Oil debate numbers

[Frank Miller]

Originally Posted by tubman

The owners manual for my '51 specifies 2000 oil change intervals, That I can live with. What surprised me is they recommend a chassis lubrication every 1000 miles!

Greasing that car is the worst job. I did it while I was in Oregon. I'm hoping the modern greases are better. Must be as they now make tie rod ends and ball joints without fittings.

[BUBBAS IGNITION]

Frank,

I used to work for a fleet and we did the oil reports on everything we serviced. Saved them tons of money over the years. We had everything from Police cars to lawn mowers. More than once they called and said you better get Car 12 in and have a look. Even the back hoes were saved more than once. Interesting to see it used on a flathead older car. keep the thread going...
We used Kendall oil and the reports were provided at no cost....

[Frank Miller]

I was surprised to see 900 ppm on the zinc, considering I have never used any additive. Low metals means my tappet are not coming apart.

[G.M.]

This report is a few years old and I posted it several times but
this has information we should all know about oil. I have several
small diesel cars and trucks and find the Cummins Blue 20/40,
the number one oil perfect for my diesels. I like the quality of the
base oil and the additives. I also use it in a few flatheads that I
drove long and hard. G.M.

[G.M.]

This report is a few years old and I posted it several times but
this has information we should all know about oil. I have several
small diesel cars and trucks and find the Cummins Blue 20/40,
the number one perfect for my diesels. I like the quality of the
base oil and the additives. I also use it in a few flatheads that I
drove long and hard. G.M.

[Ross F-1]

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Got my Blackstone report today! Looks great, this is for an EAB about 10k miles after a rebuild at the time of fill with Mobil1 10w30. Right after the fill I drove it on a ~3700 mile trip with 90% at highway speeds, plus about 500 miles locally, 4200 miles total. Stock bypass oil filter with NAPA Gold element (made by Wix).

I changed it mostly because it had been in there a little over a year, but the analysis shows it was in fine shape.

[Frank Miller]

Looks like we found something that works. Now to try using some cheap regular oil and getting the same results. Funny the oil did not wear out after a year either.

[mhsprecher]

Good thought, Frank.

I am going to have the oil tested in my Mazda Miata at its regular oil change interval. I want to test the oil in both of my Model A's, too. I use Mobil 1 in all of them.

[40cpe]

Thanks to Frank and Ross for sharing these results, and congratulations on having seemingly sound engines. Both of these reports had at least the majority of the mileage accumulated on trips. I would venture that most of us don't have mostly long trip/highway miles on an oil change. My engine is soon coming up on 2000 since rebuild, with 1500 on this 10w30 Motorcraft oil. I plan to change it soon and already have the Blackstone kit.

I think it interesting that both Frank and Ross have the bypass filters and both got excellent test results.

[Ross F-1]

Originally Posted by 40cpe

...
I think it interesting that both Frank and Ross have the bypass filters and both got excellent test results.

I have sent an email to Blackstone to ask which of the test values indicates filter efficiency, if any. I'm not sure they really look at that, and I think it would be real hard to get a representative sample.

No doubt the most important thing, IMO, is to start with a clean engine. Even the best oil can't overcome years of sludge contamination.

[Seth Swoboda]

Originally Posted by Frank Miller

Looks like we found something that works. Now to try using some cheap regular oil and getting the same results. Funny the oil did not wear out after a year either.

Frank, I use Shell Rotella T 15w40 in my flathead engines. I could send a sample in on my next oil change. It's not "cheap" oil but also not synthetic.

[G.M.]

Originally Posted by Seth Swoboda

Frank, I use Shell Rotella T 15w40 in my flathead engines. I could send a sample in on my next oil change. It's not "cheap" oil but also not synthetic.

In the tests I posted Walmart's was better than shell?? G.M.

[qmdv]

All the lube and oil change recommendations were for more dirt roads than we drive on today. A Model T had no oil filter or air filter. Those old T's and A's sucked a lot of dirt through those engines.

Tim

[Frank Miller]

Ross F! You can have a filter dissected to determine what it is removing from the oil. The fact that there is not a lot of metals in the oil tells us there is no wear or the filter is doing it's job. If you go on Blackstone and read their newsletters there is a Ford overhead cam motor that was showing high numbers on the aluminum. This is a full flow system. Long story short it turned out to be a cam tensioner gone south and the chain hitting the aluminum housing. It was found and fixed before catastrophic results. For clarification this was just a result of a standard oil test, no filter analysis.

Thanks everyone for weighing in. This has been one of the more meaningful oil discussions on here because we have data not marketing hype. Ross and I used no extra additives and there is no indication of our cam and lifters being destroyed.

[tubman]

I think another fact that stands out is that both of you are using the stock by-pass oil filter system and your engines seem to be exceptionally clean.

[Seth Swoboda]

Originally Posted by G.M.

In the tests I posted Walmart's was better than shell?? G.M.

Yes that is interesting, isn't it? I also assume that Walmart is having one of the major engine oil manufacturer's package oil under the Walmart name brand. I wonder if you can get Sam's Choice oil at Sam's Club? I suppose if it's available it would be in 55 gallon drums (I jest of course).

[Ross F-1]

I got a reply from Blackstone about measuring filter effectiveness:

"Hi there, Ross

Insolubles would be a good measure of how effective filtration is. Those are solids that accumulate with heat/use and it's the filter's job to keep them to a minumum. 0.2% is a pretty nice reading in that regard. I hope this helps but let me know if you have any more questions.

All the best,
Christopher Peden
Blackstone Labs"