There's something different about the oil.

Now it makes me regret that I changed the oil too soon (1000 miles), the moly content is high, do not know why subura says there is nothing special about the factory oil (someone claimed he called Subaru and got the infomation).

Leon,

Ever hear the saying, "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses before zebras?" The moly content being high COULD (not saying IS) be from something as simple as the assembly lube used when the engine was built. The stuff I've used for years is a MoS2 based "grease." Wouldn't take much to skew the numbers on that first change. Just a thought... I doubt you really hurt anything with the early change.

Rick

An analysis isn't hard to influence. I remember the first hair analysis I got over 30 years ago. I trimmed a hair sample with nickel plated scissors, rather than stainless steel. Took a while to realize why it indicated alarming levels of nickel. The 'next' $20 I invested showed everything normal.

BoB

Well - I thought about possibilty of contamination. I first collected the oil in an empty bottle of Chevron 10W-30 motor oil. I made sure there was only a minute residue of oil left in the bottle. I really doubt it had anything to do with the high moly level.

Still - I'm getting the feeling that the letter from SOA saying that "a certain level of friction is necessary" was incorrect. Their engineers may want the factory oil to stay in there, but the SOA letter may not explain the real reason. I've seen a lot of evidence that moly compounds are used as break-in additives. One claim is that a high moly level in the oil reduces scuffing (or "breaking off" of rough surfaces) and promotes a more graceful deformation (or flattening). Instructions for aftermarket performance cams recommend that a moly paste be added to the cam lobes for break-in.

Would the sulfur in molybdenum disufide increase copper corrosion? That COULD be a reason why high amounts of MoS2 might only be used for break-in unless an engine is spec'ed without copper/brass/ bronze parts. I've heard the new 5W-20 oils for some Ford/Mazda/ Honda cars typically contain high MoS2 levels. Maybe the cars they've approved for 5W-20 were engineered w/o copper components.