oil change lab results

The meat of the Blackstone report lies in the NUMBERS moreso than their comentary. Post the entire report. That will be more helpful to those who can read and understand UOA's.

 

Thanks for that. Did you see any visible metal particles in your filter element at 3500 miles?

 

Unfortunately their commentary is of highly variable quality.

And, what's with their "should be" 100C viscosity for 0W-20? It doesn't agree with the SAE spec.

 

100C viscosity for 0W-20

The spec is SAE J300

 

You might want to ask Blackstone "what's up" with the oil shearing a full 20% ! VOA of the Toyota 0W20 specs 8.54cST at 100C vs your reported 6.81. That makes the fuel reported highly suspect. It is more than likely much higher and contributng to the 20% oil shearing which is quite a bit for the low mileage being reported. With that much shearing, one might also question the flash point being reported. Also, a TBN, TAN, and Particle Count makes a UOA much more meaningful.

 

Those are valid concerns, but to put things in perspective.
The subject UOA was done on factory fill based on the oil and unit life both being 3500 miles. If the VOA wasn't from factory fill, then its viscosity is of limited value.

A couple of years back on BITOG I noticed that Blackstone particle counts for several oil samples from different cars had exactly the same ratio of particle counts between different particle sizes. That meant that Blackstone wasn't doing particle counts, they were running some sort of test but then assuming some standard distribution of particle sizes. Unless that has been fixed there isn't much reason to waste your money on a Blackstone particle count.

To be fair, I do think their other testing (but not their comments) is adequate and on par with other companies low priced UOAs

 

What companies UOA's would you recommend?

 

For the basic numbers, but not particle counts I think Blackstone if OK. I haven't had any UOAs done in at least couple of years so haven't kept up with who is good now.

To clarify, particle count is not the "parts per million" numbers in the above report. A particle count is something different.

 

With the Prius being manufactured in Japan, the factory fill is Idemitsu's 0w20 made for Toyota in Japan. It's 100C cSt is 8.86 which is very close to the XOM manufactured US SN Ow20. That being the case, the viscosity comparisons are of complete value. In fact, the low miles on the oil makes the shearing issue more of something to keep an eye on. Frequent short trips without complete ICE warm-up are more than likely causing excessive fuel dilution, which is not showing up in Blackstones testing.

Blackstone utilizes ISO 4606 testing to quantify particle contamination. They have updated equipment and procedures. We have done comparison testing of the same oil from three different labs and have found their testing to be consistent. The best results and interpretations for our purposes have been those which have been done by TerryDyson at Dyson Labs.

 

Until we know the tolerance on Idemitsu's and XOM's spec, the nominal viscosity doesn't mean much.

ISO 4606 looks like a typo, it has nothing to do with oil particle contamination. It's a glass textile woven fabric spec. Do you have the correct spec?

 

Tolerance ? The Idemitsu 100C cSt is 8.86...That's the factory fill. ( The US Toyota SN 0w20 1ooC cSt is 8.54 ) The Blackstone 100C cSt analysis of the factory fill came back 6.81. Nothing more is needed. That's a whopping 2.05 difference. Do the math....thats over 20% shear for an oil in use only 3500 miles .

Look up ISO 4406 standard which utilizes a three number standard to classify cleanliness.

 

Tolerance ? What tolerance ? Idemistu's 0W20 FF 100C cST is 8.86. The US 0W20 Toyota SN is 8.54 but it's not the factory fill. Blackstones analysis reported a 100C cSt of 6.81. Thats a whopping 2.05 cST differance, over 20% shearing in just 3500 miles. That's all that's needed to determine shearing. We're not talking about "nominal viscosity" here, we're talking specifically about 100C cST viscosity.

Look up ISO 4406 standard which utilizes a three number system to classify cleanliness.

 

If you think there isn't a tolerance on the Idemitsu manufacturing and testing viscosity and Blackstone's viscosity test results I have long orange bridge near San Francisco I would like to sell you.

ISO 4406 tell how to derive a three number cleanliness interpretation of particle count tests, it doesn't tell how to do the test. that's a big difference.

If you take a look at the Blackstone UOA report at
2006 Tundra, 6K mi, Mobil 1 EP 5W-30, UOA #18! - Bob Is The Oil Guy
Then divide each 2 micron count number by the 5 micron number below it you will see that the ratio always falls extremely close to 2.70. This is on a vehicle that had particle tests done over a 5 year period and 76000 miles using different oils and different filters. That's not how the real world works, those numbers are not actual particle counts, at best they were dry labbed from some simplified test that approximates particle counts. It's a shame that Blacstone is still doing this after they were called on it over 5 years ago.

I have no objection to them doing a simplified test and reporting an 4406 ISO number based on that, but dry labbing particles counts is shady.

 

So what labs can you name that do it the right way? Thanks!

 

OK, what happened to the magnet in the oil?