Oil Analysis Reports

Mike Benvo wrote

Wow, great thread...

I'm seeing a trend of high lead in these engines. Mine also showed elevated lead content. Going to check again in a few thousand miles and see if it dropped.

Mine showed 22 ppm lead, and Blackstone noted that it was unusually high. According to the report it isn't at a level high enough to cause serious concern though. 6k miles on the oil (with a handful of track days); 38k on the motor.

mhabs wrote

Had my oil tested from Amsoil/Oil Analyzers Inc at 16K + miles (and last oil change was at 1,200 miles) and zero issues. For those who are worried about oiled/cotton gauze filters letting in more silicate, so far so good (I have a MS intake/filter w/ RPI scoops). Will be interesting to have this tested over time. Most dealers are compliant with filling the sample jar at service intervals... apparently quite a few customers ask for it.

So you ran the oil for 16k miles?

Can you post the report here please?

sorry was approx 13.8k miles (15k - 1,200 break in service, not 16 as I thought initially) with 1qt added over that timeframe.

Here's what's on the report.

Iron = 24ppm
Nickel = 2
Aluminum = 8
Copper = 18
Lead = 0
Cadmium, Silver, Vanadium, Chromium, Potassium, Titanium, Lithium all, =0
Silicon = 6
Sodium =4
Molybdeum =1
Magnaese =1
Boron = 54
Magnesium = 632
Calcium = 1437
Barium = 1
Phosphorous = 803
Zinc = 972

all indicated within the "Normal" range given the service interval

M3PO wrote

So you ran the oil for 16k miles?

Can you post the report here please?

Yeah, that does look pretty good. The copper may be from the bearings but looks good for the mileage and the fact that the engine is so new. I guess you didn't get TBN, viscosity, or flash point numbers done?

mhabs wrote

sorry was approx 13.8k miles (15k - 1,200 break in service, not 16 as I thought initially) with 1qt added over that timeframe.

Here's what's on the report.

Iron = 24ppm
Nickel = 2
Aluminum = 8
Copper = 18
Lead = 0
Cadmium, Silver, Vanadium, Chromium, Potassium, Titanium, Lithium all, =0
Silicon = 6
Sodium =4
Molybdeum =1
Magnaese =1
Boron = 54
Magnesium = 632
Calcium = 1437
Barium = 1
Phosphorous = 803
Zinc = 972

all indicated within the "Normal" range given the service interval

Just got the report back from my oil experiment. I ran a mix of 50/50 Redline 40W race and 5W-30 street oil. I added two quarts of Castrol Syntec during the 8200 miles because I didn't have anything else. Anyway, I was concerned that since the race oil has very little detergent qualities that running that long might have been a problem. Test came back good. I'll probably change this oil at closer to 7k miles just because that's my typical interval.

Just had my first oil change and test done after picking up my '08 this summer.

47,695 miles on engine and 9,800 miles on the oil. I drive it hard, but no track (yet).

Comments: DAVID: So far, we don't see any issues with your "new" BMW. Metals are all in the average range, though we should note that iron and lead skirt the upper limits of our averages at 16 and 14 ppm. These metals together show bearing wear, though iron can also come from steel parts. This might be a result of how you run the engine rather than poor wear, so for now, it's just something to watch. Other metals are fine. Our averages are based on 5,500 miles, a much shorter run than what you used. The TBN is still good at 1.8. Try for 11,000 miles next time.

---

I feel like 10k miles is the sweet spot to get good value out of our oil without over-using the filter, so that's probably the interval I'll stick with.

MTROIS wrote

Here is my latest report at 37,000 miles

Thanks for posting.

What is to be inferred by the continual drop in lead ppm in successive measurements? 79 @ 16k miles, 35 @ 24k, 21 @ 37k.

"Lead is still a bit high to be considered normal, but
we'll certainly take the improvement--especially considering where it started out back in 2009."

Going to send mine out shortly... Not looking forward to seeing the lead score.. This seems to be high in a lot of these oil reports.

My last oil change was at 42,948mi and I am at 47,000 and some change now, so I think I'm going to wait for 49K or 50K miles and then send it out for analysis then.

The oil in my car now did see two track events but they were much less extreme than the 300F oil temperatures that the oil from my last sample saw.

Thank you everyone for continuing to share these reports. This will certainly benefit our community.

Here is my most recent one:



Not very good again. This oil has one track day on it.

edit: The car has ~58K miles.

Here is an update (note that I had about 6 track days on this one):

MTROIS: Lead is still reading a bit out of line, but we aren't considering that to be a new issue since it held pretty steady this time around. Lead typically shows bearing wear, but if it were a problem, we'd expect to see excess iron, copper, and tin in the used oil as well. Lead can also be introduced into the oil through leaded fuel or fuel additives, though we typically see much more than this when that's the case. The small trace of raw fuel dilution isn't cause for concern, and the viscosity was correct for 10W/60 oil. Watch the oil pressure and resample to monitor lead.

Another report to follow shortly (sorry, I am behind on my "Forum Duties"!)

davesaddiction wrote

Thanks for posting.

What is to be inferred by the continual drop in lead ppm in successive measurements? 79 @ 16k miles, 35 @ 24k, 21 @ 37k.

"Lead is still a bit high to be considered normal, but
we'll certainly take the improvement--especially considering where it started out back in 2009."

Good question!

On the one hand, I think that the very high value was due to my using of a few galons of leaded fuel at the track because of a stupid mistake.

On the other hand, the Lead content has been high all along....

See comments from Blackstone in my next report.

I just hope that this is not a sign of excessive wear with the '08 model year.

Latest report at ~54,000 miles (note that I had about 5 track days on this one)

MTROIS: The good news is that there aren't a lot of significant changes here. Your engine wears pretty consistently from sample to sample, and that's a good sign that there probably aren't any serious issues at work. The lead is somewhat of a concern since it could show bearing wear, but since it's been present more often than not, it might just be a normal thing for your engine. As long as you're not having any issues with oil pressure, it's just something to keep an eye on. Everything else looks great, so your BMW gets a good report overall. No contamination found.

This is my second run on the Redline 50% 5W-30, 50% 40W race. Looks like I can easily run my typical 7500 oil change intervals with this blend.

I had mine done almost two weeks ago.

I usually do an oil change every 7500 miles, but got a bit busy this month and prolonged it to to near 9500 miles.

Pretty pleased with my very first oil analysis

Wow that's great flip, 1 lead!!

I am going to send mine out for another sample soon. I just hit 48k and some change. Hoping that those levels dropped and it was just from the extreme tracking.

Got another report back. This engine likes redline. I was worried that I left the oil in too long, but it looks ok. I'm going to stick to 7500 mile intervals in the future. Car used one quart over 9000 miles and I made up with the race oil. If I used the street oil for make-up I could safely go 10k between changes.

Current fill is 50/50 of 40W race and their 10W-40 street oil. The car might see some track time this cycle, so I thought about adding a little viscosity to this batch.

-4000kms on oil
-last 2000kms were supercharged

Here's mine from the last oil change. Using Liqui Moly 10W60

mine. viscosity was slightly thin because i hit min oil level a couple of days before the change and i had to add .5 liter of 10w40 to hold me over.

Ok, i'm gonna ask the obvious-to-some , but not to me, questions
How do you do this exactly? Can someone please explain. Do you get the place that does the oil changes(dealer for me, still under warranty) to send in the samples? Sorry, but I have no clue how this works, but would like to get it done, especially since I am now SC'd

Tim B. wrote  

Ok, i'm gonna ask the obvious-to-some , but not to me, questions
How do you do this exactly? Can someone please explain. Do you get the place that does the oil changes(dealer for me, still under warranty) to send in the samples? Sorry, but I have no clue how this works, but would like to get it done, especially since I am now SC'd

No problem!
First contact Blackstone Labs to request a couple of sample containers. They will send you a little package that contains black plastic bottles with a smaller white one in them that will contain the oil sample itself and a bunch of paper work.
The next time you bring your car for oil change (or you do it yourself), simply request from the service advisor that the mechanic working in your car takes a sample of the oil as it is flowing out.
You will see that this is not an uncommon request.
Then, package the oil sample back in the black bottle and mail it to the laboratory.

Voila!

Time to start a flame war.

Has anyone else noticed that almost all of the Castrol TWS 10W-60 UOAs come back showing lead (bearings) in the wear metals? I've had three analyses of Redline and never a detectable level of lead.