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Also, the price on Renewable Lubricants PCMO SHP 5w-30 is now $139 for a five gallon pail. I ordered two last night because both F cars needed an oil change in the last two weeks and left just a little in the 5 gallon I have.
Could you be so kind as to maybe share your own procedure of getting each sample in as much detail as you have time/energy for? Obviously you do so when you change your oil but was curious about the details. I'm about to install a Fumoto valve and was wondering if you do it that way, or if you do suction from the top of the engine. I'm sure you take warm samples and try to avoid contamination and always do the procedure the same way. Thanks!
I use a Fumoto valve. I put a piece of clear PVC tubing on the nipple after wiping it down, then run for about 30 seconds, shut the valve, pull the tube, open the valve and fill the sample container, close the valve, put the tube back on, and open the valve to finish draining. This is done while the oil is still hot and well mixed, so wear gloves to protect from burns.
I use a Fumoto valve. I put a piece of clear PVC tubing on the nipple after wiping it down, then run for about 30 seconds, shut the valve, pull the tube, open the valve and fill the sample container, close the valve, put the tube back on, and open the valve to finish draining. This is done while the oil is still hot and well mixed, so wear gloves to protect from burns.
Thanks for the detailed description Lance! One last, somewhat difficult question... My GS-F is a 2018 and it just broke 7,000 miles... I can definitely not wait for every 5,000 miles to pass before I do oil changes unless I'm willing to wait for almost two years. That being said, what "interval" will you suggest (time or miles) for samples? Should they always coincide with oil changes?
You should be changing your oil annually to get the oxidized oil out of the engine. Take a sample when you change the oil. Once a year will be just fine.
You should be changing your oil annually to get the oxidized oil out of the engine. Take a sample when you change the oil. Once a year will be just fine.
Potential rabbit whole ahead, haha. Concur with all! Was already doing so due to some perceived notion of additional track wear that might or might not be justified. This basically came out to be about two oil changes per year depending on track calendar. Correct me if I’m wrong (sincerely) but a successful oil sample program must be anchored in some sort of recurrency for arising trends to be distinguished from background noise. In your case, this recurrency is logically marked by the “miles” that your wife puts in the car. If in my case “miles” is not adequate, then utilization must be marked in function of time; yearly as you suggest.
Two questions:
1. Do you know of a way in Techstream to get actual “hours” of operation from the engine? I have only seen “miles” but it would be logical that this information was tracked by some ECM(S)... If not for anything else, for forensics...
2. If I cannot use “hours” of operation as a utilization marker, say “change oil every so many hours, not to exceed a calendar year” if I cannot do that because I couldn’t get the data from Techstream, would you still change it every year regardless of track use? Or even if that interval was to be more time than what I do now?
I hope you know that I’m not trying to make this overly complicated. I just want to see how well this could be done for my unusual case.
There isn't an hours function in Techstream I have been able to find. Also, hours work well for things like generator sets and ship engines where variability is small. The wide range of operating parameters on a street/track driven engine make tracking hours more academic than helpful. Pure track/competition is more like a generator set and hours there are reasonably accurate predictors of wear.
My IS F has had any number of track weekends and I have changed the oil on it based on miles, never on anything else. I also used very extended drain intervals for a while (up to 14k miles) and I haven't seen anything in my UOA to give me pause except fuel dilution. It's what made me return to ~5k mile OCI on the IS F.
I would not leave the oil in the engine more than a year. If you are doing track events, and then parking for extended periods, you might want to pull a sample after the track event and base your OCI on the results. I would not recommend Blackstone for this kind of UOA, you need a better lab able to measure oxidation, fuel dilution, and water content accurately. They are not equipped to do that.
All excellent points Lance. I see why you dropped your OCI to 5K on your IS-F, makes sense. Based on all of this, it might just be easier for me to set my OCI to a "time" of less than a year, make it recurring in the clandar, and pull a UOA at that time. Miles will be annotated anyways and with some extra work on Excel, I should be able to "correct" the UOA results to miles, and maybe establish a reasonable pattern of wear that way.
The interval is probably the most important thing. The oil helps some, but it's incremental compared to the numbers I was seeing with extended drain intervals.
06-06-20, 10:50 AM
