Analyze This Part II : New Blackstone Used Oil Analysis Reports Have Arrived

[SID297]

Analyze This Part II : New Blackstone Reports Are In

The information gleaned from a Blackstone Labs report is invaluable for determining the long term health of your engine.http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...-new-blackstone-used-oil-analysisreports.htmlhttp://www.svtperformance.com/forum...-new-blackstone-used-oil-analysisreports.html

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Last year we released an article discussing the benefits of sending a sample of used oil from your engine to Blackstone Laboratories. For $25 they perform a series of tests which determine: the levels of wear metals, silicon, and additives present in the oil; the presence of insolubles such as soot produced in the combustion process; the presence of coolant or fuel; and the true viscosity of the oil. For an additional $10 Blackstone will perform a total-base-number analysis that will give you an idea of how much usable life your oil has remaining. With a little background knowledge, which can be learned on Blackstone's website, you can accurately determine the effectiveness of your oil choice on your engine and possibly detect an issue before it become a real problem. Not only that' but Black stone also has great service. I sent this latest group of sample out Priority Mail on a Wednesday afternoon and the reports was emailed to me the following Monday morning.

As always, the first step in doing an oil analysis is to drain a little oil. In this case we were doing an oil change on the SVTP F-350. From our first oil change on that truck until this last one we were running Royal Purple 15w40. However, for this last change we decided to switch things up a little and try out Royal Purple 10w40 HPS. The HPS line is Royal Purple's premium street car oil and the 10w40 variety of it has a diesel specific additive package which should be perfect for the 6.4L Powerstroke in the Duty. Check it out:

If you're going to change the oil on a Powerstroke it's easiest just to break out a 5 gallon bucket and use that as your drain pan.

With a 15 quart sump it takes a long time to fully drain the oil in a 6.4L Powerstroke.

We're continuing to stick with a Motorcraft filter for this engine. Ford has several patents on this filter design that prevents aftermarket manufacturers from making a filter that fits the filter housing perfectly.

The Motorcraft filter is a high quality piece and seems to have good filtration abilities. Still, it would be nice if Ford (or FRPP) produced a more premium offering that had a wire mesh backed synthetic media like Royal Purple filters.

I'm really interested to see how the Royal Purple 10w40 HPS performs in the F-350. From what I have heard it is a far more robust formulation than the standard 15w40 Royal Purple we have ran for the last 30,000 miles.

This HPS formulation has a diesel engine additive package that will help it perform in the rigorous conditions found in a Powerstroke's crankcase.

If you've ever wondered why they call this stuff Royal Purple just take a look at the oil.

Diesel engines have an innate ability to turn engine oil as black as coal.

If you're going to have 15 one quart bottles laying around after an oil change please recycle them. There's no reason to send all that plastic to a landfill.

After this change we had 4 samples to send off to Blackstone. Unbelievably, one of the sames had been sitting around for almost a year.

This is a sample of the stock fluid that came out of the SVTP GT's MT-82 transmission. It doesn't seem to be in too bad of shape after about 8,300 miles of use.

This is a report some have been waiting for, 5,000 miles on Royal Purple HPS 5w30 in the SVTP GT. I believe the previous samples relatively low viscosity was likely due to a decent amount of the Motorcraft 5w20 factory fill still being in the engine when the change was made.

This oil change was actually done about a year ago. the sample has been sitting around since then just waiting to be sent to Blackstone.

This was the most recent oil change in the SVTP F-350 and our last one with Royal Purple 15w40. It's great to see the wear metals getting, for the most part, lower with each successive oil service.

Special Thanks To:

Blackstone Laboratories

Royal Purple


-SID297:beer:

 

[RedRocketMike]

I've been using Blackstone for years, the tester of choice on Bobistheoilguy. I don't frequently sample because it doubles the cost of an oil change and with the false numbers occasionally thrown by particle streaks I think it causes more headaches than it prevents. But if you want to hone oil change intervals, suspect there is a problem or just want to check out a car thoroughly before purchase it's a great service.

 

[GotBoost?!]

:thumbsup: Thanks for posting~
I was curious of the results,not bad. :beer:

 

[shadyninja]

The Motorcraft filter is a high quality piece and seems to have good filtration abilities. Still, it would be nice if Ford (or FRPP) produced a more premium offering that had a wire mesh backed synthetic media like Royal Purple filters.

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-SID297:beer:

I would try one of these wire backed filter, we all know the filters with Synthetic media perform better than cellulose. they do fit the housing properly.

Would be interested to see the used oil report if a different filter was used.

If you want really really clean oil this is for you

 

[UnleashedBeast]

Travis,

I need to send you an Amsoil Ea15K88 oil filter for your personal comparison to Motorcraft's version.

The latest 5,000 mile sample from the SVTP GT shows wear metals decreasing, as expected from an engine breaking in. However, the new sample still sheared 20%, compared to 25% shearing of the previous sample. This is unacceptable from a lubricant this expensive, especially when it's not a wide viscosity spread.

Sorry to say that Royal Purple just isn't what it once was. Not saying it's not better than other offerings, just that it doesn't deserve the price tag attached to it.

Thank you for the transmission lubricant sample. That is another great addition. This appears to be the older 75W-90 style gear lube that was in the transmission from Ford. The new DCT fluid is about the same viscosity as ATF LV, very light.

 

[WhiTriCobra]

Definitley love reading these. I wouldn't mind atleast trying this when i get my new engine in the Lightning.

 

[Mystic03]

Travis,

I need to send you an Amsoil Ea15K88 oil filter for your personal comparison to Motorcraft's version.

The latest 5,000 mile sample from the SVTP GT shows wear metals decreasing, as expected from an engine breaking in. However, the new sample still sheared 20%, compared to 25% shearing of the previous sample. This is unacceptable from a lubricant this expensive, especially when it's not a wide viscosity spread.

Sorry to say that Royal Purple just isn't what it once was. Not saying it's not better than other offerings, just that it doesn't deserve the price tag attached to it.

Thank you for the transmission lubricant sample. That is another great addition. This appears to be the older 75W-90 style gear lube that was in the transmission from Ford. The new DCT fluid is about the same viscosity as ATF LV, very light.

can you explain..it seems that it has low wear metals in the oil which seem to be doing its job? i'm still new to this area so its hard for me to see it more in depth.

 

[UnleashedBeast]

can you explain..it seems that it has low wear metals in the oil which seem to be doing its job? i'm still new to this area so its hard for me to see it more in depth.

I'm not questioning wear protection performance. There is no problem there. My beef with RP is their reduced quality of product, yet the price maintains a higher than average rate.

No 5W-30 lubricant that's "said" to be a true synthetic should shear that much. The product is overpriced.

 

[Mystic03]

I'm not questioning wear protection performance. There is no problem there. My beef with RP is their reduced quality of product, yet the price maintains a higher than average rate.

No 5W-30 lubricant that's "said" to be a true synthetic should shear that much. The product is overpriced.

i see, i pm'd you ill be sending in my oil to be tested and see whats going on if ill have to switch oils or not

 

[SID297]

I would try one of these wire backed filter, we all know the filters with Synthetic media perform better than cellulose. they do fit the housing properly.

Would be interested to see the used oil report if a different filter was used.

If you want really really clean oil this is for you

Amsoil oil makes a good filter, I think they're actually made by the same manufacturer as RP, but I don't think their full flow filter is built to Ford's patented specs. Every aftermarket filter I've come into contact with for the 6.0 and 6.4 Powerstroke, Amsoil is not one of them, has to come up with some kind of work around for Ford's patents to make them (hopefully) work properly.

I like the idea of adding bypass filtration, but on a 6.4 dumping the filtered oil back into the engine through the oil fill cap seems to lead to increased oil ingestion into the intake tract. This is due to the crank case vent hose sitting directly below the oil fill location. The pressurized oil being injected just gets sucked into the vent hose.

Travis,

I need to send you an Amsoil Ea15K88 oil filter for your personal comparison to Motorcraft's version.

The latest 5,000 mile sample from the SVTP GT shows wear metals decreasing, as expected from an engine breaking in. However, the new sample still sheared 20%, compared to 25% shearing of the previous sample. This is unacceptable from a lubricant this expensive, especially when it's not a wide viscosity spread.

Sorry to say that Royal Purple just isn't what it once was. Not saying it's not better than other offerings, just that it doesn't deserve the price tag attached to it.

Thank you for the transmission lubricant sample. That is another great addition. This appears to be the older 75W-90 style gear lube that was in the transmission from Ford. The new DCT fluid is about the same viscosity as ATF LV, very light.

Do you have a VOA for 5W30 HPS? Judging by the increasing trends in the viscosity and moly I think there's still some factory fill working its way out of the engine, especially considering that this fill had 1,000 more miles on it than the last one. Also, this batch of HPS was from RP's initial run on the product. It was probably close to two years old at the time the sample was taken. We'll have at least one more report on 5W30 HPS in the SVTP GT in the future.

Definitley love reading these. I wouldn't mind atleast trying this when i get my new engine in the Lightning.

It's a great way to track the break-in of a new engine.

 

[shadyninja]

Amsoil oil makes a good filter, I think they're actually made by the same manufacturer as RP, but I don't think their full flow filter is built to Ford's patented specs. Every aftermarket filter I've come into contact with for the 6.0 and 6.4 Powerstroke, Amsoil is not one of them, has to come up with some kind of work around for Ford's patents to make them (hopefully) work properly.

I like the idea of adding bypass filtration, but on a 6.4 dumping the filtered oil back into the engine through the oil fill cap seems to lead to increased oil ingestion into the intake tract. This is due to the crank case vent hose sitting directly below the oil fill location. The pressurized oil being injected just gets sucked into the vent hose.

.

I prefer the bypass system for vehicles that have a spin on filter. Like the one Troy had on his focus. But that's not the case with the 6.0 and 6.4 diesel.

 

[UnleashedBeast]

Do you have a VOA for 5W30 HPS? Judging by the increasing trends in the viscosity and moly I think there's still some factory fill working its way out of the engine, especially considering that this fill had 1,000 more miles on it than the last one. Also, this batch of HPS was from RP's initial run on the product. It was probably close to two years old at the time the sample was taken. We'll have at least one more report on 5W30 HPS in the SVTP GT in the future.

Can't blame residual oil on the low viscosity. Every sample of Amsoil tested, immediately after factory fill was dumped, held viscosity.

Guess the final verdict is to run HPS that was recently bottled to see if any progress was made. Sad to say, that test will not be in my 5.0

 

[firemanmike]

Wow, that's truly an informative and intersting oil analysis. I plan or using Amsoil 0/30 (thanks Unleashed!!!:beer::beer::beer and their filter in my '03 Cobra. She's currently filled with Amsoil 5/30 and stock Ford filter. What does the whole process (less shipping of course) cost??? And how long does it take to get the results back??? I'm changing the oil next weekend and really want to check my engine, both before and after ther new oil weight and change in filter brand.

EDIT = IN MY ADVANCING YEARS I STILL REFUSE TO WEAR READING GLASSES!!! I GUESS I'M GOING TO HAVE TO START USING THEM ALL THE TIME!!! PLEASE JUST CONFIRM IT'S $25 FOR THE TESTING. THANKS!!!

 

[firemanmike]

Is there some way to flush out all (most???) of the old oil when doing the oil change???

 

[UnleashedBeast]

The test cost preferred customers $25.95, which includes UPS shipping.

Is there some way to flush out all (most???) of the old oil when doing the oil change???

By the third oil change, it's about as good as it's going to get.

 

[SID297]

Wow, that's truly an informative and intersting oil analysis. I plan or using Amsoil 0/30 (thanks Unleashed!!!:beer::beer::beer and their filter in my '03 Cobra. She's currently filled with Amsoil 5/30 and stock Ford filter. What does the whole process (less shipping of course) cost??? And how long does it take to get the results back??? I'm changing the oil next weekend and really want to check my engine, both before and after ther new oil weight and change in filter brand.

EDIT = IN MY ADVANCING YEARS I STILL REFUSE TO WEAR READING GLASSES!!! I GUESS I'M GOING TO HAVE TO START USING THEM ALL THE TIME!!! PLEASE JUST CONFIRM IT'S $25 FOR THE TESTING. THANKS!!!

Yep, just $25 for the basic analysis and another $10 if you want to know the total base number (important if you want to run extended drain intervals).

Is there some way to flush out all (most???) of the old oil when doing the oil change???

Not unless you want to do something similar to a coolant flush which would involve wasting a lot of perfectly good oil. I wouldn't worry about a little remainder hanging around.

 

[1hot281]

The latest 5,000 mile sample from the SVTP GT shows wear metals decreasing, as expected from an engine breaking in. However, the new sample still sheared 20%, compared to 25% shearing of the previous sample. This is unacceptable from a lubricant this expensive, especially when it's not a wide viscosity spread.

Sorry to say that Royal Purple just isn't what it once was. Not saying it's not better than other offerings, just that it doesn't deserve the price tag attached to it.

^^^This

That 5w30 came out a heavy 20 grade after a relatively short interval for a full synthetic... and again, no water and negligible fuel dilution.

Do you have a VOA for 5W30 HPS? Judging by the increasing trends in the viscosity and moly I think there's still some factory fill working its way out of the engine, especially considering that this fill had 1,000 more miles on it than the last one. Also, this batch of HPS was from RP's initial run on the product. It was probably close to two years old at the time the sample was taken. We'll have at least one more report on 5W30 HPS in the SVTP GT in the future.

The only VOAs of HPS I've seen are of 10w30... but had a starting viscosity of over 11cSt@100*C. I can't imagine the 5w30 HPS would be that much thinner than their 10w30 HPS.

 

[Screamin03Cobra]

I don't understand all of it, but I'll learn. I just ordered a kit to test the Amsoil I'm using. A little over 5,000 miles and a weekend of racing on it so we'll see what the test has to reveal

 

[thelastsumurai]

Is there any more

Is this the end of the tests? Just found this thread and lovin it. Is there a link to these tests after this thread. Thanks.

 

[SID297]

Is this the end of the tests? Just found this thread and lovin it. Is there a link to these tests after this thread. Thanks.

Funny you should ask. We'll be releasing another batch with a few different oil in the next month or so.