First oil analysis from Blackstone Labs on my 2011 FX4 5.0L. Truck was bought used in May 2013 from CarMax with about 34,700 miles and was bone stock. First oil change was at the end of June with 37,600 miles when I switched it over to Valvoline SynPower 5w20 with a MC oil filter. Also installed a UPR oil catch can at this time as well, and about a week after the oil change 33" Wrangler Duratrac's were installed along with 5star custom tunes. Run the 87p/t tune the majority of the time.

About every 1,500-2,000 miles I collect anywhere from 1-2oz of oil in the catch can. Several weeks ago the oil level had dropped to the bottom of the hash marks on the dipstick so I added about 6-7oz of oil to bring it back up to the top.

So, there was about 5,700 miles on this sample when I changed the oil the weekend after Thanksgiving. Truck had 43,300 miles at the time. It had been in there a little over 5 months. So, here are the results from Blackstone.




And this is Blackstone's explanations of the metals and stuff.
http://www.blackstone-labs.com/Data/...20elements.pdf

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Nothing to worry about there.

 

So your motor likes salt (sodium) with its gasoline?

Looks good though, except you maybe waited a touch too long to change it because of the viscosity levels? Pretty neat test!

 

I guess...

What makes you say that? Valvoline specs the cSt Viscosity@100*C as being 8.7. Mine was 8.41 after 5700 miles.

 

I was looking at the SUS being a little too high compared to the "average", which I'm assuming doesn't really matter. And your sodium (salt - sodium chloride) levels were high, but that doesn't matter, just a joke!

 

The only thing that grabs my attention is the sodium. Yeah, they have it in the formulation but this is higher than Valvoline specs for this oil. If you get another report I'd be looking for the numbers on the sodium. In better words, I wouldn't worry about it but have a heads up on the next report to be looking for it. The iron at 19 is a hair high but if I read it correctly this was a 7 month run. The iron is not iron as in wear metals but corrosion from sitting. More than likely the valve train. Nothing to worry about. The flash is in line where it should be and the viscosity is where it should be. At this rate per this report, I hope you like this truck cause it's gonna last you a long time.

 

Alright, thanks Labnerd.

 

Looks good! What is wrong with Motorcraft oil though? Only other oil I would use besides Motorcraft in my truck is Amsoil (maybe Mobile if I didn't have access to the other two for some reason). My Grandfather ran Valvoline and never seemed to more than 100,000 out of a motor.

 

Nothing is wrong with Motorcraft oil.

What Valvoline did he run, in what, and how often did he change it?

 

Yeah, I don't think it's fair to black list a whole company based solely on that.

 

Probably a 5W30 or whatever the manual called for. I don't know if it was Premium Conventional or what, but he always swore by Chrysler cars and Valvoline motor oil. He always changed the oil every 3,000 miles without fail. Its true that Chrysler leaves a lot to be desired in terms of quality, but almost all of them were using a lot of oil before 100,000 miles. He just figured that is how it is and always traded up for a new one.

 

Yeah. Things are better now with different additives in the oils and modern engines have tighter tolerances, but I'm still not risking it. At best I think that Valvoline is a mid-range product. It definitely is no better than Motorcraft.

 

I use to always be a valvoline fan and never had a problem with it. But now my #1 choice is Motorcraft then Mobile One then Valvoline.

Maybe i liked Valvoline since it was my favorite nascar drivers sponsor for many a years

 

Nothing wrong with Motorcraft oil, have it in 2 of our 4 Ford's. My truck and the Mustang run SynPower. Ran SynPower in my last truck when I got it with 90k miles until the day I sold it with 130k miles. Never used oil and didn't have any issues. My dad always ran Valvoline without issues and didn't really start using Motorcraft until around 2002.

I've been considering Amsoil or MC Full Synthetic, but just need to sit down and look at the best pricing I can get. Either way I still plan on changing the oil in this truck every 6 months or 6,000 miles.

 

If you are looking for price and plan on 6k oil changes, just use the Motorcraft synthetic blend. It's just as good as most "synthetics". The only reason to get expensive full synthetic is if you plan on extending your change intervals.