^ im interested in the PU 5w30 one.

Id also recommend Motul or Redline for track days. And good for you for recognizing the apples to apples comparison. You could put in Pennzoil, go to the track 500 miles later and get results which look worn over a 500 mile interval. Or you could put in Mobil, drive normally on it for 4000 miles, then go to the track and the uoa's will only look slightly worse than the oil which only had 500 miles on it. Comparing the UOAs, it might seem like Mobil is the obvious choice because it had similar wear over 4500 miles vs the Pennzoil over 500 miles. But it really depends on the driver and the track day and where it fell in the interval.

 

Thought I would share my first ever oil analysis report. Oil was used for about 7500 miles.

 

Does anyone really understand what the use for Blackstone Laboratories really happens to be? I mean really - when someone sends in their personal vehicle oil sample along with the payment - they have to be rolling in the aisles! Talk about a cash-cow for them.

About 35 years ago and working at the phone company, we had diesel and turbine engines operating the generators that were used for backup voltage to the telephone equipment whenever commercial AC was lost. Those engines were oil tested on a regular schedule every 6 months. It was part of the maintenance program performed to keep a very expensive power plant operational and to advert potential problems. This was my first exposure to oil testing and the reasons for it. I am sure that most any operation, whether a military warship or commercial airliner has oil testing as part of it's maintenance operation - it is simply worth the test dollars. Plus, those phone company powerplants were there when I arrived and I bet almost everyone of them is still there today. A major investment that needs to last 50, 75 maybe a 100 years or more.

So let's say you decide to go this route - you send in a sample, pay your money and get back the test results. Great, maybe if it is early in the engine's life, you now have a baseline with that oil/filter. Now, are you sending in a sample again in 6 months or next year and the year after that and after that? Are you recording the changes you might have made, like switching to a different filter, different weight of oil, engine use or other? Your not? Then why bother to start this? So you get tired of the vehicle or maybe it finally has more dents than you care for or that new model is so sexy you just have to get one - so you're telling the person that is buying it that it has x amount of copper in the oil at the last change? They continuing what you did, do they care - if you trade, does the dealer give you an extra $1.00 because you have all of this data about the oil and it's contents? No? Oh well, you were interested and you made educated guesses based on the results - maybe you even saved an engine.

Sorry for being so cynical but most people just aren't going to follow the routine and at the end of the deal assuming that they understood the changes they needed to make - other than a nicely kept engine, they have nothing for their trouble.

 

I test my oil every change, because the car that I sample from is driven in a manner that I feel would benefit from it. UOA can indicate wear and tear, bad tune, dirty filter, ring wear, bearing wear, etc. You do have to educate yourself to understand the UOA.

At the most basic level, you can see if your oil is shearing or not, and see if it is being exposed to excessive heat, which the VQ is notorious for.

 

Another sample for my 08 G37. All samples here are Castrol GTX 5w-30, K&N HP-1010 filter, and car is a daily driver.

 

Nice report.

If you're driving 3000 miles every 2 months, you must be putting a lot of highway miles on your car, right?

 

Thanks.

Yeah, the work commute is about 60 miles per day (mostly highway, but with some traffic too)... but now that the weather is getting better, I'll be taking my motorcycle more.

 

Attached is my second UOA after 2400 miles on dealer Mobil again. Showing some improvement, but viscosity still low. Now I have bulk Valvoline in her so I'll see how that goes.

 

Malu

On most G37s, the copper doesn't get down to Universal Average until at least 10K miles.

 

I think I'm done with Mobil1. Others have recommended the 0W40 but I am leery overall. My next analysis pending is on Motul 5W40 with 1 autocross and 2 track days.

For this OCI: 1 track day, ambient temps 50-70 degrees F

 

I really like the Motul X-Max 5w30, It really helped with keeping the heads / VVEL coated (reduced ticking / knocking from VVEL drastically due to ester base) and the viscosity seems to be great too even after all-day spirited driving in 80 - 90 degree weather.

I did a Motul engine clean additive, x-max 5w30 and a K&N HP-1008 oil filter. I'm going to run this oil about 3,500 miles and do an analysis.

 

Let us know how it goes. Although the 300v is not recommended for daily use, I have heard good reports of people using it for normal intervals, but I wonder if the lack of detergents and such decreases the 300v's usefulness as a DD oil. I may have to switch to the 8100 X-Max for regular use. What are typical prices you have been able to find for bulk X-max?

 

Funny you mention that, I've been buying the 5 liter jugs and I just talked to my mechanic into possibly getting me a case. Average price runs $50 - $55 per oil change. I'll need to see what kind of deals I can get on a case of this stuff especially since I'm going to be running an oil cooler once the GTM's stage 2 is released.

 

Sharing my last two UOAs...done roughly once a year. I've kept the OCIs to 3500-4000 miles for the last 2 years. The first UOA used Pennzoil Platinum 5W/30, the second UOA is based on a fill of Pennzoil Ultra 5W/30.

 

Those are a couple of good looking UOA's with Pennzoil Platinum and Pennzoil Ultra. Thanks for sharing.

I finally switched over to Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30 from Nissan Ester oil at my 30K service yesterday. Do youb have a preference between Ultra and Platinum?