Oil Analysis Report
 

Has anyone ever had their oil tested after it's used? I just saw this site today and it seems fairly legitimate . You send them a sample of your used oil and they do an in-depth analysis of it and send you a report back letting you know of any potential issues in the future. Cost is about $23

Blackstone Laboratories - Standard Analysis

I'm pretty sure I am going to start doing this and posting results up here.

I know wstar is doing this, not sure about others here. It looks good and by the sounds of what wstar was telling me can be very helpful in more than just knowing what is in your oil.

I did this in my old 350 and my 4Runner. Its useful for determining how long to keep your oil I think and for any problems. Get a TBN test which will tell you how much of the add pack is left.

ETA: I used Blackstone and had good results with them. When I ran Syntec in my 350 according to the TBN numbers I could have run it to 10K, I was doing the 7.5K OCI at the time with Nissan filter.

I'm mailing off a batch to Blackstone for testing tomorrow. Doing it more out of curiosity than anything else to see what results come back.

My dad does it regularly for his airplane. Of course, when his engine fails he falls out of the sky (though his plane does have a parachute attached to it), and when ours dies we walk home. So I guess it makes the most sense for him to be doing it...

^^ good point..

they let you know the full details of what has been found in the oil and what amounts also.

they also let you know if it's common or uncommon.

Blackstone has done a good job for me
 

To me, the real value is doing oil analysis over time. You start to see how your engine is holding up. Also, as stated, always get a TBN done if not standard. This shows how much of the additive package is left and in reality how long you can go on the oil. I have had good TBN numbrs at over 15,000 miles with Amsoil's best. Will be interesting to see the numbers on the 370 when folks start doing tests with some miles on them. Perhaps we will learn more about the effects of any high oil temps.

Yeah I've already gotten my first one back. I didn't analyze the factory fill unfortunately. At 1,800-ish miles I did an oil change using Nissan Ester 5W-30, then at about 4,000 I switched to Motul (300V, 5W30) and sent off that Nissan Ester out of my engine for analysis, this is the report from it:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...ine-myself.jpg

I just changed oil against at 7K miles (to Motul 300V 5W30 again) and sent a sample off that off last week, haven't gotten the report back yet.

Ill be interested to see that. Im @ 500 and I think Im going to drop the factory fill in the next week or so. I dont think I will start UOA's until maybe 20k or so. Even at that mileage my last vehicles numbers were trending down.

Here is my oil analysis..

0-1500mi = Nissan factory oil
1500-5000mi = Nissan Ester Oil & Nissan OEM Filter

http://www.vocontrol.com/370z/oil report 5000mi.png

rackley, are you planning on staying with the Nissan oil or moving to something different? oh and you sure had a bit more iron than wstar did... hmmm?

good post by the way, thanks

Would the oil analysis show lower iron if you use a drain plug magnet plus the oil filter magnet sleeve? Or to ask differently is the iron that shows up in the oil analysis in solution or suspended? Thanks.

The wear metals difference is going to be mostly that my report is from a 2,200 mile interval, and his is from a 3,500 mile interval. So we would expect him to have accumulated more wear metals than I did during that time. Interestingly though, my oil "suffered" slightly more than his during my shorter interval, coming out with lower viscosity, and a lower flashpoint even though we used the same brand/type of oil. Probably harsher environment and/or driving.

I switched to Castrol Edge 10W-30 for the 5,000 to 10,000 mile period. We'll see what the oil analysis says at 10k before lengthening the change interval.

I'm waiting for my kit now and changing my oil this week. Oil will be from 2200 to 7000 miles on the car with Mobil1 -- can't wait to see how this compares to the ester oil.

Wstar,

Do you think changing the factory fill at 1000 miles would be too late given the amount of wear metals floating around the oil? Should I have done it earlier?

You'll get 1000 different responses on that. It's probably not going to make a huge difference. Somewhere around 1500-2000-ish is probably decent, I got rid of mine around the 1800 mark. You do want to keep oil change intervals relatively short for at least the first 10K. I don't plan on going over 3K per change regardless of the TBN numbers for quite a while.

I figured everybody would have their own method to doing this.

Do you recommend that the factory oil be used until 3000 miles?

I have read a few threads, but the more advice, the better.

It depends on the oil analysis - once things start leveling out I'll go for longer change intervals. Coming from a Benz with a 15,000 mile recommended oil change interval, 3000 some miles seems laughably short unless it's being broken in.

Submitted my first sample at 1775mi on the factory oil. Results came back yesterday.

http://www.the370z.com/members/needf...ne-7-18-09.jpg

I just ordered the kit from Blackstone Labs, look forward to their findings/results.

Just got my 2nd analysis back from Blackstone, it's over here in my journal along with comments on it: http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...tml#post120795

It's definitely looking like short oil changes are the ticket initially. I just hit 2K and plan to go ahead with my first change as soon as my supplies make it. Thanks for the data.

Had my factory oil drained at just under 1,000 miles. Here are the results.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ilanalysis.jpg

great thread, I plan on changing the factory fill at 1600 and every 3000 until I hit 10k.