lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, I did that in a pinch once. No, I'm not talking about a regular change, I'm talking about being 1800 miles from home with no Red Line dealer for 150 miles, and I need to add oil.

Yeah I know Mobil 1 is a polyalphaolefin and so is Red Line. But they have different additive packages, so in an ideal world I would never mix them. Some additives can be antagonistic. It's not as bad today as it used to be, but in the past there were potentially seriously bad consequences to mixing oils. I called Red Line and asked if mixing would be OK. They said we can't say for sure. I called Mobil and they said there's nothing to worry about since they're both PAO. I changed the oil in the car as soon as I got home, and decided to prevent this from happening again by using Mobil 1 in any car I use for long distance travel.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

I used to be the Operations Chief for a gas analysis lab. Lots and lots of high vacuum systems with turbo pumps to maintain vacuum. We ran oil analysis on the turbo pumps because when they failed it could take weeks to restore vacuum on a system. We had our own mass spectrometer for other things but we also used it for analysing the oil samples. Predicting failure on a pump was pretty simple with our oil analysis program.

Miniaturising a mass spec to operate inside and engine might be a tad challenging. Ours took up about 500 square feet of floor space each, but they were spec'd for radionuclide analysis, not simple metal content analysis. We had more than one. There are smaller units available, but they are focused on organics, not metals.

Gernby

iTrader: (1)

I just got my 2nd UOA. As stated above, I replaced the factory oil at 5K miles with Mobil 1 5W-30 and changed it again with the same oil at 10K. I'm not all that comfortable with the results and comments...

IS_Mine

I am really a newb in all of this and hate to thread hijack....

But the car itself came with nonsynthetic and you all made your cars synthetic?

Gernby

iTrader: (1)

Synthetic oil is rarely used on brand new engines, but synthetic is superior after break-in.

TheBatman

I'd black out all your personal info. You never know who is on the net these days.

Gernby

iTrader: (1)

I always get a kick out of these comments. I've never figured out why this "personal" info is considered so secret. It is some of the most publicly available info around. Same goes for license plate numbers. Why blank out a license plate number on the web when thousands of people see it on the road every day?

TheBatman

Its all good. To each his own. But given the rise of identity theft, ease of gaining access to personal info, etc. I'm much more careful about the dissemination of personal info. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but you know what they say, "an ounce of prevention..."

Bichon

In your particular case, if you ever need to bring the car in for warranty service for a major engine problem, do you want Lexus or your dealer to know that you've been using the motor as a "test mule" for developing your piggyback ECU?

Gernby

iTrader: (1)

I would never expect Lexus to pay for repairs that result from my modifications. For example, I've toasted my OEM battery by leaving the car on with the engine off for extended periods of time while testing. I'm just walking out the door right now (weird coincedence) to go buy a new battery myself instead of trying to get it replaced under warranty.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Time to revive this thread. I got my 20k UOA done at Blackstone. Here's what it looks like. Interestingly enough, I used the specified weight and got a lower iron number than Gernby did for his 5k change. I also talked to Billy at Blackstone, and his comment was wear particles trump TBN because wear particles accelerate the wear process. He suggested I reduce my interval to 7k or so. After seeing Gernby's numbers, I'm not so sure if there will be a significant advantage to that. However, there might be an advantage to running a magnetic drain plug.



And I do Infosec for a living. I don't put my information anywhere I can avoid it. I've also been a victim of true name credit fraud. It's a PITA to get sorted out.

b737dog

For those of us who put very few miles on our IS, should we change the oil every 6 months even if we have not driven 5k miles?

Technique

No. You don't have to change every 6 months.

I would say once a year is the earliest you need to change. But you can definitely go longer. Miles are apparently the only factor you really need to keep in mind. And as Lance's analysis shows, you can easily go 10k miles, for sure 7500k miles...

I didn't change the oil in my Jaguar V-8 for 3 years (Only drove 8k miles) and when I did a blackstone analysis the oil was still in good condition with plenty of additive left...

Gernby

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for posting your results. How many miles did you go on your 1st change, and did you do a UOA on it?

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

First change was at 5k. Second at 10k. This is the result from the third load of oil.