wstar's Journal

wstar

I got my first Motul analysis back today. It leaves me with a lot of question marks (not about the oil, but about how my break-in is going and the dreaded oil temps topic):



I'm not surprised that the engine is still breaking in and showing wear metals, but I am concerned about this increase in Aluminum. They claim this is coming from the pistons, and could be the result of some piston scuffing going on.

Piston scuffing basically has three big causes AFAIK: A mfg defect with the piston/bore, an insufficient lubrication issue (as in, oil isn't getting there, like a pump or filter failure of some kind), or overheating the cylinder area of the engine block in general.

I think I can rule out mfg defect, as the number was lower (even on a per-mile basis) in my previous report, so this is something new. The oiling system was bone-stock for the oil analyzed above (this was before adding the pan spacer and cooler), so I don't suspect there's any oiling issue for this report either, at least not from my screwing anything up. That leaves overheating, and I did have a few hard runs up around the 250-260 oil temp range on hot days, experimenting with oil temps. I wouldn't think 260 would be enough, but perhaps the temp we get on the display only tells part of the story. Cylinder wall temps would obviously be considerably higher than reported oil temps, although I wasn't expecting this kind of reaction. But in any case that's one change from the previous report, where I was still (relatively) babying the engine for breakin reasons.

I suppose I have to consider that it could be that Motul 300V just doesn't do a good job lubricating in that spot on our engines, but I don't think that's likely to be the answer. Any good quality synthetic shouldn't have an issue here, and it is a good quality synthetic.

So I guess I'll take their recommendation and do a 2K interval this time, and see how the numbers look. If it was heat-related, hopefully the added oil cooling will stop it from getting any worse.

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